The Calais Cougars Basketball Team had a stellar season this year. After starting the season 0-2 we won 5 out of our last 6 games to finish the year 5-3. We were the #1 ranked team in the playoffs, but were eliminated in a 7 point loss to The Craig School during a nail biting game that came down to the final minutes.

Coach Femia was asked to recap the season in his own words, “I would recap our season as one that had many young, new players join the team which brought a lot of new energy and motivation. Some of our older players  leadership and took the young players under their wing and were very welcoming and not jealous of the success they had. I was proud of the way everyone embraced each other and worked together. Our “best” players were always humble and put the team first and that is why this was one of my favorite years as coach here.  It was a fun year and one that we can build on for next season, expectations will continue to be high for this program.”

During the end of year awards ceremony, Coach Femia likes to give out a few special awards to players that really shined on the court. This year the awards included:

  • Defensive player of the year- Darrin. Darrin was chosen for this award because he was our defensive voice. Not only did he lead our team in rebounds every single game he played, but more amazingly he was the vocal leader on our defense. He showed mental toughness and made sure people were in the correct spots and was always helpful to his teammates.
  • Offensive player of the year- Damani. Damani lead the team in points every single game she played in this year. The offense ran through her, and it did not take long for other coaches to start emailing me about how talented of a player our point guard is.  Coach Femia was most impressed with how humble Damani remained during and after the games. She always kept her head up even during a loss and was always proud of the way the team played together.
  • Coaches Award- Mike. Mike started with the team four years ago and did not play very much. It was a learning experience for him and the past two seasons he has been a regular in our starting lineup. He wins this coaches award because he does the little things right. He will always set a screen for his teammates to create space for them to score. He may be the athlete who is boxing out someone to create space, but not get the rebound. The things he did were difficult and selfless, but there wasn’t really a statistic to show his success. Mike never complained about this role, some students would have said they wanted to shoot the ball more or be more involved in the more “fun” things. Mike always put team first, and was very easy to coach.
  • Hustle Award-Dylan. Coach Femia has given out the preceding awards each year since the Calais basketball team was started. However, this is the first year that the Hustle Award as been granted. Coach Femia was motivated to do so because he have never had an athlete hustle to the ball like Dylan. He wins the hustle award because every time there was a loose ball, he found a way to get to that ball. Dylan is again someone who will not fill up the stat column, but he lead the team is getting loose balls and that is just as important as scoring.

This year’s basketball team may be young in terms of overall experience on the court, but they have heart & dedication. Congrats again to the team for completing another great season!