49. The High School Basketball Preview

General assignment reporters Christina Wallace, and Claire Taylor discuss the top headlines from the Thursday, Dec. 4 edition of The Lincoln County News. In the second segment, Lucas McNelly from Maine Basketball Rankings and sports reporter Mic LeBel discuss the greatest season of them all: the upcoming high school basketball season for Wiscasset, Boothbay, Lincoln Academy, and Medomak Valley.

Thank you for listening to "Beyond the Broadsheet: A Podcast by The Lincoln County News." Beyond the Broadsheet is produced by Lucas McNelly and Maia Zewert. Production support provided by Tyler Davis of Tyality Productions. Theme music by Stu Mahan and Sherwood Olin.

Have a question or suggestion? Email us at [e-mail]. And if you haven't already, please be sure to rate this podcast and subscribe wherever you listen.

This has been a Lincoln County Publishing Company production.

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
Welcome to Beyond the Broadsheet, a podcast by the
Lincoln County News. We are a community newspaper
based in Mid Coast Maine and provide the most comprehensive,
in depth coverage available anywhere of the 18 towns and 1
plantation that make up Lincoln County.
My name is Claire Taylor, and I'm a reporter here at LCN
covering the towns of Walderboro, Somerville, and

(00:30):
Jefferson. And my name is Christina
Wallace. I'm also a reporter here at LCN,
covering the towns of Bristol, South Bristol, Bremen and
Nobleboro. In our last episode, Lucas
McNally and Mick LaBelle gave a wrap up of fall sports.
In this episode, they will be discussing the upcoming
basketball season here in Lincoln County.
But first, here are top stories from the Thursday, December 4th

(00:53):
edition of the paper. And some Bristol News Johns Bay
Coastal Alliance committee met for the first time on Wednesday,
November 19th, after the Bristoland South Bristol School
Committees unanimously voted earlier that month to leave AOS
93 and form A2 Town Education Service Center.
During the meeting, the committee elected officers and

(01:14):
discussed their transition plan for leaving AOS 93.
Christian Coats, a member of theSouth Bristol School Committee,
was unanimously elected as the committee's chair.
Catherine Thompson, a member of the Bristol School Committee,
was unanimously elected as the vice chair of the committee.
Jonathan Swall, a member of the South Bristol School Committee,
was unanimously elected as treasurer.

(01:37):
South Bristol School Committee Chair Sarah Mitchell brought up
that since Swall's term on the School Committee will expire in
March of 2026, there may be somejob overlap with anyone
interested in taking on the position after SWALT leaves AOS
93 Director of Finance and Operations Peter Nielsen
discussed wrapping up discussed loose ends that need to be

(01:58):
wrapped up by Bristol and South Bristol before they leave the
AOS in June, such as a transfer of school records and licenses
for Apartment to Fund, which is the software that AOS 93 uses
for finance and business purposes.
Hiring will be one of the next steps for Johns Bay Coastal
Alliance. Committee and Executive
director, Superintendent Slash, curriculum coordinator, finance

(02:21):
clerk, administrative assistant,and special education director
will all need to be hired for the Education Service Center.
The next meeting of Johns Bay Coastal Alliance will take place
at 5:30 PM on Monday, December 8th at Bristol Consolidated
School. So good first up for them moving
forward. Yeah, absolutely.

(02:42):
News out of Wiscasset residents and town officials wrestled over
the definition of the word recent during a public hearing
on the subject hosted by the Wiscasset Planning Board on
Monday, November 24th. The board proposed setting a
standard interpretation of the word as six months with the aim
of getting fully up to date. Site surveys from applicants,

(03:03):
members of the public as well asseveral town officials pushed
back against that interpretation.
Wiscasset Select Board Chair Sarah Whitfield and Wiscasset
Economic Development Director Aaron Krasowski both spoke in
the public hearing to raise concerns around the proposed
policies impacts on residents and businesses.
Whitfield said. We are fully supportive of

(03:24):
defining the term recent in the ordinance and its itself where
definitions properly belong. We will be asking the Ordinance
Review Committee to take up thiswork to ensure clarity, fairness
and consistency moving forward. And quote the Planning Board
voted unanimously to table the issue until it is reviewed by
the Select Board. In some holiday news, the 9th

(03:48):
annual Villages of Light celebration took place in Damer
Scott and Newcastle on Saturday,November 29th.
The day started with a meet and greet with Santa at the Lincoln
Theater where around 50 familiesgathered to read him their
Christmas lists. Dear Mascara Region Chamber of
Commerce Operations Manager Claire Sommer and Executive
Director and Rundle greeted visitors with Coco and cookies

(04:11):
as they awaited the big man's arrival.
Later that evening, the annual parade entered Main Street at
dusk. Opening the parade were the
granddaughters of Diane DU Silar, to whom the parade was
dedicated. Santa followed shortly after,
riding on the back of the Damerskatta Fire Department's
ladder truck while weaving to onlookers.

(04:34):
Other floats included a decked out light display from the
Pemiquid Mermaids, a float from Kobe and GAIL inspired by the
1964 movie Rudolph the Red NosedReindeer, a live nativity scene
from Twin Villages Church in Damerskatta, and a float by
Seaside Princess Parties of Bristol featuring the Disney
type princesses Rapunzel, Elsa and Anna.

(04:55):
The Grinch also made an appearance riding into town on a
motorcycle hole, dragging a Christmas tree behind him.
So we both got to cover this. We did some dual coverage on
this. So Claire covered the meet and
greet with Santa and I did the parade.
So what was the meet and greet like?
It was so charming. It was really sweet.

(05:17):
It was just so lovely to see allthe kids so excited to meet
Santa and Santa, so excited to meet the kids.
And it was just a really lovely,like, heartwarming holiday
moment, so. What was maybe the most common
gift asked for? There were a decent amount of
Legos requested, a lot of labooboos.

(05:38):
I think the the big trend that Iwas seeing.
For sure, for sure. It definitely sounds like a good
time. You guys have to check out the
photos in the paper and online because they turned out so good.
There's a very cute photo on thefront of the paper of a little
girl running up to Santa so it. Was a very sweet.
Yeah, the parade was very cold, but it was a very good time and

(06:02):
I definitely enjoyed seeing all the lights and the Christmas
music and downtown Main Street or downtown Danverskotta,
Newcastle, that Main Street there is just decked out with
Christmas decorations. So it was very fun to be a part
of that. Absolutely.
Well, in some other heart warming news, kitten yoga at the

(06:26):
Live From Love Center made for aperfect afternoon if you will.
The Live From Love Center in Bremen hosted a kitten yoga
event on Sunday, November 30th. The event was made possible by a
combined effort between the center and Mid Coast of Maine,
with all proceeds going to assist the shelter in its
mission to protect and care for animals in need.

(06:47):
Throughout the class, Jessica Amston, steward of Live From
Love Center, made ties between yoga philosophies and the
kittens behaviors, encouraging participants to tune into their
own playful and peaceful kitten like instincts.
Jackie Furlito, Community Engagement Manager at Mid Coast
Humane, helped manage the event and was in attendance on

(07:07):
November 30th to help wrangle the curious kittens as they
explored the studio. Furlito said the Mid Coast
Humane's that Mid Coast Humane'sgoal is to get animals out of
the shelter and into good homes as quickly as possible.
As much as we make the shelter awelcoming environment, it's
really a core of our philosophy that it's still confinement and
confinement is tough on anything.

(07:29):
Ferlito said all of the kittens at the event found homes.
That is so sweet. It was.
Really cute. It was quite lovely and just a
very peaceful, lovely Sunday afternoon.
I love yoga but I feel like I would be way too distracted by
kittens running around to like, really focus on it.

(07:50):
It was very fun to see the balance of how people did
interpret that and like, OK, this is a time to meet kittens.
And it's also a time to, you know, take space and time for
yourself. And yeah, it's lovely to see
both. That's very sweet and some news
out of Edgecom. The Edgecombe Select Board
authorized the purchase of a newfire truck for the town and
discuss the next steps for dealing with the town's recently

(08:13):
discovered sailboat at their meeting on Tuesday, November
25th. After driving over 2900 miles
and looking at 7 listed fire trucks, Adcom Fire Chief Roy
Potter said he found a 2005 pumper in Michigan worth adding
to the town's fleet. Potter has been searching for a
new truck for several months. In September, board member

(08:34):
Forrest Carver said some of the trucks had not started during
three emergencies. Board members authorized Potter
to spend up to $75,000 from the fire Truck Reserve fund for the
purchase and shipping costs. In other news, the town's boat
has made a return. The sailboat, which was
abandoned and became town property early this year, was

(08:57):
reported missing by Harbor Master Terry Stockwell on July
22nd. Instead of washing up in
Edgecombe, Stockwell said the vessel reappeared on a Woolwich
Woolwich mud flat. The boat will need to be removed
by the town since the town stillhas ownership of the boat so and
we'll see what happens there. Yeah, All right.

(09:19):
Our character of the county thisweek is Jim Gallagher, a good
man in a good place. Now 75, Jim Gallagher is leaning
into retirement. He lives in the house he grew up
in on the Bristol Rd. In Damerskatta, which he shares
with his beloved wife of 55 years, Barbara, and their
youngest son, JJ. Three of the Gallagher's four

(09:40):
children live nearby, and the children have collectively bust
the couple with eight grandchildren.
Life is good, Gallagher said, acknowledging he put the time in
earlier in his career to reap the benefits now.
To learn more about Jim Gallagher, pick up a copy of
this week's edition of the Lincoln County News or go to
lcnme.com. And now here is Lucas McNally

(10:05):
and Mick LaBelle with the basketball preview.
OK, we're here to talk the basketball season.

(10:27):
Lucas McNally here, editor and person behind
mainebasketballrankings.com withMick LaBelle, our sports
reporter, who is already been onthe road, already been driving
through the snow, to get you allthe information you need on the
upcoming high school basketball season, also known as the most
wonderful time of the year. And the coldest time of year.

(10:48):
The coldest. Time of year last night.
Yeah, we're recording this Friday afternoon and whoo, last
night was cold. Yeah, it just dropped 20°
between when I left for the Wiscasset games in Richmond and
when I got home. All right, you want to start
with the Wiscasset games in Richmond.
Yeah, that was that was a reallyfun way to kick off the season.
The scrappy Wiscasset Wolverinesgirls put up a really good fight

(11:14):
and then lost with four seconds left, 32 to 30 to Richmond.
Yeah. That's rough.
It's rough, but it it's also very encouraging.
For one, they put up 30 points, which is possibly more than they
scored in any game last year. I'll have to take a look at
that. They.
Averaged because I wrote this down.
They averaged 22 last year. Yeah, so they probably they,

(11:37):
they must have eclipsed 30. But it was, it was a good start.
They were up 1211 at halftime. And so the second-half was much
more exciting from a scoring perspective.
Cool. For both teams.
So yeah, good start for Wiscasset.
We should just say that from where Wiscasset has come as of

(11:58):
like 3-4 years ago, getting within two points of anybody is
a monumental improvement. It definitely is, Yeah.
Last year they broke the 122 game, losing so went.
Back to the Obama administration.
Yeah, which it was. It was a different time.
It was actually what we should start off with is the thing.

(12:22):
If you're a casual basketball fan and you're just sort of
showing up for the games and maybe the tournament, you should
know is that the entire state isreclassified.
And if you're at pre season games, the big topic of
conversation is what class is this team that I'm watching
playing in this year? And the answer is that nobody
knows. But so basically the short

(12:44):
version is there's the under we're still technically at five
classes, There's under 100. So there's any school with under
100 students, they're in class S, which is S for small.
Why it's not E for the letter after DI, No one knows that
either. And then everybody else is split

(13:05):
up into ABCD. So there's no more AA, which was
this weird abomination that nobody liked, where the top 16
teams were sort of sequestered over here and automatically made
the playoffs. And it was a terrible idea and
good riddance to it. But we'll stay to keep the
opinions out of this, right? And So what you've got is you've
got these super, these bigger A's and B's which will remind

(13:29):
old folks or older folks of whatit was like before the five
class system where A&B are just brutal.
C is kind of half of the old last year's B and half of last
year's C And then D is mostly last year's C with some fringe
stuff from B or what did I say, D as most of last year's D or C

(13:54):
with a little bit of D and a little bit of, you know,
whatever. So it's very different and it's
going to make for a very, very interesting regular season and
some really good tournaments like a S girls is just a
nightmare if you're trying to come out of there, which does
not impact any team that we're covering locally, but it's just

(14:15):
to set the stage for where we are.
Yeah, I think as far as reclassification, the only team
that got directly affected is Booth Bay went from class CS to
class DS. But they are playing most of the
same is most of the same teams. That they were.
In fact, their schedule is almost exact to last season.
So really, I guess only at the time it comes to telling your

(14:40):
heel points and where you compare against other schools
and where that comes into play really.
The other difference is was Cass.
It stays in D, but D moved up. Yeah, so.
They effectively move up. Yeah.
If you want to look at it that way, we're Booth base sort of
stays where they are, was Cass. It definitely moves up because
they're no longer with those under 100 schools where they

(15:01):
were able to get a good number of wins last year, at least the
boys were. But you know what is funny and
and that is true? What you what you say, but their
schedule is almost. Is it still those schools?
Yeah, yeah. So I think again when it comes
time to comparing them to other heel points, because their
schedule will be weaker, softer,you know, 100% than Vinyl

(15:25):
Havens. And I think I'm not sure I have
to look at. Well they won't have N Havens
not playing. Oh, is that right?
Yeah, North Haven opted out. They didn't have enough kids.
That's too bad. That happened, I want to say,
last week. Yeah.
The trick for for was Cassidy isdo they?
Let's say they go 11:00 and 8:00again and those eleven wins are
all against under 100 schools. When they get to the tournament

(15:49):
against the rest of D, historically speaking, that
doesn't go well. Yeah.
Not just for them, just for anybody around the state.
You see that a lot like in the county, if you see, you know, a
central heuristic. One year just had a great record
because they beat a lot of D schools and they were the one

(16:10):
seed in C, both girls and boys Cand they both lost in the
quarterfinals, which is a long way to drive to Bangor to lose
in the quarterfinals as a one seed, both teams and then you
have to drive home. Yeah.
And I'm looking at their at the boys whisk asset schedule and it

(16:33):
is essentially the same as last year.
So it will come down to Brian. Do they?
Have Morse again. That's actually so their
schedule's softer because I do not see.
They don't have Morse. That weird, weird Morse.
Game. That was odd.
OK, maybe now that they're in D and Morse is in.
Did they move on? Morris, I believe, is in.

(16:54):
B. There's B, yeah.
Yeah, I have it on my computer and I.
Keep having to check it. They did away with that.
It was quite lopsided as I recall.
That was a strange game. Yeah.
That was one of those games where, like, this is an
exhibition, right? No, no, it's not OK.
Well, Speaking of the the schedules, the one thing I'm
disappointed in is that Boothbaydoes not play with Scassett.

(17:17):
This doesn't make any sense to me.
No. Because they're, I mean they
Co-op, they're very close to each other.
I'm not sure why they're not playing each other unless it's a
conference thing. Yeah, that could be.
I'm on record. Just saying that.
Conversation should not be allowed to close their their
schedule but. Yeah, that's the only thing I
can think of because both teams,it looks like went with their

(17:40):
same schedule as last year. So the East Conference.
Might be closed. I wouldn't be surprised if the
East West Conference is closed. Yeah, could be.
Yeah. So unfortunately they don't play
each other. They were set up to play in a
preseason scrimmage the other night when it snowed and they
cancelled. And they got Blizzarded out.

(18:00):
Yeah, yeah, Blizzarded out. Unfortunately, that was that.
I was looking forward to that. Well, here's here's my question
for you. There's news from the county
because there's always news fromthe county that three schools
are looking to Co-op, are not looking to Co-op.
They might consolidate. It's very early stages, but it's
Caribou, Presque Isle and Fort Kent, which would make it the
6th largest school in the state up in the county.

(18:23):
And then my question is who are they going to play?
Because you can get Brewer Hampden.
Yeah, yeah, Brewer, Hampden, Bangor.
You can get those three games. There are six games if you but
you know, and then you get 12 games to fill and it's already 3
hours to Bangor. You're not going to play any of
the Big E schools. You know, your Ornos, your

(18:44):
Herman's fox cross, and they're not going to want any part of
that. You're not going to be able to
play anyone in the county. You're not going to be able to
play Washington County because they won't play you.
You're going to. Maybe who's over the border?
Don't know you're. So you're going to have to go to
like, Meselonski and like OxfordHills and Lewiston and Edward
Moodle. Yeah, and not to.

(19:06):
Mention the expense on that bus drivers and the and the fuel we
ran into that and girls lacrosse, we had to go to
Holton. But you did that on the weekend.
We did, yeah. Yeah, so, but who are they going
to play on a Tuesday when they have school the next day?
Yeah, right. Like I'm not sure, I don't know
if they thought that part of this through.
So then my question for them is maybe you could do the reverse

(19:28):
of a Co-op where you keep the Caribou and Presque Isle team
separate but they go to the sameschool.
I don't know if you can do that.Which is my which is leading to
me too. Is there any thought of
Wiscasset and Boothbay Co optingin basketball because they Co-op
and everything else? Or is the tradition of Boothbay
basketball too strong for that? I think it's the tradition.

(19:50):
I mean, even Wiscasset basketball has a proud
tradition. It's been a while, but 10-15
years ago there were yeah. So I I find that a great
question because other sports they have Co opt in.
Traps, track and cross country are the most obvious, but

(20:11):
football too. Everywhere seems teams are less
likely to Co-op basketball than any other sport.
Baseball too, It seems like. Baseball.
Basketball, maybe? Yeah.
Is it just because there's such a strong tradition and it's
easier to get players for that? I think so.
I do because probably youth basketball and youth baseball
and youth soccer, I guess would be the third biggest as far as

(20:33):
like, yeah, culture and and, youknow, number of kids playing and
things like that. All right, those are probably
all programs that are rarely going to Co-op.
In fact, I don't know any soccerteams if they're that was Cassie
Boots, I guess so, yeah, that's their eight man.
Yeah. Yeah, OK.
All right. So let's good question while

(20:53):
we're on was Cassie, Let's hit was Cassie.
Let's start with the girls, 2 and 16.
Last year they were a -459 in scoring differential, which was
second to last in Class D. You wrote a great story.
I think you won an award, right for your story about their win,
their first win in since the Obama administration.
Yeah, I made the boat ride over to Ellsboro.

(21:16):
Wise choice. I did.
I predicted that pitched. The boat ride story and it paid
off for you. Yeah, I had a feeling that they
were knocking on the door and Islesboro was ready to open that
door. They did.
So what's the SO? What's the You've seen them and
you saw them last year, What's the level of improvement?

(21:37):
Significant. Yep.
I do think that they'll win moregames than two.
I'm going to put it around the 5or 6 mark, just being realistic.
Should I write this down that's true recorded.
Forever. But I won't listen to it.
I'll just write it. Let me hear our pen.
But yeah, I think their improvement on defense was

(21:59):
apparent last night against Richmond, who did have a couple
of tall, decent players that they were able to shut down for
most of the game and until the end where they got him on the
rebounding. So weakness definitely will be
rebounding. They're not a very big team.
They're not a very old team, quite young.

(22:21):
I think they have just one senior.
So they're just going to continue to improve.
They have a a good ball handler and Trixie.
Trixie is a great. Name for a point guard?
Yeah. You know, and she has a Trixie.
She's quick and, and, and likes to shoot.
So she's going out the basket a lot more aggressively as a

(22:43):
sophomore now. She was a freshman last year,
not a very tall player but makesup for it in in spirit and speed
and quickness and tricks and ball.
Handling tricks. Yeah, she's a good ball handler.
Jesse Reinbold is also a good ball handler.
She's back again this year as a junior, another good athlete

(23:06):
from their soccer team. And they have a new coach in
Dana Lawrence. Who's it?
It was quite obvious that that they put some good work in and
you know that that they're getting some fundamentals on
defense and inbounding plays andfast breaks.
You know everything. They did a lot better last night

(23:28):
than I saw last year. Very cool.
All right, so we're penciling. You were putting you down for
five wins for Wiscasset. That's where we're setting the
line. Let's do the boys.
Wiscasset boys. Last year, 11 and eight, they
were plus 140, which was 36 bestin the state.
And if you had told me that fiveyears ago, I would have wondered

(23:53):
what happened and what big business moved in to Wiscasset
to bring in all these extra people.
They were ranked 80th in the state at my site, main
basketballrankings.com. But like we said they did, they
were down with these. They were relegated by the MPA,
which is the thing that they arenot currently doing.

(24:13):
I don't know if it's coming back, but they were relegated
down a class. Very controversial because some
teams did quite well, like Noblemade it to a regional finals
years in a row after being relegated and the bidder for
girls we're one play away from the state championship after
being relegated so that made everybody mad and out with the

(24:34):
relegation plan hopefully to resurface at a later date.
So how? What's the outlook for with
those casting boys? That's bright.
They looked really good last night.
They beat Richmond 58 to 28. They came right out of the gate.
It was 11, nothing in the opening minutes and really good

(24:55):
defense. And that's one thing that's been
emphasized by Jamie Roy since hetook over a couple years ago.
They work hard, you know, and you know, they're, they
definitely put a lot of pressureon Richmond and their top scorer
#22 I can't recall his name, buta pretty good ball player, but

(25:16):
they he was not having good field goal percentage.
So would you say? Some hard shots.
It was cold outside, but wiscassit came out hot.
They did. So there, feel free to use that
for your headline. For.
The paper on Thursday. Yeah, yeah.
Good. One that's a free one.
And I and that is true. Tegan Mar as advertised by coach

(25:38):
Roy, much improved player. He's grown a lot.
I believe he's a junior this year.
He just started to kind of get rolling at the end of last
season, but he looked really good.
He had I think 8 or 10 points just in the in the first half

(25:59):
when I was there. And Spencer Pinkham also, I was
putting up points. He probably had eight or ten as
well of the IT was 28 to 7 at halftime.
Wow. Yeah.
And Tegan Mar and and Pinkham had the majority of the points.
Julian King had a couple, LandonShirey who who you're familiar

(26:20):
with, a great shooter when he gets on a roll.
They didn't quite get him going in the first half, but his
rebounding was excellent. And that's something that they
need. And the on the back end in
particular, he pulled down at least 5 rebounds in the first
half. In the defensive end, another
kid, really impressive. Tyler Mank got a new young

(26:44):
player for them that made an impact right away.
He was really good on their soccer team too.
Ben Gapsky, another player, young player, freshman or soft?
I think he's a sophomore this year actually.
He had a nice game. He's got good size.
He was good on the offensive boards.
So they just played great. They were passing the ball well.

(27:05):
They transitioned up the court. They look good.
Nice. And Richmond went 10.
I just looked it up. Richmond went 10:00 and 9:00
last year in Class C so I mean, that's not a bad program.
That's yeah, that's the game. They.
Probably 8. So it was, it was pretty
lopsided probably. That's probably a close loss for

(27:26):
his castle last year. Yeah, yeah, they did.
They did. It was last year.
Did they? Yeah, I was there.
They lost by 1. There you go see so see, I knew
that just from looking at the rankings and I was like, well,
they would have been it would have been a close game.
I. Was at that game last year and
they had somebody get tossed at the end of the OR towards the
end of the game and that came back to haunt him a little bit,

(27:46):
OK. All right, let's SO118 last
year. What are what are we thinking?
What do you think? How many wins?
Well, they were 11 and seven regular season, right, Let's go.
I think they'll win at least oneor two more, actually.
OK, I'm going to put them at 12.I'll.
Put you at 12 1/2. Yeah, that's about right.
Their schedule I didn't look to see.

(28:08):
Your Vegas line they. Don't have Morris this year
either on their schedule. So there you go, I'm going 13.
You're going 13. Yeah, I'm going 13.
You don't want to stick at 12 1/2 to hedge.
No, John will be so thrilled that we're bringing in gambling
terms. Nice.
All right, so let's move to Booth Bay.
You want to do the boys or the girls?
Let's do the girls since they played last night.

(28:28):
OK, we're recording this on Friday, as we said, and so there
are games tonight, there's gamesSaturday, and then you will get
to hear this on Monday morning in your podcast feed.
Thanks to our good friend Tyler who does all the editing.
Yeah, last night they opened against Lisbon at Lisbon and
1:54 to 33. OK.

(28:51):
I believe they beat them twice last year.
Lisbon has been not good for a while.
Yeah. So that wasn't a surprising win.
I think the 21 point spread perhaps is senior Tatum French,
26 points, Wow. And she is going to be a force
this year. At the end of last year, she

(29:12):
really was cranking at the end, 2030 points even in some games
right at the end of last season.Lisbon last year was outscored
by 791 points on the season, which you might imagine.
So they're about on average was.Worse than the state or nearly
worse than the state? Yeah, well, they know it was

(29:34):
worse than the state. They feasted on them.
I wasn't at that game, so I can't say I got my eyeballs on
it, but I have. You've seen them though.
I have and they, they look good and there's a a freshman that I
featured in my pre season write up, Ariana Gray and she had nine
points. Big tall player, very assertive

(29:58):
offensively. You know, you don't see that a
lot in a freshman, but she's very confident and goes to the
basket and can shoot 3 pointers for a, for a, you know, larger
forward type player. So she had nine last night.
Lily Brown, who's back from lastyear's team, she had eight and I

(30:20):
believe she's a freshman. Lily Cowling had six.
And I know Lily was a good fieldhockey player.
I, I have seen her in practices on the basketball court, but I
haven't seen her play yet, so can't speak to her.
But I don't see Arabella Hodgdonon the score sheet and she's
another really good ball handler, point guard for them

(30:42):
this year all. Right.
So last year they were 5 and 13.They were outscored by 337
points on the season, which was 31st in Class C Yeah, rough
season all, all around, especially if you're, especially
if you remember the heights of this program winning.

(31:04):
Was it three straight state titles with the Blevins?
Yes, yeah, they were like reallytall.
Turns out when you lose the D1 kids, yeah, it goes badly.
Right, Yeah, but who would have known?
Having said that, actually, not to make excuses for their last
season, but they were missing two players, both tore their
Acls, right? That's right.
Yeah, one right, In the last preseason game, Eleanor Irwin,

(31:28):
who will be back in January. So I'm going to get to that in a
second. And then, oh, the other player
was a really good soccer player.Can't remember her name, but
anyway, she, you know, was goingto Gosselin.
She was going to be their other leading scorer.
Will she be back? When she graduated.
OK, so Eleanor Irwin is a was a really good middle school player

(31:51):
freshman year. Like I said, tore her ACL in the
last pre season game. She can shoot.
She's a great 3 point shooter. How much impact is missing the
whole season? May probably quite a bit.
It can't help. But I think if they get her back
it just adds that like outside dimension.
But you know what they do, though, in the sports movie?
What happens when you have that issue?

(32:14):
You just have a basketball like all the time and you're working
on your shooting drills. You're laying in bed and you're
doing the Pistol Pete shooting drills or you're dribbling like
while you've got like one arm under crutches and hobbling
around, you're dribbling with the other hand and then all of a
sudden you come out and blow everyone away because you've
been working on your fundamentals all year.

(32:36):
Well, everybody else was messingaround with their trick shots
and their three pointers. You mastered the fundamentals
and you just crush it on your return.
Funny you say that because the practice I was at, she was
chomping at the bit, watching everybody, and I was just
interviewing her and talking with her on the sideline.

(32:56):
And then she did start hobbling around and trying to play, and
the coach was like, yeah, take aseat.
See, that's when you sit and youdo the ball, the dribble drills,
you just put the ball in one lane.
Like that. She is that kind of kid.
So yeah, devastating the injury last year.
I think she's going to bounce back, she said.
She's going to be back probably around the new year for them on

(33:17):
the court. So I don't know if that means
practices or games, but that would boost them.
For her, her and Jason Tatum coming back to save the day.
Yeah, OK. And Sophie White's another
senior that they have that that'll contribute.
She's pretty tall. They have decent size, actually.

(33:37):
So I'm going to say they're going to improve on that record
and I'm going to go with eight and ten, eight wins and a
playoff berth this year. Eight wins.
And they did not make the playoffs last year.
All right, eight wins in playoffs.
All right. And it hinges on Irwin coming
back. And this is Ariana Gray to

(33:57):
continue for freshman year the way it's it's going so far.
As we move over to the Booth, Bay boys, also 5 and 13, last
year they were outscored by only109 points on the year, which is
not bad for five and 13. That's pretty competitive.
They lost a lot of close games. Yeah, they averaged 47-A game.

(34:18):
They gave up 53.1 a game. Those were 23rd and 24th in
Class C. Then they did lose some some
good players. Tyson French, Adria, Canada.
We should mention they also lostthe, what would you say, the

(34:39):
stalwart of the program and IJ Pinkham, who passed away this
last year. True.
Yeah. After how many years are you
coached? Oh my.
Forever. All of them.
Yeah, so Paula wouldn't know. Yeah, but.
It's probably like 40 or something insane like that.
Well, I think they will do him proud this year because I, I do

(35:00):
think they're going to build on that 5 and 13 record.
I, I think they, again, they lost some heartbreakers last
year, didn't make the playoffs. They were just barely out of the
playoffs, as it turns out, just one place out.
But Peyton Barter's back. He's their primary ball handler.
He'll be a sophomore this year. He was their second, Second

(35:24):
leading scorer was Simeon Bates and he's back.
He's a senior. Good shooter inside and outside,
aggressive type player, so a physical player.
And they got a couple tall guys.Oh yeah, How tall?
Are we talking? Harry Hinckley.
He was 6, listed as 6/6 on last year's roster.

(35:45):
And there's a football player, football lineman Aidan Locke,
who's playing this year. Looks good.
He's he's big, too. He's probably 6465.
OK, so the two. Yeah, the two of them under the
hoop, at least in pre season action that I saw was was pretty
impressive and that that's a lotguy.

(36:06):
Yeah, he, he's built more like aa linebacker than a lineman.
Like he, he's not, you know, big, big, burly like that.
So he could move up and down thecourt.
So but. He can also push you out of the
way. Yeah, yeah, he and he.
Hated guarding guys like that. Whereas Hinckley's, you know,
he's a little long and lean, butbetween the two of them, they

(36:28):
definitely controlled underneaththe basket.
So if they if Barter can knock down points from outside, they
got a couple other players, Leslie White, Ethan Clark, they
can shoot 3 pointers. So I think they're going to be a
little better this year. They have good defense and

(36:49):
that's something that Coach Hallinan was definitely focused
on heading into the season. All right, so let's what do we
get? So 5 and 13 last year, what what
do you got? What do you think?
I'm going to go 7:00 and 11:00. 7 and 11 playoffs and playoffs.
They're going to, they're going to scrap in there.
OK, I'm going to put you on the spot here.

(37:09):
Who has more heel points? Pure heel points, boys or girls
from Booth Bay. Oh, that's a tough one.
I'll probably go with the girls on that.
OK, more heels. That's going to be on the
bulletin board at Booth Bay. It will be close though, they're
both about even in their improvement from last year, at

(37:33):
least in what I see so far. OK, let's move on to the Lincoln
Academy girls. That's a big question, Mark.
Yeah, both Lincoln Academy teamsare a big question mark, 9:00
and 11:00 last year. They're ranked 54th in the state
at mainebasketballrankings.com. Shameless plug they were though.
Plus 83 and scoring differentialplus 83.

(37:56):
And a losing record is really interesting.
They were 51st in the state in scoring differential and 16th in
Class B. They were 8th in Class B in
scoring, not so much in the defense.
They were 22nd in Class B in defense.
And the big issue there is they lost their leading scorer and

(38:18):
leading defender, right? Yeah.
Yeah, so. She's one of the best defenders.
It's both. Both the boys.
Both. Are the girls teams we have to
talk about are have the same issue I think.
Yes, but I do think that the theboys, I mean the girls, the
Madonna. Girls and the Lincoln girls have
the same issue. They have different issues, but

(38:40):
their core issue I believe is the same.
Yes, it is. It's the Cortana, Miriam.
Yeah. Dilemma.
So Miriam Delisle graduated fromthis Lincoln Academy girls team.
By far the leading scorer, in fact.
And for the lacrosse team, the leading scorer for your lacrosse
team, which is looking for a newcoach because Mick has too much

(39:03):
work to do here. So if you love lacrosse or just
like standing outside in on a field and yelling at officials,
they're looking for a lacrosse coach at Lincoln Academy.
Sure, what could go? What could go?
Wrong. Great program, but good luck
without Marion Point. And you get to yell at the refs
more from the sideline because they're closer.

(39:24):
That's good. They'll hear you better.
Cool, and I won't get any. No, I mean if.
You're a fan. Oh, I thought you meant me.
No, you too. Well, you can't with a press
pass, but if you're a fan and you're all the way back here, Oh
yeah, and you're yelling from the stands, they can't hear you.
But if you're right on the sideline, they'll hear
everything you say. So if you have lots of opinions
on the official that getting in,get into coaching or get into

(39:48):
becoming an official. That's the best, yeah, for sure.
So she averaged, Merriam averaged 17.2 per wow KVAC last
year and that's a lot to replace.
And unfortunately, they didn't quite restock with that caliber

(40:09):
of a a score or so. They didn't get in the portal.
No, and they also asked Izzy Bey, who was a really good
freshman last year. I don't have her scoring stats
in front of me, but she was definitely a a factor on defense
and offense. I think she wants to focus on
lacrosse, which could be my fault.

(40:30):
You're steering her away from basketball.
You've. Learned her away from
basketball. But she was definitely a
basketball prospect, so they're without her, but they do have.
So we should say on this podcast, unequivocally that it
is your fault. Well, I always say basketball
players make the best lacrosse players and that appears to be
the case. And I think I'm about to touch
on another one that I understandis going to play girls lacrosse

(40:51):
next year, and that's Bria La Ferne.
She missed all of the last season basketball season with a
broken leg or a knee injury. From it was a leg something.
It was like the last game of thesoccer season.
So she missed all of basketball and most of softball, but her
brother was a really good lacrosse player.

(41:12):
So I understand she's finally going to join girls lacrosse
this year. So that's good news for the
lacrosse program. She'll have a a good year.
I don't think she's going to average 17 points a game, but
maybe 7. You know, they've got to do like
Moneyball. You got to replace her in the
aggregate. Yes, and that that will be their
challenge. Lily Labrie is a player that can

(41:36):
definitely put up points. She looked really good in pre
season up at Spruce Mountain. So she is probably going to be
their leading scorer, their go to person.
Really good player, good kid. She's a junior this year.
The only senior on their roster is Maggie Thompson, who's back

(41:57):
after missing most of last year I believe.
She missed a bunch of last year.Yeah, so she's a a good four
leader for them. She did not play in the
scrimmage I went to and I, I didn't have a chance to ask or
why or anything. So hopefully she's fine and
we'll be back on the court 'cause they they definitely need

(42:19):
that. If they don't have Maggie, they
could have some issues. Other players have watched
juniors Chloe Anderson, Rowan Coffin, Olivia Ball, another
junior, had a good season last year.
She looks good this year as well.
Coach's kid, right? Coach's kid smart player never

(42:41):
bet against underneath the basket good leader as well.
So they, you know, they have some, some experience, but I, I
just think in that conference it's.
Going to be tougher BS will be harder than it was last year by
quite a bit because you've got the bottom third probably of

(43:04):
Class A from last year. Yeah, I think again their
schedules probably similar, but when it comes time to.
Probably not because they're both in the KBAC and Madonna
schedule. Got considerably harder because
they added Kony and G&G and teams like that so.
Yeah, I'll have to scrutinize that a little bit.

(43:25):
I'll bring it up on my phone. A couple other freshmen real
quick to point out, Anna Bracketlooks good coming up from
Bristol and Dory Westhaber put in a lot of minutes at the guard
position in the scrimmages that I went to and she was a good
player for. Also Bristol, actually a couple
of Bristol kids moving up to theto the Eagles.

(43:48):
So yeah, they're going to have to really play good defense to
stay in games and then manufacture some offense.
They didn't score a ton of points at the scrimmage I went
to, I believe it was 2521 with them having 21 points, but it
but they're shorter games a little bit.
So it's kind of like 2/3 of a game.

(44:10):
But yeah, they were on a pace for 30 points.
I'm bringing up the Lincoln Academy boys schedule because
it'll be very similar. Oh cool.
Leavitt, Morse, Cape Oceanside, Madonna, Belfast.
Gardner is New Yarmouth, Mount View, Freeport.
That could be a tough game. Waterville is not going to be a

(44:31):
tough game and Erskine will be avery difficult game.
And Winslow. So they don't add as much as
some other schools did in the move over.
Mostly just Gardner because I think they played Erskine last
year, right? Yeah.
OK, so they're really only adding Gardner, but Gardner's
got like A64 freshman. Who can?
Run the floor because of course they need another one.

(44:56):
So all right, so let's get so 9:00 and 11:00 last year.
What are we? What are we putting on on it?
So I think that means 8 and 10 regular season they were, I'm
going to put 6:00 and 12:00. 6:00 and 12:00.
And part of that, again, hinges on Maggie Thompson.
If she's playing, if she's not, honestly that that puts them

(45:17):
with probably a freshman ball handler, maybe Lily Pinkham,
who's a junior, but she also hada injury.
I think she missed most of softball or soccer or something.
So anyway, yeah, they they're going to have a tough rebuild
process, but next year they'll be good.
They they only have one senior. Like I said, there you go.

(45:39):
So unfortunately that's the modethat they're in right now, I
think. All right, let's move on to the
team that has come up in I've been on.
I've lost track of how many preseason podcasts I've been on,
and this team has come up in most of them.
The Lincoln Academy boys. They're always punching above
their weight, in my opinion anyway.
They, they, they look tough again.

(46:00):
Well. You weren't here when they
weren't, but. Yeah, out right.
I guess 13 and seven last year, plus 81 on the season.
That's 8th best in Class B. They scored 55.8 points a game,
also 8th best in Class B. And they were 14th in Class B in
scoring defense. Ranked 30th in the state.
Very pesky. So the problem is the Drew the

(46:24):
Hunt twins are are gone. Yes.
Welly, Terry Welly is gone. Yeah, really, you could just
list the. Entire roster and they're all
gone. Yes, basically, there's like 3
or 4 guys back, yeah. Right.
And So what did you figure out that it's 47 points from last
year returning? It was a little bit more than
that, but not much. Well, I've been quoting it on a

(46:45):
bunch of podcasts, so we're stick with 47 because, but so.
That's close. That might be what it is because
Herring, he got hurt after the first or second game, so he only
had five or ten in the whole season.
He's going to be their their number one.
So this is the thing that comes up a lot.
We see it every year and every year there's a team where they

(47:05):
graduated everybody and or they just graduated the noble boys or
the other team. This year there's a couple noble
boys graduated 2000 point scorers, including Mr.
Basketball. And spoiler alert, they're not
going to win as many games as they did last year.
Lincoln Academy graduated nearlytheir all their scoring and

(47:26):
minutes. And so you have to expect
they're going to regress. And the question then, with both
of these programs is, is that regression 9 and 9?
Is that regression 2 and 16? What is it?
And I always like to say that mydefinition of the strength of a

(47:46):
program is not how many gold balls they win, but how many
games they win in their bad year.
You know, how, like, what's the floor for them?
The floor for Falmouth is 10 wins.
The floor for Madomic is 10 wins, South Portland, ten wins,
something like that. And then, you know, the floor

(48:07):
for other teams is one win or orless fewer.
So the case for Lincoln, and I've probably angered a lot of
Lincoln people because I keep talking about this on podcast,
is we just don't know. And you can people can say all
the time, oh, they went undefeated on the JV team.
It's like, well, yeah, but that's the JV team and that's

(48:28):
not they're playing other JV teams who, you know, how good
were those teams? And it's not varsity minutes.
Yeah, I think in in this case, I'm going to go with a nine and
9. You're going 9 and 9.
Yeah, bold statement. And the reason being is that
yes, on paper they look really inexperienced and they lost all
the scoring. But then again, that's what

(48:53):
everybody said about last year and I probably did as well.
We. Did on this podcast, we said
this thing, but they were returning things.
They had the Hunt twins. Yeah.
And I I love watching the Hunt twins because they were.
Just. Someone coach described them to
me, or maybe it was a parent as the two guys you absolutely hate

(49:15):
until they're on your team and then you love them, you know,
because. I miss those guys.
Such pests and such a nightmare to play against.
And they were, you know, just sohard to defend because they got
that twin thing where they know where each other are all the
time. And, you know, they were
returning some real pieces last year.
It made it challenging for me tolabel the photos.

(49:37):
Every week they had different colored sneakers.
It's greatly different. You should be.
Required to well, see, The thingis you want to, you don't want
to like do the thing where you weigh different haircuts because
what if you have to switch jerseys at halftime, you know,
because one of you is in foul trouble or something.
Could be, you know, could be they were getting away with
that. You could, you know, I wouldn't

(49:57):
have known other than the shoes,I wouldn't know they were
switching shoes. They could be switching shoes,
yeah. But I do think Ryan Ball teams
play a certain way and from whatI saw in the preseason, it's
it's just like last year's team.They're they're hard to play
against. If they can stick around.
They they do have scoring. And Aiden Herring, like I said,

(50:19):
he was injured last year. It was a big blow to their team
last year. He was predicted to be one of
their top scorers. Definitely capable.
Looks like his pre season numbers he's putting up are
good. 13 points in this one gamehere I'm looking at Chase Ober
had 14 points in the scrimmage, so he's one of their bigger

(50:39):
players that is back and scored some points played.
Some minutes last year. He had some nice minutes last
year. Good rebounder, so he he's a
good player as far as young players.
Declan Demoro, he was a guy thatloaded up in middle school last
year as a freshman. I think he played a little bit.
He played on some of those undefeated JV teams, etcetera.

(51:01):
Think he saw a little bit of varsity time, not much, but he
looks like a a good scorer. He attacks in the basket.
He's very aggressive. Yeah, he's been putting up
points in the preseason, actually LED them with 13 points
against Winthrop. So Mike Mitchell's a senior.

(51:22):
He put up 14 points in one of the scrimmages.
Malachi Farren is back from lastyear, didn't score much.
He started to play at the end ofthe season.
Last couple games he put up somepoints and he had 11 in this
scrimmage. So if they can put up points,
their defense is definitely there and their transition game

(51:45):
is good with herrings really fast.
So James Hanley's another guard that played some minutes for
them last year. He's fast and quick.
So they're they're a typical Ryan ball team.
Sure, they're going to be hard to play against.
They're going to be in your face.
So I I think that they're going to surprise some teams.

(52:07):
All right, so 9:00 and 9:00 for Lincoln Academy, and let's go
over to the Madomic Girls. They're the other team with the
Cortana Miriam Dilemma, where they were 14 and six last year.
Lost the heartbreaker in the semi finals to Oceanside.
That I'm still not over. I'm still upset about it.
They should have won that game. They're up by eight points.

(52:27):
They. Were up by 8:00.
They played perfect defense on the last possession of
regulation and a miracle shot tied the game.
We're not bitter. They were So what, a 14 and then
finished fourteen and six. So that was 5 12:00 and 5:13 and
5:00 in the regular season. Yeah, 13 and five in the regular
season. They were plus 120 in scoring

(52:49):
differential. That was 10th in Class B.
They were 45.9 points a game. That was 11th in Class B and
they were 13th in defense. Putting up 20 points a game.
Catania Williams. Catania.
Madonna at University of Maine, Farmington.
All time leading scorer. Miss Basketball semi finalist.
1000 points. 1000 points. That's a lot and.

(53:12):
Ball handler. Ball handler, one of the best on
ball defenders in the state. Yeah.
So no pressure. You've got to try to replace
that. How?
Who's going to replace? Because she replaced Alyssa
Kramer. But that was a little more of a
known thing because Cortana was really good as a freshman.

(53:32):
And that was Alyssa Kramer's senior year.
So who is the Cortana to Cortana's Alyssa?
I think one of the dreams of whoit would be is Jenna Davis,
who's up from their middle school Riverhawks team.
Oh, a freshman. A freshman.
Not with the size Cortana has, but a good shooter and ball

(53:57):
handler. But yeah, a freshman, you know,
is, is Jenna Davis going to be the solution?
This is the year of the freshman.
Two years from now, yes, definitely I do.
You know everyone. She progresses the way that she
is. Another candidate for that, you
know, filling in in that role would be Anna Reed.
She had. Some She had some nice moments

(54:18):
last year. Definitely has her moments.
Scoring hasn't been there so farin the pre season, but pre
season, pre season. I do think that she'll fill that
role this year. She's not going to put up 20
points a game like Cortana, but hopefully 10.
Not many people put out in girlsbasketball 20 points a game.

(54:38):
That's an outlier for sure. That's that's the toughest
thing. I do see that CN only is a
sophomore this year and she's probably going to fill some of
that scoring gap. She had a really good
tournament. She was great in that Oceanside
game and was really I was impressed with her in
volleyball. Yeah, I was too.

(54:58):
Which I feel has to translate some way in some way.
It's helpful. I mean, she definitely had a
really breakout season in volleyball.
She. Was really good around the net.
She did have an injury in volleyball though that is a
minor concern. She, I believe, is wearing a
knee brace in basketball as well.
So not sure. I don't know.
I have all the details on that, but we'll keep an eye on it.

(55:20):
But she's definitely put up somepoints for them in the
preseason. I believe she led the way in
their scrimmage the other day. I mean, one, she had 16 points.
Oh, against MDI they lost to Mount Desert Island.
I think the one advantage they do have is they're very big.

(55:40):
Yes, between Chloe Fox and Claudia Feely, is Feely or
Feeney Feely Feely? OK?
I thought I had it sounded wrong.
In my head. Yeah, Chloe's 61.
Chloe Fox is a fantastic rebounder when you know when
she's able to like lock in. She was one of the leaders in
the in the KVAC last year. Chloe Fox.

(56:03):
She reminds me of a young Time Lord for the Celtics, which is
always fun, has a lot of like energy and.
And motor, yeah, and a lot of emotion out there.
She plays with her heart on her sleeve, I guess is the.
And usually part of her body on the floor.
Yeah, second in rebounds per game last year in the KVAC,

(56:27):
Chloe Fox 11.1. That's so The thing is they're
not going to have a lot of gameswhere they're going to face
people bigger than than their front court, so they might be
able to just dominate people down low.
Yeah, they're listing. Oh, I didn't realize Alyssa
Smith is 6 foot. Yeah, wow.

(56:48):
Yeah, Troy Smith's daughter. Yeah, yeah, she is tall.
I didn't realize she's that. Tall.
The old guard will remember TroySmith's playing days.
And then we, yeah, that was before my time.
That was before that. Wasn't before your time, but you
just weren't here for it. Sienna Lee who I was talking
about, she's 5/8 so she has goodsize too.
So maybe is the Formula B, because the Madonna Girls team

(57:08):
is traditionally good at pressing, forcing turnovers on
the perimeter and then just being dominant down low.
Yeah, and I think it so a lot's going to pivot on how some of
these younger players come into the system.
Another one is Rhianne Simmons, other freshmen, good volleyball

(57:30):
players. She's not big.
She's 54. She can jump listed as but she
can jump. She's fast, she's quick and like
you said, and she's aggressive like on on the press.
I bet she'll do a good job. Janet Davis is listed freshman
at 53 guard. So she doesn't have the size,
but she doesn't need to, you know, if they have all these

(57:51):
other bigs, another player I'll see a lot of times, Rachel
Richardson, she's a senior now. She's 5-6, has good size.
And Claudia, you know, we touched on Claudia, she they'll
look to her to have a bigger year.
I mean, she's definitely a factor, but she could be a
bigger factor. I think she definitely has more
to give this year and. They'll need her to score more.

(58:13):
For sure. Yep.
And and she's a good rebounder, you know, good overall player.
Alyssa Smith, that'll be interesting to see.
I know she was kind of a role player last year.
Whether she steps into kind of astarting lineup leader as a
senior, you know that obviously will impact things as well.

(58:35):
They could put all three of themon the floor.
That's a big, big. One that's averaging 6 foot and
then if you know Sienna's out there too, she's 5/8 and can can
really leap as well. So yeah, good size, lost a lot
of scoring, but you know, in close games defence wins all.

(58:56):
Right. What are we putting down as
here? 14 and six last year, so that
was 13 and five in the regular season.
I do don't think they'll quite match that.
I'm going to go with 11:00 and 7:00. 11:00 and 7:00.
Yeah, I do think a winning record.
All right, moving on. Last team, the Potomac Valley
boys, 20 and one last year lost in the regional final.

(59:18):
Whole team was sick, plus 540. They were.
They were. That's sometimes the most
important thing to do in a tournament play is to not be
sick and not have the flu as a Because every year, at some
point during the year, your whole team's gonna have the flu.
And if you can get the flu during the last week of the
regular season, that's a lot better than getting it during

(59:40):
the tournament anyway. But maybe.
York was sick too. You don't.
You don't know, they might have been sick for the state game
because they didn't play great in the state game.
True +5. Caribou.
Caribou one, yeah, Pretty handily, yeah.
Plus 547. But now I did beat Caribou twice
in the fall. I mentioned that.
That's what I've been told. Plus 547 on the year that was
fifth best in the state, first in Class B.

(01:00:03):
They averaged 64 points a game that was 14th in the state and
they allowed 38 a game that was fourth best in the state and the
best in Class B. They were ranked 5th in the
state at the end of the year, even after losing in the
regional final. So some losses, Gabe Lash is?
Is best defensive player in the.State in the state, Mr.

(01:00:24):
Basketball finalist. Rocco.
Rocco Big Interior Force Rocco de Patsy Christian Schulman over
playing at main Maritime Academywon the free throw shooting
contest. And a pesky defender.
But we'll tell you how sick theywere.
And then he missed clutch free throws in the regional final.
And if that's not an indicator that someone is sick, I don't
know what it is. Yeah.

(01:00:45):
I remember that now, and painfully.
I have them so. In.
On my on my podcast in the main basketball rankings podcast we
do a wins draft where we draft 7teams around the state in
different categories that we think will win the most games.
I have them in the wins draft. They were my keeper from last
year and I. Slightly more bullish than I am
and. I had three state champions on

(01:01:07):
my that I could have kept from the previous year and I kept the
Monomic Valley boys, partly because I would not have heard
the end of it if I didn't. But I also believe that they,
along with the York, are probably the Co favourites of B
South. Yeah, it does appear that way
and and Coach Depatzi definitelythrew some.

(01:01:29):
He wouldn't admit that. Way to other schools, but he's
playing it down. Are you saying he's?
Playing it down. Yeah, he just kind of listed
them in the middle of the mix with like 216 six different
teams, which I don't think is the case.
However, again, it's they're going to have to have some
scoring step up from different places and I think they will to

(01:01:52):
some degree, but you might thinkthey will more than than maybe
I'm comfortable with you sure. Like, I haven't seen Colin
Dolan's a great player and a really good defender and
rebounder, but I haven't seen him totally lighted up on
offense yet. He wasn't All Star at the Coney
League this summer. And I did actually, I did see

(01:02:13):
some Coney League ball and and he did look good.
So I think part of that is, is what your role is on a team,
especially playing for someone like Nick.
Nick that puts people in, you know, roles.
Yeah, in in particular, he looked.
Pretty good in South Portland atthis tip off tourney.
Yeah, and shooting more like taking more shots.

(01:02:34):
And because that's the thing, hewasn't really getting a lot of
the. He was doing some dirty work.
The ball, yeah. And The thing is, the game
wasn't really in doubt because they just sort of overwhelmed
Falmouth with their with their defence.
And last year with so many scorers like they had with
Schumann and Lash and even Roccofinding shots for Donlin, you

(01:02:57):
know, wasn't there. So now it will be obviously not
only are they missing, what is it 60% or more of their of their
scoring, they're missing 60% of the people that took any of
those shots. So, yeah, so theoretically as
these people filled that. I could see Donlin cleaning up a
lot of offensive rebounds and getting a lot of putbacks, stuff

(01:03:18):
like that. Yeah, that seems like a good
role for him. The new kid from Camden can
shoot lights out. Yeah, Micah Fagande, he's
definitely Yeah, he looks good. 3 threes I think against
Falmouth. Yeah.
Owen Dosti looks pretty good after a big football season.
Yeah, bigger, tougher. And then Mason.

(01:03:42):
Yes, let's talk about Mason. Yeah, he just committed to the
University of Maine at Farmington.
Someone told me he was one of the five best players in the
state and I'm not sure I believe.
That he gets going, he does hit from a lot of different places.
I mean, he can light it up. I like him a lot.
I was like 5th best .1 of the five best in the state.
I don't know about that, but. I'll be happy to be proven wrong

(01:04:03):
players than I do but he definitely can.
I like how he can score from a lot of different scenarios and
and places on the court. Like he can shoot 3 pointers.
I think he had 21 last year in the KVAC listing here, which is
top. You know, he's on the list and
he's a good at attacking the basket and he can even just pop

(01:04:27):
and yeah, pop and shoot. So what we're going to have here
is, and I'm going to explain to you how the Internet works, we
just talked about Lincoln Academy losing a lot and the
difficulty of replacing that andthe regression and everything,
yadda yadda, yadda. And then we're now we're talking
about Madamic losing 60% of their scoring.
And we're like, yeah, that'll befine.
So the difference there is that one of them is a proven

(01:04:50):
commodity. And for in the in NICTA Patsy's
entire tenure at Mordomic Valley, which started in I
believe the 1800s, somewhere around there, they he helped put
up the first Peach basket. No, seriously, it would spend
like 20 years, something like that.
They have yet to win fewer than 10 games.

(01:05:13):
They've had years where they graduated the entire starting
lineup and then the next year they won more than 10 games.
So it's sort of. Which is almost what they did
here. Yeah, they graduate.
They graduated. Three, right?
Michelle Mohr he was. He was off the bench a. 6 or A7
Yeah. So I.
Think they graduated 3 starters.3 starters plus Michelle.
Yeah. So the floor for a team, for

(01:05:34):
Madonna traditionally has been like 11 wins, something like
that. So with Mason Win coming back
with Dosti Donlin the gun for gun, I'm did you get that wrong
so many times? Much if it's fagand or fagande.
Fagande OK, so there's there's alot of pieces that are proven
commodities and have had big moments at the varsity level.

(01:05:56):
And so we're there's more confidence that they will be
fine because it's just a next man up sort of situation.
I guess ball handler is one question I have losing Schumann.
I always thought that Landon Star was kind of in in waiting.
Well, I have Luke Cheeseman still.

(01:06:16):
But I'm yet to see that. Yeah, it'll be interesting to
see how much I assume Luke will step into that.
But I, I I. Think he.
Started to see the pre season against.
Falmouth yeah, they looked really good in the pre season
game against Falmouth so. That Falmouth has lost a lot.
My question marks is who's goingto fill in for Schumann and
that? I think it's probably.
Tracy's name bringing the ball up the court safely.

(01:06:38):
I think Mason's doing it more. Is he OK?
Yeah, Yep. So yeah, as long as they can
fill that void. They also beat Edward Little.
Yeah, who I heard is is good. Last night, lost to Camden by
two at the buzzer. Yeah, in what sounded like an
all time classic for opening night.

(01:06:59):
So I mean Edward Little's one ofthe their projected top 4IN
Class A's North. Yeah, wow.
And they beat them by 10 points.I think like that.
I think their point guard. Got 6250. 4 I think.
Madonic, they lost. Edward Little did lose someone
in the game to like they got ejected or something.

(01:07:20):
They got a tech, I think they got a no, they got a technical
and the coached Adam to for lessons and stuff.
So one thing will be size. Yeah, I'm looking at this list
here and I Donlin 63. He's got long arms too.
Gwen is 63, Landon Morrison is 6/4 and he's a junior now.

(01:07:43):
He was playing JV. He was a playing player last
year. So he's another guy, him and I
think Landon Starr, if those twoguys can emerge and a guy I
don't I'm less familiar with that Nick Depazzi cited as a guy
up from the JV team he thinks will make an impact is Carter
Jackson. Yeah, I heard the. 6 foot

(01:08:03):
sophomore. I don't know him as well.
There was a name I saw or heard and I was like, who's that?
And it might actually might havebeen Taggart.
Yeah, there's a Taggart twins. I think one of them is up with
the varsity this year on the roster.
I think he played well. Yeah, he had some good minutes,

(01:08:26):
Yeah. They're missing the 66 kid, but
they got 6463 a bunch of those. Yeah, yeah.
So if anything, maybe a little bit on size they because they
did dominate under the basket with Rocco and and Lash last
year. So we'll see if they get pushed
around a little maybe. All right, 18 and O last year in

(01:08:49):
the regular season. What?
What do you think? I'm going to go 14 and 414 and
four that. Sounds.
Yeah, that sounds fair. 14 and 4how?
Deep. I think it's tough to match
I'll. Put you on the spot.
How deep do they get in the tournament?
It's a rematch with York in the regional final.
I'm not going to go that far and.
Then what we do is we send someone down there who's sick.

(01:09:11):
We send someone down there, a super spreader sort of person,
someone we just take a kindergartner from.
We take a couple kindergartenersfrom GSB and from Miller or
wherever, and we send them down into the, the York locker room
under some guise of, you know. Tour the locker.
Room Oh yeah tour the locker room something like that they

(01:09:32):
cough all over everybody and then.
All of a sudden. York's got the flu, and that's
only fair 'cause who's to say they didn't do that in
particular? Yeah, Reese McDonald.
I think Bouchard graduated. Oh, did he?
Yeah. Oh, OK.
He's a senior, but Reese MacDonald is really good.
Ah. I gotcha.
OK, All right, so. 14 and four and then Mick Biohazard.

(01:09:56):
I have him going at least to thesecond playoff.
So at least the semis, yeah, semis plus.
I think beyond that, they'll have to have some things fall
into place. I have her BS is down this year
a little bit. And they were they are.
Most people would think it's them in York and then a gap in

(01:10:17):
whatever order you want to do them in York.
All right, so let's wrap this up.
Mixed picks for the season. You want to prove him wrong in
some direction. Hopefully you want to do better
than that. He's got four of the Wiscassi
girls, five wins for those Castle boys, thirteen wins.

(01:10:37):
That's the second highest numberyou've got here is those cast
boys for the Booth Bay boys, seven wins in the playoffs for
the Booth Bay girls, eight wins the playoffs and more heel
points than the Booth Bay boys. For the Lincoln Academy girls, 6
and 12. Lincoln Academy boys 9:00 and
9:00. That would get them in the
playoffs. Dominic Valley girls 11 and

(01:10:58):
seven and for the Menominee Valley boys 14 and four, at
least the semi finals and we're going to send a bunch of sick
kindergarteners in into down to York to do a some sort of site
visit slash bioterrorism. Well, that's definitely
something I I just thought of aswhere they place, you know, as

(01:11:21):
far as the seed is going to be important not to get York any
earlier than. Than the regional final, yeah,
to get either the one or the 2. Yeah, I think so, yeah.
All right, so this has been a preview Mickle.
You can read all of his writingsabout high school basketball and
all the other sports which are not basketball in the Lincoln
County news every week. You can also learn read about

(01:11:45):
this teams that are not in Lincoln County at
mainebasketballrankings.com, where we cover everyone from
Ashland to York and everywhere in between.
That's part of the part of the language on the website.
So, so I'll know, I'll scout outwhere we need to send biohazard
kids New York if the if it comesup.

(01:12:05):
That's cool. Sounds good.
All right. And then, yeah, thanks for
listening to the show. Thanks for listening.
Cue the outro. Thank you for listening to Be on
the Broadsheet, a podcast by theLincoln County News.
This podcast is produced by Lucas McNally and Maya Ziebert.
Tyler Davis of Tiality Productions provides production
support. Our theme music is by Stu Mahan

(01:12:28):
and LCN associate editor slash bassist Sherwood Olin.
The Lincoln County News hits news stands across the county
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(01:12:49):
As always, we're grateful for the support of our readers and
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It's been great catching up today and we'll talk with you
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