Earlier this week, we began are task of unveiling a very unscientific look of my personal top 25 teams of the last 25 years after covering Dedham High in various incarnations over the last quarter century — ouch, that’s tough sentence to write. We have already revealed No. 25 to 11, which you can see below in case you missed it.

Here is where we keep the good stuff. Without further ado, the top 10 teams.

The first squad in the top 10 is the only one not to at least win a sectional championship (or the Final 4 equivalent in the new statewide tournament), and it was a difficult choice of which team to rank higher, this team or the 2018 group that won Div. 3 South two years later. But these guys got the nod for the importance of a rare achievement. It had been 48 years since the program had claimed a Bay State Conference title going back to the famed 1968 team, and bringing it home in their final BSC season before heading the Tri-Valley League made it even sweeter. Their final 16-6 mark after a loss to Old Rochester in the sectional quarterfinals may not look at that impressive, but that 2016 next to the 1968 on the gym banner will live forever.

The first state championship was so nice, they did it twice. Just two years after securing the program’s Division 2 crown, Dedham was back in the final and took care of business once again with a 2-0 win over a Quaboag squad that entered with a perfect mark. The Marauders boasted the Boston Globe Div. 2 Player of the Year in Nicole Murphy, who scored in the final, while Kara Kelly was a monster in the postseason, notching a hat trick in the state semis and adding a goal and an assist against Quaboag, Twin sister Kathryn Kelley selflessly converted from a field player to goalie when the Marauders got a sudden need in the cage and performed heroically to help coach Frank Barbuto win his second state title.

The girls hockey program won three state titles in the span of five years so it would be easy for one of teams to get a little lost in the shuffle. The 2001 and 2005 squads had unique traits that slots them a bit further up this list, but this team has one claim to fame that no other in Dedham history does — the only repeat state champion. The Marauders faced little resistance in the early rounds of the tournament that year, outscoring Milton and Woburn by a combined 11-3 count before blanking Canton 2-0 in the Division 2 final as Christina Sweeney, the backbone of the dynasty, registered a shutout in net.

Before 2005, the only way a Marauder basketball team was getting to the Garden was with a ticket, but this group earned their way to the parquet behind the junior duo of Kinard Dozier and Barry Sheehan. Dedham toughed out a solid 14-6 mark during the regular season in a loaded Bay State Conference to harden up for the Division 3 South tournament, where they ripped off four straight wins, capped by a 64-55 triumph over Ashland for the program’s only sectional title. The run ended on Causeway Street where the Marauders gave undefeated Lynn Tech everything they could handle behind a herculean effort from Dozier, who scored 29 points, but the Marauders came up just short in a 62-61 loss.

Back in the infancy of the MIAA girls hockey tournament, divisional alignment was determined more by strength of program rather than enrollment, so after Dedham won back-to-back Division 2 crowns, they were bumped up to Div. 1 in 2003. The Marauders were plenty competitive at the higher level, making it four consecutive state final appearances with runs in 2003 and 2004. But in 2005, the Marauders climbed the highest mountain with a 2-1 win over Woburn, with Christina Sweeney bookending her amazing five-year run in net with a third state title, which still remains the school’s only Div. 1 championship in any sport.

Shouldn't need to refresh anyone’s memory on this squad’s exploits as it was just last winter that the Marauders made a stirring run to the Garden with the program first state final appearance. An 11-8 mark in the regular season likely didn't strike fear in the Division 4 field but the No. 6 Marauders flipped the switch in the postseason, outscoring opponents 19-3 in their first four tournament games, including a trio of shutouts from goalie Noel Adams. Winthrop denied them the title with a 3-0 victory — a Brian Dunne goal for Dedham was called back in the first-ever use of video replay in an MIAA tournament game — but the Marauders left an indelible mark with their accomplishments.

The highest ranked team on the list without a state title on their resume, this squad has plenty of objective reasons to deserve it’s lofty placement. Arguably better in 2004 when they posted an unbeaten regular season mark before being ousted in the tournament by rival Wellesley, with five-year studs Sydney Stoll and Jenni Hibbard fueling things up front, Dedham bounced back to make the deepest run to that point in program history, with dramatic victories over Medway and Holliston in the Division 2 South semis and final and narrow triumph over Bishop Fenwick in the EMass final at an arctic Chelsea. The Marauders fell short in the state final with a 5-1 loss to Nipmuc — conspiracy theorists maintain the game turned when Eric Putney’s girlfriends’s dog ran on the Acton-Boxboro field and bit Krista Bradbury with Dedham leading 1-0 — but regardless this team will always lead in one key metric, the fun factor. No cast of characters was more enjoyable to cover. And it’s my list.

It’s an improbable story. Coach who had never played the sport teaches himself the game and takes a team that had long played in the shadow of the mighty Walpole Porkers on an unbeaten quest for the program’s first state title. But that’s what happened in 2003 when Frank Barbuto and the Marauders captured the Division 2 state crown with a 3-1 win over Smith Academy. Don’t be mistaken, the Marauders weren’t running around with glass slippers on. It was an outfit brimming with talent, with twin sisters Jill and Rachel Wilkes the catalysts, capping their brilliant field hockey careers with a 23-0-1 campaign as seniors,

Just imagine. Senior year, final match of the entire Division 3 championship, and a pin wins your team the first state title in program history. That’s what JC Cleveland faced when he took the mat against Hampden Charter’s Ahkmet Azizov and the heavyweight delivered with 40 seconds left to earn Dedham’s only state title for a boys team in school history in dramatic fashion. The Marauders needed a pin from O.J. Pekacar in his third-place match at 220 to set the table for Cleveland. Dedham had been knocking on the door, taking second in Div. 3 in 2015 and fourth in 2016, but that was with the four-time state champs and two-time New England champ Eric Reyes, the most dominant single sport athlete I ever covered at Dedham High. The 2018 squad was a true team with eight wrestlers placing, including current coach Finbar Heaslip, and Cleveland etching his name in Marauder lore.

They called Helen of Troy the face that launched a 1,000 ships. Well, this was the team that launched a quintet of titles for Marauder ladies wielding sticks as the Dedham girls hockey and field hockey teams put five trophies on the mantle between 2001 and 2005. The significance of a Dedham team breaking through for the school’s first state title in any sport can not be overstated, but the actual Division 2 state final victory was epic as well, a 3-2 triumph over Boston Latin that took four overtimes and two days to complete. Tied at 1-1 after regulation and a pair of full 15-minute OTs, the decision was made to suspend the game and return to Tsongas Arena the next day to finish. A third overtime that was not sudden death featured goals by both sides. In the fourth extra-session, Michelle Tesoro provided the game-winner (maybe, there has been some debate over the years whether the goal was properly credited) and a dynasty was born.

Dedham 3, Boston Latin 2, 4 OT (March 11-12, 2001): The Marauders capped their first season, and the first season of girls hockey as an MIAA sport, when Michelle Tesoro scored with 9:42 left in the fourth OT for the Div. 2 state championship at Tsongas Arena in Lowell. After playing to a 1-1 tie through regulation and two 15-minute OTs, the game was suspended and the teams returned the next day to play at least a full 15-minute OT. Each team scored during the third OT (no sudden death), setting the stage for Tesoro’s heroics.