PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Wildcat senior guard Emily Wheaton is now part of a select group of 1,000-point scorers at Presque Isle High School, and it took plenty of extra time in the gym to help get her there.
On Jan. 15, with 4:18 left in the third quarter of a game at Old Town, Wheaton drilled a pull-up 3-pointer from the corner to put her over the 1,000-point mark for her career.
She became the ninth Wildcat girl, the last two being former teammates Hannah Graham and Krystal Kingsbury in 2015, and the 18th player in school history to reach the milestone. She was honored for the achievement Thursday prior to her team’s home game against Houlton.
Her father, Dave, is a physical education teacher at Presque Isle High School and coached Emily in middle school. He has opened the gym for his daughter during the summer months, as well as evenings and weekends during the school year, and she has taken advantage of the additional work to improve her skills.
“Emily has worked very hard to make herself the player she has become,” said her coach, Jeff Hudson. “She has spent hours and hours in the gym perfecting some of her moves. We have had some great, great players over the last few years, and Emily certainly falls in that category.”
Wheaton scored 133 points as a freshman, 323 as a sophomore and 378 as a junior. She now has 210 through the first 11 games of this season, putting her at 1,044 heading into Wednesday’s home game against John Bapst.
Wheaton has put up an impressive resume since arriving on the scene for the 2014-15 season. She was a contributing member of the Wildcats’ Eastern Maine championship team as a freshman and then made the Big East Conference first team and the Bangor Daily News All-Tournament team during both her sophomore and junior seasons.
Wheaton was recognized as a Bangor Daily News All-State honorable mention as a sophomore and then was elevated to the third team last winter.
“She is not the quickest or fastest player, but she has great hesitation moves, and is a great shooter,” Hudson said. “She is really tough to defend. She does everything for us offensively and the thing is, the other teams all know it and they still have trouble stopping her.”
One of those other teams is Shawn Graham’s Houlton Shiretowners, who has the ultimate respect for Wheaton.
“She is by far the most difficult player for us to defend,” Graham said. “She is a dynamic player who has the ability to take you off the dribble and get to the rim as well as step back and hit the three.
“And she doesn’t need much space to get her shot off,” he added. “If you play up, she can go by with an explosive first step. If you sag off, she has incredible range from beyond the arc.”
Brent Barker, the coach of the Mount Desert Island Trojans, a team Presque Isle will play on Saturday in Bar Harbor, calls Wheaton “one of the top 10 players in the state.”
“She can shoot, drive and has a never-stop motor,” Barker said. “She has great floor vision and a great sense of the game. She’s very athletic, relentless on both ends of the floor and very unselfish. She makes her teammates better.”
Wheaton has been incredibly durable throughout her career, evidenced by the fact that she has not missed a single game. The closest call came last February in the tournament when she suffered a badly sprained ankle during the second half of the quarterfinal victory over John Bapst. However, she went through rigorous treatment and made it onto the floor four days later, hobbling through the semifinal loss to Foxcroft Academy.
Hudson praised the toughness Wheaton displayed then and is grateful to have had her as a player the past four seasons, citing her outstanding character in addition to her ability.
“She is also one of the most humble kids you will ever meet,” he said. “I have never heard her brag about any of her accomplishments and she always puts the team first.”
Wheaton’s teams have combined for an impressive 53-12 regular season record in her three-plus seasons. In addition to the trip to the state finals her first year, the Wildcats reached the semifinals each of the past two seasons. Presque Isle is currently in sixth place in the Class B North and the team has its sights set on another strong playoff run next month.
Even as an opposing coach, Barker concurs with Hudson on what Wheaton has brought to the Presque Isle basketball program over the years.
“She is a player that every coach wants in a program,” Barker said. “She is loyal and is a great leader, role model and teammate.”
