Ryan Deschenes can’t think of a better place to have started his coaching career than St. Dom’s.

Deschenes was just 22 when he took over the boys’ basketball program at the Auburn private school in 2007 and led it on one of the most successful runs in the program’s history, reaching the Western Class C tournament six consecutive years.

But something was missing from Deschenes’ duties at St. Dom’s —  the opportunity to build a program from the ground up. So when he was offered that opportunity at Gray-New Gloucester High School, it was a chance the 28-year-old couldn’t pass up.

Deschenes is the new boys’ basketball coach at Gray-New Gloucester, replacing Tony DiBiase, who stepped down to become coach at Scarborough last month.

“I’m pretty excited about it,” Deschenes said. “I think they have a lot of good things in place there and just hoping to build off that and make it better.”

The Patriots were 3-15 last year. The previous year, DiBiase’s first, they reached the Western B semifinals and finished 11-9.

Deschenes said he “talked to a lot of people” about Gray-New Gloucester and was intrigued with the youth program and the community’s passion for basketball, two key ingredients in building and sustaining a successful program.

“The possibility of building the whole program from the third grade up was really intriguing to me. It’s something that I always wanted to do,” Deschenes said.

“Getting to know the kids fairly young, you can really establish a relationship with them early on and get them excited about basketball,” he said. “You can really build from the ground up, get everyone on the same page and establish a philosophy and establish a system that will be the Gray-New Gloucester way from the third grade up.”

Gray-New Gloucester athletic director Gary Groves said Deschenes is the perfect fit for the basketball program and the school’s athletic philosophy.

“I look at him as a young coach, but a veteran coach,” Groves said. “I love the energy and passion he has. He’s a student of the game.”

In six years at St. Dom’s, Deschenes compiled a 62-55 record. The Saints made the tournament all six years, reaching the quartercfinals in 2007 and the semifinals in 2009.

For the first three years of Deschenes’ tenure (and one as an assistant coach), St. Dom’s played in the Western Maine Conference.

“I certainly am fairly familiar with it, more on the Class C side, of course. But we certainly played our share of Class B schools” said Deschenes, who coached in the Mountain Valley Conference the last three years. “I believe it’s one of the better conferences in the state and every night we have to  play our best basketball and play as hard as we can to succeed.”

An ed tech and athletic director at Yarmouth Middle School who lives in Windham, Deschenes said the decision to leave St. Dom’s was not an easy one.

“I just loved my time at St. Dom’s,” said Deschenes, who also coached cross country for one year at St. Dom’s. “The kids are such top-notch kids. The administration is wonderful. It’s a great place to work and coach. It’s the  place where I grew up as a coach.”

The Saints were 8-11 last year and lost to Old Orchard Beach in a Western C preliminary.

St. Dom’s started advertising for the position on Monday and athletic director Lee Hixon said he has already heard from seven candidates.  The pool will be narrowed down to three finalists and a panel of administrators, coaches and students will choose the new coach.

With the summer basketball program underway, Hixon would like to fill the vacancy quickly.

“We’re hoping  to have an answer within the next week or so,” he said.