Steve LeVasseur is a schoolboy basketball coach not easily satisfied, so it’s no big surprise that he greets the 8-2 start enjoyed by his defending Class D state champion Schenck Wolverines this season with only a lukewarm endorsement.
“We’re doing OK,” LeVasseur said over the weekend while scouting a game between Lee Academy and Penobscot Valley of Howland. “We’ve done a lot of stupid things, and I’m still trying to find a couple of guys to fill the spots of my son (Cody) and Jared (Waite, who both graduated). We’re adjusting to things, but it’s been OK.”
The Wolverines parlayed a regular-season schedule dominated by Class C opponents last winter into a postseason run that produced Schenck’s first state championship in boys basketball since 1994, when Schenck was still competing in Class C.
This winter, the regular-season road will be similar, if not even more challenging. Seven of Schenck’s nine opponents are Class C schools, including the top four in the Eastern C Heal point ratings as of Monday — Lee Academy, Penquis of Milo, Stearns of Millinocket and Penobscot Valley, teams with a combined record of 32-10.
“I feel I play the toughest schedule out of any team in Class D,” said LeVasseur whose team, 8-2 overall, is 2-2 against Class C’s top four teams. “We’ve played some good teams and won, and we’ve lost games to Stearns and Howland. I think that overall right now I’m OK with how we’re playing, but we’ve still got a lot of stuff that we need to do.”
Schenck’s most noticeable win to date came in its most recent outing, when it rallied from a 16-point deficit for a 68-62 victory over then-undefeated Lee at Gillis Gymnasium in East Millinocket.
Senior point guard Brandon Theriault, named most valuable player of last year’s Eastern Maine Class D tournament, scored 15 of his game-high 29 points in the fourth quarter as the Wolverines outscored Lee 25-11 for the win.
“We never gave up,” said LeVasseur. “That game showed me something, it showed me a lot of character. I think they’ve been riding the coattails of being state champions last year a little during the first part of the season, but (against Lee) they never quit.
“(Friday) night in the fourth quarter it seemed like something happened. Maybe we’re coming around.”
Theriault is one of three veterans back from last year’s 21-1 team that defeated Richmond 65-43 in the state final.
“Brandon has stepped his game up again this year,” said LeVasseur. “I think he’s probably one of the premier point guards in Eastern Maine because he can take you from the outside, he can take you to the hoop or he can pull up for the jumper.”
Other returning starters are Brandon’s twin brother, Eric, one of the team’s primary outside shooters, and senior forward Zach McLaughlin.
“The McLaughlin kid has probably grown the most out of the three,” said LeVasseur. “Zach has really been working his butt off for me. He had 22 (Friday) night, and he’s a horse on the boards for his size. He’s only 5-11, but he works really, really hard.”
Sophomore Nathan Cram is among the younger players working to provide the Wolverines more of an inside game.
“We really weren’t that tall last year, but with the size and bulk we had we were able to contain people under the basket,” LeVasseur said. “I don’t have anybody like that this year, but we’re trying to get a couple of kids to come around.”
Schenck is ranked second in Eastern D, trailing only undefeated Central Aroostook of Mars Hill and just ahead of third-ranked Jonesport-Beals, whose only loss came at Class C Calais.
“Central Aroostook’s going to be there and Jonesport’s going to be there, too,” said LeVasseur. “A lot of people don’t talk about us, but don’t count Schenck High School out.”
