After being a four-year starter in three sports at Bangor High School, Emmie Streams found herself in a completely different situation as a freshman on the University of Maine’s women’s basketball team last season.
She was a practice player who wound up getting just 18 minutes of playing time while appearing in seven of the America East-champion Black Bears’ 34 games.
But she didn’t let her lack of playing time negatively impact her.
One of her most important jobs was guarding the Black Bears’ starters in practice to help them prepare for the upcoming opponent and it was something she took pride in.
Her work ethic, unselfishness and dedication to the team were rewarded last Sunday night when she learned she had gone from being a recruited walk-on who had to pay her own way to a full scholarship player.
UMaine head coach Amy Vachon let her know during a team get together.
They were playing trivia and the trivia question was: Who are the three players who earned scholarships after being walk-ons their first year?
The answer was current UMaine associate head coach Courtney (Anderson) England, student assistant coach Lexi Mittelstadt and Streams, whose name appeared on the video screen.
“It was a complete surprise,” said Streams. “I had to take two looks at Coach Amy to make sure it was right. She said yes and all the girls piled on me,” Streams said.
Streams said Vachon’s announcement was thoughtful and made her feel special.
“I was just so thankful they gave me the opportunity (to play at UMaine) and now I’m obviously thankful they gave me a scholarship,” said Streams.
Vachon said Streams earned the scholarship.
“Whenever someone walks on, we never promise them anything,” said Vachon. “But our program also really values a certain standard and when players epitomize those standards and reach the goals we have, we really want to reward them in that way (scholarship).
“The numbers don’t always work out but fortunately for us and for Emmie, they worked out this time,” Vachon added.
Vachon said Streams works hard and has improved, noting she challenges the team to play harder.
Despite her lack of playing time, Streams said her freshman season was rewarding.
“There was obviously going to be an adjustment,” said Streams. “Anne Simon was ahead of me so I was learning from her. I was trying to understand the offense and how coach Amy runs things. I was more than happy to just be a practice player and help the team get where it did.”
Simon was the America East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season for the second time in her career and wound up being the school’s fifth all-time leading scorer with 1,982 points.
Streams said it takes a “whole year” to fully understand the UMaine offense “and I’m still learning some things here and there. It’s completely different from high school.”
She added that the physicality of the college game always requires a major adjustment.
The 5-foot-4 Streams, a quick and tenacious point guard, was a two-time Bangor Daily News All-Schoolgirl second team selection.
She averaged 9.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, a Class AA North-best 6.6 assists and 3.7 steals per game her senior year in 2022-23. She was second in AA North in steals.
She was also the starting catcher on the Bangor High softball team and midfielder for the soccer team.
Streams said she was a much better player at the end of the season for UMaine.
“When you are going against two of the best players in the conference every day (in Simon and fellow All-AE first team forward Adrianna Smith) every day, it definitely helps,” said Streams.
She said the team is going to be good again and she feels “pretty confident” about how her game has evolved at UMaine.
She is hoping to get more playing time so she can contribute more but also said her primary goal is to “do whatever I can to help the team. That’s my mindset going forward.”
“We have a lot of people back from last year. We’re a very deep team,” said Vachon. “But you never know. She’s worked hard and has gotten better and has definitely put herself in the competition (for playing time).”
Even though she wasn’t playing much, Streams never thought about transferring.
“I love it here. We have a great coaching staff and you can lean on them whenever you need to. They believe in every one of the players,” she said.
