Madelynn Deprey can’t seem to stop making history for the Caribou Vikings.
On Friday night, the senior guard was named Miss Maine Basketball, an award that goes to the state’s top senior girls player. She’s the first Caribou player, girl or boy, to win in the history of the Miss and Mr. Maine Basketball awards dating back to 1988.
“It’s crazy. It doesn’t even feel real,” Deprey said Saturday morning. She said she was “shocked” but excited to win the award.
Just a week ago, Deprey and the Viking girls delivered an improbable championship win over Biddeford in the Class B state final. The Caribou boys team followed that up with a championship of its own, for the first-ever basketball sweep in the Aroostook County city’s history.
“She’s changed the history for Caribou basketball,” Vikings coach Kayla Brown said Saturday morning. Brown called Deprey a well-rounded and hardworking player who provides great leadership, and someone who certainly deserves this recognition.
“She’s special for sure. I’ve never coached anybody like her,” Brown said.
Deprey won the award Friday night at an all-star banquet held by the Maine Association of Basketball Coaches in Bangor. Jamier Rose of Noble High School in North Berwick won the Mr. Maine Basketball Award. He is the first recipient in Noble’s history as well.
As outlined by the Maine Association of Basketball Coaches, these awards go to the senior player who has exhibited outstanding skills throughout their career; has made a significant impact on their team; has demonstrated respect for the game through leadership on and off the court; has epitomized the values of sportsmanship and has been a positive school and community citizen.
Deprey is just the fourth player from Aroostook County to win the Miss Maine Basketball award since 1988.
“I hope that I can inspire some of the younger girls and tell them that, it doesn’t matter if you’re from The County,” Deprey said. “You’re just as good as everybody else.”
Brown, who won a state championship in high school playing for neighboring Presque Isle, called Deprey a “really good representation from The County of somebody who’s worked really hard and strived for success.”
“It just goes to show that we do have good basketball players in The County,” Brown added.
Deprey added a final flourish to her impressive high school career by piling on 31 points in Caribou’s thrilling 49-48 win in overtime against Biddeford in the state championship last Saturday. That was an emphatic finish to an already impressive tournament run that netted Deprey the Class B girls MVP as part of the BDN’s all-tournament team.
“I think she proved to everybody on a big stage what she was capable of,” Brown said about Deprey’s championship performance. “We’ve known that all along, but everybody saw it in that game.”
Deprey had been named MaxPreps’ Maine high school girls player of the year earlier in the week. She averaged 22 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.1 steals and 2.8 assists per game this season and had 1,671 points and 687 rebounds for her career, according to MaxPreps.
She added another accomplishment Saturday morning at the McDonald’s All-Star game for Class AA, A and B girls — earning player of the game honors for the North team with 16 points.
Deprey will play college basketball at Division II Southern New Hampshire University in the fall.
