Very few people are expecting the reigning state champions to defend their title this season.
The Brewer High School boys basketball team graduated its entire starting five last spring — including stars Brady Saunders and Brock Flagg — and were picked ninth in this year’s Class A North preseason poll. But the new-look Witches believe they can prove everyone wrong.
“I think we’re better than ninth, personally,” first-year head coach Carl Parker said. “Each time we get on the court I see things that get me excited.”
What Parker sees is a young and inexperienced squad with big shoes to fill. But Parker has had a distinguished, decades-long coaching career, and Brewer has a certain potential he’s learned to recognize – intangible qualities he’s more than happy to inherit.
“He set a great foundation,” Parker has said of Brewer’s former head coach, Ben Goodwin. “We’ve got a lot of young players that people don’t know about because they played behind those seniors, but they have the opportunity to be really good.”
One aspect of Brewer’s potential actually comes from playing behind those seniors.
Last year, Brewer’s sophomores had to compete alongside the likes of Brady Saunders and Brock Flagg daily. Now that they’ve been elevated to the starting lineup, these now-juniors are reaping the benefits.
“In practices it was starters versus non-starters,” junior guard Cole Harriman said. “Guarding people like Brady and Brock for a winter straight definitely rubbed off on us.”
This preseason, Brewer has gone toe-to-toe with Chance Mercier’s Ellsworth Eagles and Class B state champion Orono. On Tuesday night, the Witches lost to the Eagles by four points, and were up by double digits in the third quarter.
“I think our defense has been lock-down this preseason,” junior guard Charlie Brydges said. “A lot of guys are turning out better than I thought.”
Another key intangible the Witches have is their chemistry.
Ten of Brewer’s 11 varsity players are juniors, and have all grown up playing travel ball with each other. Some even have experience playing under Parker, during their middle school years.
“I think they like each other, and that’s not always the case with teams,” Parker said. “Part of the reason is [because] ten of them are juniors, which you typically don’t have.”
The Witches echoed Parker’s sentiments.
“The chemistry’s definitely there,” Harriman said. “We know where each other are going to be — it just kind of flows.”
On the hardwood, Parker and company will work with last year’s dribble-drive system that the Witches are familiar with. Everyone aside from 6-foot-5 senior Cayen Philbrick is right around 6 feet, so Brewer is capable of scoring from anywhere, and with a variety of different ball-handlers.
Varsity returners Brydges, Harriman, Philbrick, Steven Youngs and Jake Perry will likely serve as Brewer’s go-to guys, though Parker also has a lot of confidence in Brewer’s former JV players, such as 6-foot-2 forward Logan Littlefield. He thinks the Witches are really well-balanced.
“The JV players have adjusted relatively well in this short period of time, ” Parker said. “We want to continue to grow with every game, and hopefully win a game or two in the tournament — our wins will be collective efforts.”
