PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — This season’s University of Maine at Presque Isle Owls return nine players from a team that qualified for the USCAA National Championship a year ago. The addition of three key players has coach Mike Holmes optimistic for this year’s campaign.
Seniors Nick Lenhard of Falcon, Colo. and Derek Healy of Hanover, Mass. lead the backcourt group. Lenhard started every game for the Owls last year, and he led the team with 2.5 assists per game and added 6.6 points per game. Kevin Collins, a junior from Oxon Hill, Md. returns along with Anthony Chacho, a junior from Watertown, Conn. and Jordan Gillespie, a sophomore from Bingham, also return and look to fill bigger roles this season.
Collins started 20 games during the 2015-16 season and was second on the team in scoring, averaging 11.6 points per game. Chacho started five games and shot 53 percent from the floor, including 38.1 percent from the three-point line. Joining the mix is Kristijan Gavrilovski of Gostivar, Macedonia. The sophomore adds size and athleticism to the guard position for the Owls, who look to replace Chase Vicaire, their lone senior and leading scorer from a year ago.
The frontcourt personnel also will be led by the experience of two seniors, Jordan Cook of Saffron Walden, United Kingdom and Kim Collins of Oxon Hill, Md. Both came off the bench last year, with Collins averaging five points a game and Cook playing just over 10 minutes a game.
Maurice Harris, a junior from Miami, Fla., and Quinton Harris, a junior from Florence, N.J., are other returnees. Maurice Harris averaged 10.1 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game last year, while Quinton Harris saw most of his time in a reserve role, adding five points and 3.1 rebounds per game.
Two fresh faces join the Owls’ big men this year. Ebby Kamara, a junior from Toronto, and Sebastiaan Boissevain, a freshman from Hoofdorp, Netherlands, are both 6-8 and will add much-needed size to the UMPI roster.
“The more complex the system, the greater advantage you generate with experienced players,” Holmes said. “Conversely, the more difficult it is when the team is young. So, from an experience standpoint, we should be poised to be competitive.”
Holmes enters his third season at the helm of the program. The Owls finished their regular season at 13-11 last year and earned their first-ever berth to the USCAA nationals.
They began their regular season on Tuesday at Johnson State in Vermont. After a trip to Husson University in Bangor on Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest, the Owls open their home schedule on Nov. 23 for a 2 p.m. tip off against Central Maine Community College. UMPI adds a new opponent this year, and will travel to Orono to play Div. I University of Maine on Nov. 26.
“With the team we have,” Holmes said, “I felt it would be beneficial to really up the ante in regard to opponents. We need to find out if we can be competitive with programs of high reputation in the area. If that leads to a few more dents in our armor, so be it.”
Other home dates include Unity on Dec. 1, Colby on Dec. 7, New England Baptist on Dec. 10, Alfred State on Jan. 7, SUNY Delhi on Jan. 14, Berkeley Jan. 15 and UM-Machias Jan. 25. They will face Aroostook County rival Fort Kent twice this year — at Fort Kent on Nov. 28 and to finish off their home slate and regular season schedule on Feb. 12.
