Izzy Casaletto is usually driving the Downeaster train between Maine and Boston.
But on Friday, the engineer was onboard in a different role: basketball fan.
Casaletto, who grew up in North Anson and now lives in Falmouth, was heading down to Boston on Friday morning to watch fellow Maine native Cooper Flagg play his first NBA game at the TD Garden.
And he wasn’t the only one.
There was such a surge in ridership due to the game that Amtrak added cars to Friday’s trains, according to a company spokesperson.
“They’ve adjusted today to make more cars, more seats available,” Casaletto said.
Each of the late morning and early afternoon trains were sold out ahead of the 7 p.m. game.
There was also a surge in customers at the train’s cafe Friday morning, with riders finding a long line to get coffee and food. But the person dealing with all those customers was having a great time.
Cafe worker Shelley Chaloult was enjoying her quick conversations with the fans and hearing why they were traveling to Boston.
“Most of the people are going down to see him, for sure,” she said. “Probably 75% are going. But we also have people who are going down for the weekend. Because they’ll go to see Cooper, and then they’ll go to the Bruins tomorrow, and then come back Sunday.”
Amid all the excitement, longtime Celtics fans wrestled with mixed emotions over the prospect of supporting an opponent.
While Casaletto is usually rooting for the Celtics in the half-dozen games he tried to catch during the season, Friday will be different because of Flagg’s connection to Maine.
“It feels like it’s one of our own,” Casaletto said about the Dallas Mavericks rookie from Newport, Maine. “I love it.”
Like other fans on the 7:18 a.m. train from Portland to Boston’s North Station, he was particularly excited that Flagg had returned to the court Thursday night after missing eight games due to a foot sprain.
“I’m probably rooting for him more than the Celtics. Especially coming back from the injury,” Casaletto added. “I wasn’t sure if he was going to play, pretty excited that he is.”
That excitement almost seemed as though it was required to board the train Friday morning. Without fail, fans dressed in Celtics and Mavericks jerseys were enjoying the trip down and the prospect of seeing two of the NBA’s most talked about players.
In addition to Flagg’s return, Celtics star Jayson Tatum is now expected to see his first game action after tearing his achilles tendon in the playoffs last season.
Jamie White from the Lewiston-Auburn area had been “terrified all week” and constantly checking online for injury updates, thinking that Flagg and Tatum might not play in Friday’s game.
“The stars just aligned right,” White said. He was sporting Flagg’s Dallas Mavericks jersey despite being a diehard Boston fan.
“I’m a huge Celtics fan, too, so I’m torn between Tatum and Flagg today,” White said. “I can go to a million Celtics games and wear a Tatum jersey. So I’ve got a Cooper Flagg jersey — only time to do it.”
His hope for the game, that Flag plays well but the Celtics still win, was a common one among fans interviewed on the train.
That would be the “best of both worlds,” said Nick Emmons of Sanford, who was taking his 7-year-old son, Ryan, to his first Celtics game.
Ryan was hoping that his favorite Celtic, Tatum and the Boston squad would come out with a win. But he also thinks it’s “really cool” that another kid from Maine would be playing in the game.
“I got the Cooper Flagg jersey the same day it came out,” Ryan said.
Twelve-year-old Quinn Goff from Gorham was wearing his own Flagg Mavericks jersey Friday morning as he and his family traveled down to see Maine’s first-ever top pick in the NBA draft.
“It’s pretty awesome, inspirational. Because I want to be like him when I grow up,” said Quinn, who, like Flagg, wears No. 32. Both he and his 8-year-old sister, Kate Goff, attended the youth camp that Flagg and his twin brother, Ace Flagg, have hosted at the University of Maine the past two summers.
Kate’s team won medals at this year’s camp, according to her mother, Kristal Goff.
“She chose to wear her Tatum Jersey. He’s in his Mavs Cooper Flagg jersey. We’re a family divided, yes,” Kristal Goff said. “But we’re going to be happy with whatever team. We’re so pumped. We’ve been watching the injury reports, and waiting to see if Jayson is going to come back today, and Cooper, and we’re really excited.”
While the Goffs have seen Flagg before, both at the camp and when his national champion high school team played at the “Maine Event” in Portland several years ago. But other fans, like Mark Bolduc of Bangor, were getting ready to see him on the court for the first time.
“What gets me is, I never really heard of him when he was growing up,” he said. “We could have gone to see him right in Newport. But we’re excited to go see him play. We bought the tickets a long time ago.”
He and Josh Gray of the Arundel area called it a “win-win” to be able to watch Flagg play against Tatum and the Celtics.
Gray said he is hoping to see Flagg “score a lot, but lose to the Celtics.”
Just a few days ago, it seemed like fans might not get to see Flagg or Tatum play Friday. Now it looks like they’ll have a chance to watch them both. That stroke of luck wasn’t lost on the travelers heading to Boston on Friday morning.
“It is wild. And Cooper seems to be just as excited to play against Jason,” Kristal Goff said. “It is absolutely wild.”
