By MICHAEL PIPER, MD Gazette Staff Writer One of the best parts about being in school, without question, is that once that final bell rings in late May or early June, most students bolt out the doors and commence forgetting everything they learned in the last nine months. It's not until mid-August when those pesky Wal-Mart advertisements for "Back-to-School" sales start running and the brutal preseason begins for fall sports, that most students begin contemplating the upcoming school year. That was not the case, however, for the basketball teams at Glen Burnie and Archbishop Spalding. Over the last two winters, the two programs have accounted for a combined 93-24 record, two Class 4A East Region titles and a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A-Conference crown. As this winter approaches, however, there will be a lot of unfamiliar names on the hardwood at both schools. Gone are Rudy Gay, Jesse Brooks and Will Bowers (a 2003 graduate), all three cornerstones of Spalding's nationally competitive program. Gone also are Mitch Guest, Branden Albert, Delayne Nelson and a senior class that helped bring Glen Burnie to the status of "public school power" over the last two years. The task of replacing those players does not wait for the start of winter practice. It began in the stuffy area gyms, packed with rivals hoping for a piece of the two programs' success, this summer. "Oh yeah, we've already heard it," Glen Burnie's Chris Schrader said. "Everybody is telling us we aren't going to be any good. They don't expect anything from us because we lost Mitch and Branden, but we're hoping to surprise some people." The Gophers are in a tough spot in that the only players returning this season with significant experience are Schrader and teammate Scott Matthews. For a public school, the notion of replacing players like Guest and Albert is daunting. "You just don't replace 6-foot-7, 300 pounds," Glen Burnie head coach Mike Rudd said, referring to Albert. "We have a good nucleus, but we're going to be a different team... Old Mill, Arundel and Broadneck sound like the teams to beat, but we'll do a little chasing for a change this year." The only thing the Gophers can do is work - which they did at the Lake Waterford Summer League. The Gophers got good participation in the league (they went 5-5) as well as in the summer weight-lifting sessions. "I've never worked so hard at basketball as I did this summer," Schrader said. "I talked to Coach Rudd almost every week and got a membership to World's Gym. We tried to get our teammates in the weight room too, with the football team." Spalding has the advantage of recruiting players, but the school also has the monumental task of trying to replace a player in Rudy Gay that some recruiting analysts believed could have gone straight to the NBA. "It's going to be totally different for the players and the coaching staff without Rudy," Spalding coach Mike Glick said. "It was easy to take for granted what Rudy did in terms of rebounding and blocking shots. He made our defense look good and got us easy baskets by just being in the paint. We're going to have to get used to a different style of rebounding and defense this year." The three returning seniors on the Spalding roster have plenty of talent. Shooting guard Justin Castleberry, swing man Marquis Sullivan and forward Lawrence Dixon all could end up playing division I. Their work this summer centered on becoming more complete players, however. "We're looking at it as a challenge," Castleberry said. "We're looking forward to handling the added responsibility. We all have to do a little more this year and that's what we worked on this summer." Castleberry may possibly have to replace Jesse Brooks at the point guard spot, while Sullivan will handle a good share of the scoring (he averaged 10.5 points per game last season) and Dixon will need to add scoring and perhaps handling the ball some to his game, which previously centered on defense and rebounding. "We're going to be playing the kind of basketball that we haven't played since freshman year," Dixon said. "We're the go-to guys right now." Spalding spent the summer in two leagues with the three seniors playing in a league at St. Alban's in Washington, D.C. and the rest of the team getting more playing time in the Lake Waterford League. Sullivan said the emphasis was on rebounding and defense at St. Alban's. "Our tallest guy is 6-6 this year," he said. Spalding had front lines ranging from 6-6 to 7-foot the last two years. "We were trying to get all five guys to rebound and all five guys to play better on-the-ball defense this summer." How hard did the teams work? "I was out in California for two weeks and it felt nice to get away for a little bit," Castleberry said. "We had a long summer." Both school's hope that work won't result in a long winter.