There can only be one winner in each class of the regional basketball tournament. That means most teams will have their season end with a loss.
And for the seniors on those teams, that means a bittersweet end to their high school basketball careers.
No one has a better window into the work those players have put in over the years than their coaches. And if you talk to any of those coaches, even right after a difficult tournament loss, they are overflowing with pride.
Jeremy Durost, who coaches the boys from Penobscot Valley of Howland, joked that his group of seven seniors were such a quality bunch that he sometimes needed them to be meaner on the court.
“They’re about as high class of kids that I’ve ever been around. High class and high character, sometimes to the point where I was almost having to make sure they get a little meaner, because they are such respectful young men,” Durost said after his team fell to fellow Class D squad Madawaska on Saturday.
The Howlers senior class was made up of Noah Austin, Darius Miranda, Chase Osgood, Ryan Dawson, Drouin Brochu, Logan Wallace, Seamus Herlihy.
“Their talent is great, we won nine of 11 games before this one here. So obviously they’re a very, very talented team,” Durost said. “But I’m going to remember just the great kids that they are.”
Orono boys head coach Ed Kohtala shared similar thoughts about his senior class after a Monday night loss to Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln.
It was the final game for four Red Riot seniors: point guard Brady Hews, big man Matt Allen, shooting guard Bergen Soderberg, and guard/forward Wesley Crouse.
Orono, which won several recent state championships in Class B before dropping to Class C this year, had to grind through several key injuries to its senior leaders throughout the year, but still fought their way into the postseason tournament.
And while some basketball teams might be fueled by internal competition for playing time, Kohtala said this year’s Orono team was powered by something else.
“They take care of each other,” Kohtala said. “Some teams in practice, you match a guy up against his back-up, and that usually turns up the heat. But our guys, they’re pulling for each other. So it’s not the same thing.”
Kohtala, and this group of Orono seniors, have seen plenty of wins over the years and been a part of championship teams. But that is not how the Orono coach defines a successful season.
“I’ve been blessed in my time at Orono. We’ve had really good kids. We’ve had good success. But we never measure success with wins and losses.”
And by the metrics of character and togetherness, this team and this senior class have been as special as Kohtala has seen in 35 years of coaching, the Orono coach said.
Greg Bivighouse, coach of the Katahdin boys from Stacyville, goes back a long time with his group of seniors. They won a peewee championship together years ago and he was the coach then, Bivighouse explained.
And it meant a lot to him to be able to journey together again to the Class S North tournament, where the Cougars fell Tuesday in a semifinal matchup against Easton.
“So to come around and be down here with the same group, it’s a lot,” Bivighouse said. “They’re typical seniors as far as their leadership and bringing their experience to the court. Especially Calvin Richardson, his play is phenomenal.”
Richardson led the way for the Cougars in the previous round with 26 points and 11 rebounds, and finished his stellar high school career with 14 points and 10 rebounds against Easton.
Bivighouse is very proud of Richardson and fellow seniors Jacob Hurlbert and Matt Keim.
“Unfortunately, unless you go all the way, it ends on a loss,” he said about the group. “But they did well.”
Shead of Eastport coach Corey Sullivan has also spent many years with his seniors. Which makes sense, given then one of them is his son.
The Shead boys senior class featured 1,000-point scorer Jonathan Andrews, center Isaiah Lawrence, guards Grayson Harkins and Isaac Sullivan, and forwards Craig Cushing and Wyatt Demmons.
“My son being a senior obviously changes the outlook of it,” Corey Sullivan said after Shead was knocked out of the Class S North tournament by Jonesport-Beals. “But also, these kids have been at my house growing up forever. So knowing them from little and coaching them forever, getting to here and coming up a little short, it hurts. They work so hard — best group of kids I’ve ever coached.”
It was a tough loss on Monday, but that’s also the nature of the game, as Sullivan pointed out.
“There can only be one winner,” Sullivan said. “You hope it’s you. But at the end of the day, you give your best, and if it’s short, it’s short. That’s life, I guess.”
