Lake Region High winter sports preview
Boys basketball
Coach: Mike Francoeur (fourth year)
Last year’s record: 8-10 in the regular season, defeated Fryeburg in Class B West prelim before falling to Yarmouth in the quarterfinals
Key players: seniors Phil Leighton (G) and Tyler Merrifield (C); juniors Matt Langadas (F), Zach Tomkinson (F) and Sam Maker (G)
Key games this season: Dec. 18 @ Yarmouth; Dec. 20 vs. Cape Elizabeth; Feb. 6 @ Falmouth
Season outlook: The Lakers return 11 players from last year’s varsity squad, including four regular starters. “We’re battle-tested and have experienced the ups and downs of a long season and going to the tournament,” Francoeur said. Lake Region has the talent and experience to challenge Western Maine Conference stalwarts Greely, Falmouth and Cape Elizabeth for supremacy this season. “We’d like to be playing (in the tournament) over February vacation, which is something we haven’t been able to do in my past seasons at Lake Region,” Francoeur said.
Leighton returns as one of the top scorers in the conference. He is coming off knee surgery, which forced him to miss soccer season. While he’s “not running on all cylinders physically” quite yet, Francoeur said he’s improved as a basketball player from a year ago. The Lakers will also be helped by senior Derek Mayo, a 6’2″ transfer from Florida.
Girls basketball
Coach: Paul True (fifth year)
Last year’s record: 16-2 in the regular season, defeated Falmouth for third straight Class B West title before losing to Waterville in the state championship
Key players: juniors Abby Hancock (G), Morgan McClean (F), Chelsea Meyers (G) and Meghan Craffey (F)
Key games this season: Jan. 7 vs. Greely; Jan. 13 vs. York; Feb. 6 vs. Falmouth
Season outlook: While the state title has been elusive, the Lakers have owned the Western Maine Class B ranks the past three seasons. A fourth straight regional title won’t come easy, as the team graduated three starters from a year ago, but Lake Region should be right in the mix once again. Led by a strong junior class, the Lakers are a good shooting team from the perimeter. They don’t have a lot of height, so “playing disciplined, fundamentally sound and keeping teams off the backboard” will be important, True said.
Developing depth and gaining experience will also be key for Lake Region. “We’re looking to improve throughout the season and play our best basketball once February rolls around,” True said.
Boys ice hockey (combined with Fryeburg)
Coaches: Dave Lepage and John Moran (second year)
Last year’s record: 12-3 in the regular season, defeated South Portland in Class A West prelim before falling to Kennebunk in the quarterfinals
Key players: seniors Cody Leland (D), Jon Norris (D), Dan Casey (F), Chris Roy (F) and Matt Cheney (F); juniors Richard Miller (F), Ryan Ahern (F), Kenedi Hall (F), Ted Skarbinski (F), Phil Harnden (F) and Dalton Hinckley (D)
Key games this season: Jan. 5 vs. Gray-New Gloucester/Poland; Feb. 16 vs. Bonny Eagle
Season outlook: The joint venture between Lake Region and Fryeburg enjoyed a fine first season, which the Ice Cats will look to build on. “Our team goals are to continue what we started last season,” Lepage said. “With our success last season, our schedule has become more challenging and our focus is to use our depth and get production from many people instead of being one dimensional. We have good team speed and plenty of experience, so it should be a good growing year for the program.”
Deciding on a goalie is one of the early hurdles for the Ice Cats. “One major focus for us this year will be defensively as we replace our starting goaltender (from last season) with some new blood,” Lepage said. “We currently have four goalies on the roster and at this point, there is no clear frontrunner. If we can get some consistency between the pipes then we will be able to focus on playing in our opposition’s end.”
(Given the later starts to the seasons, preview materials for the indoor track team, alpine ski team and Nordic ski team were not available at press time.)
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