Two members of the 2014 Bangor Daily News All-Maine high school basketball teams are poised to continue their playing careers at Bowdoin College next year after gaining early acceptance to the Brunswick school.
Seniors Hannah Graham of Presque Isle High School and Jack Simonds of Falmouth both are set to join the Polar Bears beginning with the 2015-16 season.
Graham, a 5-foot-10-inch point guard, helped Presque Isle win back-to-back Class B state titles in 2012 and 2013, as well as earn another trip to the Eastern Maine final last winter. Graham opted to attend Division III Bowdoin after considering scholarship offers from Division II Southern New Hampshire University and Merrimack College.
“When I visited Bowdoin everything just really clicked. I got along with all the players, which was awesome, and I really liked the atmosphere of the campus,” Graham said. “And being there you know you’re in Maine still, so I think that definitely played a role with how close I’ll be to home. I’m still far away because I live in Caribou, but I’ll be close enough.”
Graham, who has not decided on an academic major, said she also was influenced in her decision by the local support for the Bowdoin program.
“They have a standard of excellence kind of like Presque Isle,” she said. “They’re known for winning and they bring in big crowds. My dad knows a referee in the area and he says Bowdoin definitely has the biggest crowds in the area that he refs in southern Maine and northern New Hampshire.
“You go to some college basketball games and there are 10 people in the stands, and it’s hard to get ready to play a basketball game when there’s nobody there, it’s like a practice. I think that was important to me, too, to transfer that community feeling over from Presque Isle to Bowdoin.”
Graham also hopes to transfer some of Presque Isle’s winning tradition on the high school level to the Polar Bears’ efforts in the highly competitive New England Small College Athletic Conference.
The Wildcats have gone 66-1 since she joined coach Jeff Hudson’s varsity squad as a freshman, including back-to-back 22-0 seasons in 2012 and 2013 and a 20-1 mark last winter when Presque Isle extended its winning streak to 64 games before falling to Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor in the Eastern Maine title game.
And before she enrolled in high school, Graham played on two undefeated middle school teams.
Graham has scored 16.5 points and dished out 4.5 per game through Presque Isle’s 2-0 start this season heading into Friday’s home game against John Bapst of Bangor.
She averaged 17.7 points, 4.5 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 steals a game last winter and was named the 2014 Big East Conference player of the year, as well as earning second-team BDN All-Maine status.
Graham also has been active with the Maine Firecrackers, a Southern Maine-based Amateur Athletic Union basketball program.
The Bowdoin women’s basketball team, coached by Adrienne Shibles, entered its semester break with a 7-2 record this season.
“When I met the girls on the Bowdoin team, I realized they were recruiting [Division] II and [Division] I players,” Graham said. “It’s not that these girls can’t play at a higher level but they chose to put their academics first, so I don’t really think I’m giving up playing against higher competition.”
Simonds, a 6-5 forward, is a two-time BDN All-Maine choice, earning second-team honors in both 2013 and 2014.
Also a two-time Western Maine Conference all-star, Simonds led Falmouth with 16.0 points and 10.4 rebounds per game last winter in helping coach Dave Halligan’s Yachtsmen reach the regional semifinals during their first year in Western Maine Class A.
A year earlier the left-handed shooter helped Falmouth win the Class B state championship, averaging 11.4 points and 7.9 points per game and scoring 21 points in the state final.
Last summer Simonds played for the Maine Athletic Club 17-and-under team that placed 11th at the AAU 11th-Grade National Championship Tournament held at Louisville, Kentucky.
The Bowdoin men’s basketball team is 6-3 this season under veteran head coach Tim Gilbride.
