Logan McLaughlin witnessed one of the more memorable shots in recent Maine high school basketball history nearly seven years ago.
That’s when his teammate at Central Aroostook High School of Mars Hill, 5-foot-7-inch guard Manny Martinez, lofted a short floater over the outstretched arms of 6-foot-10-inch Richmond center Marc Zaharchuk with eight-tenths of a second left to give the Panthers a 54-53 victory in the 2008 Class D state championship game.
Now 21, McLaughlin has traded in his basketball uniform for a sweater vest and tie, but he was in prime position Tuesday night to view another memorable shot that likely ranks as the highlight to date of his first year as boys varsity basketball coach at Fort Fairfield.
This time senior forward Hunter Beaulieu actually was a hero twice within minutes, first by scoring from just inside the half-court stripe at the buzzer to send the Tigers’ home game against top-ranked Washburn into overtime.
That was the prelude to another buzzer-beater by Beaulieu, a layup at the end of the extra period that gave the Tigers a 67-66 victory over the previously undefeated Beavers.
Beaulieu’s 40-footer at the end of regulation came after a held ball with just four-tenths of a second remaining, and by rule at least three-tenths of a second is required to get off a shot.
The Tigers nearly ran out of time to make an inbounds pass from the backcourt but beat the five-second count with a cross-court pass to Beaulieu, who turned toward the basket as he received the ball and quickly redirected it through the net to erase a 55-52 deficit.
“There was 0.4 on the clock and I didn’t have any timeouts so I couldn’t draw anything up,” said McLaughlin. “They just threw it in and he swished it. It was crazy.”
The game-winner was slightly more routine, though as the seconds wound down with Washburn clinging to a 66-65 lead Fort Fairfield was struggling to get off any kind of shot — until Beaulieu suddenly cut to the basket and point guard Johnny Theriault spotted him through a double team and made the pass that produced the game-ending layup.
“We swung it around to (Theriault) and I was hollering, ‘Shoot!’ because there wasn’t much time left,” said McLaughlin. “He bobbled it, they double-teamed him and he was kind of going out of bounds. But he saw Hunter coming across the baseline and threw it right to him and it couldn’t have worked out better.”
The dramatic victory improved Fort Fairfield’s record to 10-2 under McLaughlin, who brings a significant winning tradition to his new job.
A four-year point guard at Central Aroostook, McLaughlin helped coach Tim Brewer’s club compile a 78-7 record during his high school career highlighted by undefeated state championship seasons as a freshman in 2008 and as a senior in 2011.
“His team at Fort plays a lot like he did as a player, very defensive-minded and with a lot of heart,” said Brewer. “I could see Logan becoming a coach even back in his playing days.”
“One thing about Logan is he might be 21 but he’s a lot more mature than that,” Brewer added.
After graduating from high school, McLaughlin went to Husson University for a year before transferring to the University of Maine at Presque Isle, where he also played baseball.
He ultimately earned an associate degree in business from Husson through its Division of Extended Learning in Presque Isle while also becoming more involved in his family’s 1,000-acre potato farm in Mars Hill.
“I’ve always loved baseball and still do, but with all the work and planting we do in the springtime I could never coach baseball because we’re just so busy at that time of year,” he said. “I’ve always loved basketball, too, and once I realized I probably wasn’t going to be able to coach baseball, I knew I still wanted to get into coaching so I started coaching basketball.”
McLaughlin had just started his third season as a middle school coach in Mars Hill when the Fort Fairfield job opened up in November. He applied and got the job just days before the start of preseason workouts.
“Everyone told me it was a pretty good group,” said McLaughlin of the Tigers, who finished 7-11 a year ago, “and right when I saw them the first night I thought we really had some potential if they worked hard. I didn’t know how hard they were going to work, but their work ethic has been unbelieveable. It’s something you can’t teach the kids. They just never quit.”
The Tigers, scheduled to play at Fort Kent on Thursday night, feature four senior captains in Beaulieu, Theriault, guard Caleb Daigle and forward Robbie Watson, who scored 26 points in the win over Washburn.
Fort Fairfield is ranked second in what McLaughlin considers a deep Eastern D field, particularly in The County where Washburn, Southern Aroostook and Easton also are seen as major contenders.
“Then you throw those downstate teams like Schenck and Machias into the mix and that changes everything, but I think Aroostook County Class D is wide open,” McLaughlin said. “It just depends on who shows up and plays.”
