Time to play a little catchup with the local schoolboy basketball scene after a break to cope with one of the more somber realities of life, the loss of a loved one.
Championships aren’t won in December, but the Brewer boys basketball team already has taken a huge step toward a high seeding in Eastern Maine Class A with a 4-0 start that includes victories over both Hampden and Bangor.
The Witches, coming off their best regular season since 1984, seemingly have made a smooth transition to new head coach Ben Goodwin — the program’s third leader in as many years. And their quick start suggests they have successfully embraced a high-intensity style of play featuring brothers Tyler and Ray Bessette and center Nate Carson.
Brewer, along with Brunswick, the lone remaining unbeaten in Eastern A entering its game against Mt. Blue of Farmington on Thursday night, only figures to get better in the coming weeks as senior standout Dom Drake, who missed the team’s first three games, continues to work his way back into the lineup.
While the winter season is just getting under way, it’s not without milestones already achieved.
Jeff Hart, the 28th-year boys basketball coach at Camden Hills of Rockport, joined an exclusive club last Friday night by earning his 400th victory with the Windjammers’ 54-43 victory over Midcoast rival Medomak Valley of Waldoboro.
Perhaps most impressive about Hart’s accomplishment is that all the wins have come with the same program.
Hart arrived at the school then named Camden-Rockport as the head coach in 1982 with just one season of sub-varsity coaching at Ellsworth under his belt.
But he slowly rebuilt the program, and over the last 15 years Hart has maintained the Windjammers as one of the state’s elite teams regardless of class with a style of play that includes fast-paced offense and aggressive defense while utilizing more players than most of his peers.
Hart’s teams have won five state championships and eight Eastern Maine Class B titles, including last winter when the Windjammers won it all with a 22-0 record.
Hart, currently 401-141 in his coaching career, was inducted into the New England Basketball of Fame earlier this year.
He joins an elite 400-win coaching fraternity in Maine that includes Dick Barstow (600-plus), Roger Reed (500- plus), Ordie Alley (500-plus), Jim Bessey, Bob Brown, Bob Cimbollek, John Donato, Gavin Kane, Dwight Littlefield, I.J. Pinkham and Paul Vachon.
Camden Hills will carry a 26-game winning streak into its next game at Rockland tonight.
Congratulations also are in order for the Nokomis of Newport boys basketball team, which ended a 51-game losing streak Tuesday night with its 59-50 victory over Belfast.
Coach Carl Parker’s Warriors trailed 43-39 entering the fourth quarter but rode the play of Chris Braley for the program’s first victory since a 64-57 win over Skowhegan on Dec. 27, 2006.
Since then, Nokomis lost its final 12 games of the 2006-07 season, then had back-to-back 0-18 campaigns before starting its first season as a Class B school this winter with an 0-3 record.
Braley scored 12 of his game-high 36 points against Belfast in the fourth quarter as Nokomis outscored the Lions 20-7. It marked the continuation of a strong start to the season for the sophomore, who is averaging 24.8 points per game.
The Warriors will try to earn a second straight victory tonight when they host Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield.
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