NBA player Cooper Flagg isn’t the only athlete from the Newport area doing unprecedented things.
The Nokomis Regional High School golf team won its first-ever Class B state championship on Friday, with the Warriors taking home the title at Natanis Golf Course in Vassalboro.
Nokomis cemented an undefeated season with a 45-over-par team total in the 18-hole competition, two strokes ahead of runner-up York.
Head coach Matt Brown said ahead of the state competition that his team hadn’t ever won a state title.
“We’re feeling incredible,” Brown said Friday night after his team rewrote that school history. “We came home to a fire truck and parade that, once we got off the exit in Newport, followed us all the way to school. And the kids were so excited.”
Nokomis capped their undefeated season with the ultimate prize, and they did it together.
“The reality is, we did it with a lot of depth today,” Brown said, describing the cold and windy conditions on the course. “And so there were not a lot of low scores out there today to be had.”
The Warriors got a huge boost from their top player, SJ Welch, whose four-over-par round of 76 earned him the individual state title as well.
“I went to him before the match and I said, ‘Hey SJ, we’re going to climb on your shoulders today, and you’re going to lead this team to a state championship,’” Brown said.
Welch’s response was as composed as his golf game on Friday.
“I’m ready, coach,” Welch replied, according to Brown.
“So that was pretty awesome,” the coach said.
Nokomis’ number two player, junior Caden Chretien, provided huge help for the team’s cause by finishing tied for fifth with an 81.
“My top two I would put up against anybody’s top two in the state,” Brown said. “They just are grinders, and they play just such great golf.”
Daegan Trafton shot an 87 and Owen Buck an 89 for the new state champs. Jett Christie and William Hayes also shot a 96 and 97 respectively for Nokomis.
It was the final flourish in a magical season for the Warriors golf team, a squad that former Nokomis basketball player and now Dallas Mavericks forward Flagg signed up for as a joke long after his time at the Newport school, according to a report from the Boston Globe earlier this year.
But the Nokomis team’s championship performance on Friday was anything but a joke. It was school history that earned them a place in the state record books.
“There’s been a lot of good, positive athletic stuff happening at Nokomis the last five or six years. You know, with Cooper, and we had an incredible softball team win last year,” Brown said, pointing to the Warriors Class B softball title in 2024. “It’s just been kind of cool to see a kind of sports resurgence at the school.”
And Brown is proud of his team for working hard and writing that newest chapter in Nokomis’ storybook run across multiple sports these past few years.
“It’s weird how sometimes schools get on these little runs, and it seems like that’s where we’re at right now,” Brown said. “It’s been fun to experience.”