MARS HILL, Maine — Nearly 100 people attended a celebration at Central Aroostook High School on Monday highlighting the first state championship for the high school’s girls basketball team since 1982.
On Feb. 29, Central Aroostook beat Winthrop 67-61 at the Augusta Civic Center to capture the Class C girls state championship. On Monday, Panthers coach Dillon Kingsbury and Central Aroostook Athletic Director Heather Bradbury heaped praise on the young girls they helped guide to a championship.
Kingsbury gave an emotional address, highlighting how each of his players had achieved great success while remaining humble, conscientious and kind. Given those qualities, and their remarkable success on the court, Kingsbury said he grew to believe that he may have a championship team on his hands.
Members of the 2019-2020 Central Aroostook High School girls basketball team sit in a row of chairs at the celebration of the state championship team on Monday. (David Marino Jr. | The Star-Herald)
“They made me believe that this was possible,” Kingsbury said. “Just incredible.”
The Panthers coach spent time addressing each player individually, in what were often emotional and blunt statements. For example, he acknowledged that he and senior Breann Bradbury had experienced some differences.
”We didn’t always see eye-to-eye on everything we did or wanted to do,” Bradbury said. “But, when the ball left the official’s hand to start the game, we were on the same page.”
Kingsbury praised Bradbury, who reached 1,000 points earlier in the season, as one of the “toughest” and most “determined” players he had ever coached.
He described senior Sydney Garrison as the unsung hero of his team in both the regular season and the playoffs. Though he said she didn’t always show up prominently on the scorecard, she kept her team steady with her leadership.
“If God decides to bless me with the opportunity to have a daughter, I would pray she would be able to grow up to become the young lady you are today,” said an emotional Kingsbury.
He applauded Class C North tournament most valuable player junior Maci Beals, for both her playing ability and for the guidance she had provided to the eighth-graders on the team.
“I’m pretty sure they’d do anything for you. And that has nothing to do with how gifted you are as a basketball player,” Kingsbury said. “That’s just about you as a person.”
Central Aroostook Athletic Director Heather Bradbury speaks at a celebration of the Central Aroostook girls basketball team on Monday. (David Marino Jr. | The Star-Herald)
Dillon Kingsbury and assistant coach Crystal Kingsbury said the event was an important celebration of what the team had achieved. They were happy, but unsurprised, that a Central Aroostook High School community that had shown up in droves for all of the team’s home games would support them after they won it big.
“It’s just important for the communities to come out and recognize all the hard work that the girls put in,” Crystal Kingsbury said. “Not just this year, but past years.”
As for next year, Dillon Kingsbury said that while his nature makes him want to look to the future, he is trying to spend some time celebrating his team’s success this year first.
