MARS HILL, Maine — The more things change for third-year Head Coach Jason Woodworth and his Central Aroostook boys basketball team, the more things stay the same.
Woodworth returns most of his core rotation from a 12-6 squad that earned the No. 4 seed before falling to Southern Aroostook in the Class D North semifinals last season. The majority of the squad’s schedule is comprised of familiar Class D competition once again, with the notable additions of Class C opponents Houlton and Fort Kent now in the mix. The Panthers will feature another fast, guard-heavy lineup that puts an emphasis on pushing the pace whenever possible.
Despite those consistencies, Woodworth is still doing his best to prepare his team for the transition to Class C hoops.
“We try not to be too concerned with what happened last season every time we open up a new year,” Woodworth said. “Our motivation now comes from us not wanting to be lost in the conversation around Class C basketball.
“The scale for competition is now much greater. Mentally, it’s a challenge,” he continued. “In the past, there were games where you could kind of get away with not showing up from time to time simply because you were more talented. Now, we can’t mentally not show up every night because every win that we have is extremely important.”
With a predominantly Class D schedule, the emphasis on beating the teams they are favored against becomes even greater.
“I can see us going 12-6 again and still ending up as the nine or 10-seed in Class C,” Woodworth said. “We will need every single point we can get.”
The Panthers will have to take on this new venture without their leading scorer from the past two years in forward Zachary Crouch, who averaged 16 points per game last season and anchored Central Aroostook on defense on his way to an Aroostook League All-Star selection.
They also will be without departed senior Clark Bradbury, an essential glue player that Woodworth dubbed his coach-on-the-floor last season.
Returning for his junior season is lead guard Ben Thomas, who the Panthers will rely on to handle even more of the scoring load than he did last season. Sophomore Brayden Bradbury will run the point once again with a year of experience under his belt and is someone that Woodworth will rely on to form a 1-2 punch offensively alongside Thomas.
Woodworth believes sophomore Hayden Kingsbury has the most natural ability of anyone on the roster and could be an X-factor for them on both sides of the ball. Central Aroostook adds five more freshman to this year’s team, with Josh Thomas the most likely to contribute right away.
Senior forward Shane Stackpole is back after sitting out his sophomore and junior seasons and will provide some much-needed size once he works his way into the rotation. Seniors Colby Kingsbury and Caleb Harris will be looked upon to fill the leadership void left by Crouch and Clark Bradbury.
Sophomores Jacob Carvell and Ethan Pryor should have consistent spots in what looks to be an eight-man rotation with junior Lane Grass, sophomore Drew Belmain and freshmen Bryan Anthony, Malachi Fitzherbert, Cody McCrum and Stetson Nicholas rounding out the roster. Woodworth is assisted by Carl Mullen.
Despite the class change, Woodworth’s message to his team remains the same: to work hard, and take it one day at a time.
“With this new landscape we find ourselves in, we’re setting smaller goals to just focus on what we have in front of us, and just getting better each day,” he said.
