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ROCKLAND — Practice begins for the Oceanside girls basketball team, but the basketball itself has to wait. The Mariners have work to do.

For 30 minutes, the players work on their conditioning. They work on speed. They work on quickness. They do wall sits, mountain climbers, slow slides and agility drills. One drill after another, building strength and endurance. And only then do the basketballs come out.

This happens every day, from the first session of the season to the last of the playoffs.

“I think it’s something that’s really helped with the mindset of the group,” coach Matt Breen said. “They just understand, ‘OK, we’re about hard work. And that’s what we’re going to do.'”

The Rockland school is a Class B dynasty in the making, if its isn’t one already. The Mariners are playing Lawrence in the state championship Friday — their third appearance in five years, after winning in their previous trips in 2022 and ’24. They haven’t fallen short of the regional final since the pandemic. They’re 20-1 this season, and 97-8 over the past five years.

They’ve had star power, in the form of Breen’s daughters Bailey, a standout from 2022-24 who’s currently playing at UMaine, and now Olivia, a freshman and one of the state’s most dominant young players. But that’s only part of what’s fueled the Mariners.

They’ve had surrounding pieces galore, from a 1,000-point scorer in Audrey Mackie to an All-State player in Aubri Hoose, a conference All-Star in Abby Waterman, and now a flock of sharpshooters in Renee Ripley, Grace Mackie, Abby Stackpole and Addie Poland that just set a record for 3-pointers made in a B South tournament — breaking their own record from last year.

So how do they do it? How is a program sometimes lacking in numbers never lacking in talent?

Well, it’s like those conditioning sessions at the start of practice. The Mariners love to work, all the time, at anything that might make them better.

“It’s a culture that we’ve tried to build … and we haven’t just tried to build it off talent,” Matt Breen said. “I’ve got players that are up at 5 a.m. over at the gym, lifting weights, training. I’ve got girls that are on the gun (a shooting machine) at 5:30 or 6 a.m., (they’re) on the gun at night.

“They take the initiative to do it on their own. I’m not saying, ‘Hey, you’re on the gun at 3 o’clock.’ … These girls want it.”

This isn’t a team able to pluck a lineup of five good players from three dozen kids showing up for tryouts. There are 14 players in the program, and there were only 10 last year. There was no JV team at Oceanside last winter.

But the players who do sign up take the game seriously. All five of Oceanside’s starters play year round. Breen estimated 70% of his players do.

“We’re always in the gym, we play AAU, travel,” said Poland, a senior guard. “The Midcoast is very dedicated to basketball. We have the (Midcoast Athletic Center) and all five of us are there, all the time. … This community, it really thrives on basketball.”

Whenever a wave of new players arrives, the veterans make sure they meet the standard. Winning is the culture now.

“The bar’s definitely set really high here,” said Ripley, a senior guard. “We have high expectations every year. We come in and we want to make it the furthest we can.”

Junior guard Grace Mackie’s sister, Audrey, was a key player on the first title team in 2022. When Grace arrived as a freshman two years later, she saw for herself the standard that was being established.

“We’ve had team after team that’s won,” said Mackie, who hit three 3-pointers in a 33-25 victory over Old Town in the state final her first season. “When you play the last game, that’s not when you stop working. You keep pushing harder and harder, you can keep getting better each season.”

Winning is the routine, and so is the work. Breen pushes his players, and his players want to be pushed.

“Our practices, they’re hard. They’re very hard,” Poland said. “I mean, some of the boys team couldn’t even do them. … Our players have all stepped up, and that’s why our team’s where it’s at.”

Playing for a championship. Again. And gunning for a Gold Ball, before going back to the gym to go after the next one.

“They’re not home doing whatever, just on TikTok. These girls are in the gym working,” Matt Breen said. “When (younger) players are in there with those older kids in the summer doing some drill work and stuff, that definitely helps motivate them as well.”