After graduating a group of seven seniors who led Arts & Sciences to two Class A basketball sectionals and one state final, most everyone expected this to be a rebuilding year for CSAS.

Everyone except the Patriots themselves.

With two sophomores and a freshman joining one returning player in the starting lineup, Arts & Sciences currently stands at 17-6 overall and 11-0 in District 6-A, where the Patriots will be the No. 1 seed for the tournament that begins Friday at South Pittsburg High School.

“Losing those seven seniors hurt because a lot of guys didn’t have much experience,” senior guard Tyler Johnson said, “but as the season has gone on, we’ve really improved a lot. We’re definitely excited because of the opportunities we have in front of us. The expectations other people had for us weren’t that high, but we set our expectations high every day in practice.”

Following Thursday’s district play-in games and Friday’s quarterfinals, the 6-A semifinals will be held Saturday with consolation games next Monday and championships Tuesday. The Patriots have claimed the tournament title every year since moving back into Class A, but the team coach Mark Dragoo will take to this year’s district championships will have to gain postseason experience quickly.

“Terrell Townsend is our only returning starter,” Dragoo said. “The rest of them are all new. We’re just trying to get them all on the same page, and we’re still working on it. I do think the experience is starting to come together, and our kids are playing really hard. I’d say we’ve had a successful year — a good year, but not a great year. We have to wait and see how it all turns out before we can say that.”

One area where the Patriots have excelled is on defense, where their quickness and athleticism have created headaches for opponents all season. Their defensive effort nearly led to two upset wins in recent weeks over Region 3-A favorites Tennessee Temple and Grace Academy, but Dragoo said his team is staying focused on continuing to improve as it heads toward the playoffs.

“The guys play hard, and they’ve learned a lot as the season has gone on,” he said. “I’d say we’re 95 percent to where we want to be. We’re not playing our best, but we’re getting better every game. We’ve improved a lot, and I think we still have a lot of room to improve even more.”

Still, the players hope their three-point loss to Grace and six-point margin against Temple proved the Patriots are capable of earning another district championship and reaching the region finals for a third consecutive season.

“It was frustrating because we had the game in our hands both times, and we let both of them off the hook,” Johnson said. “They’re two great teams, so I definitely think it opened a lot of people’s eyes in Chattanooga, and hopefully the state, that we’re a team to be reckoned with and we won’t back down from a challenge.”