The 2024-25 school year will never be replicated for sports fans in the state of Maine.
Headlining the list are Newport’s Cooper Flagg and the University of Maine men’s hockey team.
There are simply no words to describe what Flagg has accomplished as a freshman at Duke.
To join NBA stars Zion Williamson (2019), Anthony Davis (2012) and Kevin Durant (2007) as just the fourth player to be named the recipient of both the Oscar Robertson Trophy as the National Player of the Year and the Wayman Tisdale Award as the National Freshman of the Year is mind-boggling.
He didn’t even turn 18 until December!
This may never happen again.
People in this basketball-crazed state have been glued to their TVs watching Flagg and his Blue Devils vie for a national title.
And to have fourth-year head coach Ben Barr and his UMaine men’s hockey team win its first Hockey East Tournament title since 2004 in front of thousands of Black Bear fans at the TD Garden in Boston last Thursday and Friday nights harkened back to the glory years of UMaine hockey. That was back when UMaine was going to the Frozen Four every other year with two of those 11 trips yielding NCAA championships in 1993 and ‘99.
The excitement and energy those hockey teams provided was off the charts.
Signs were put on the interstate proclaiming the state as the home of the NCAA hockey champions.
The sense of pride Mainers take in Flagg and the hockey team’s success is special and they deserve it for their loyalty and passion.
But those aren’t the only players or teams that have made this a memorable ‘24-25.
South Portland native Chris Markwood led his UMaine men’s basketball team to its first America East playoff victory in 20 years and its first appearance in an America East championship game since 2004 — when he was a player on the team.
The quest for a first ever men’s basketball NCAA Tournament berth will continue but that goal seems much more attainable now than it did before Markwood took over three years ago.
Scott Atherley’s UMaine women’s soccer team won its second consecutive America East championship to earn another NCAA Tournament berth.
The 2023 season was the first America East title and NCAA berth in program history.
The high school basketball tournaments had their usual share of excitement and drama, but one of the craziest finishes of all time occurred during the Caribou-Biddeford Class B girls state final.
The Vikings were en route to their first state title since 1983 as they built a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter.
But the Tigers rallied furiously to force overtime and were seconds away from hoisting the gold ball in overtime, leading by three and needing just one of two free throws to clinch it with under 10 seconds left.
But both free throws were missed and Miss Maine Basketball Madelynn Deprey was fouled with 1.5 seconds left.
Deprey had to make the first free throw and purposely miss the second one in the hopes Caribou would grab the rebound and tie it with a put-back basket.
She made the first one but accidentally banked the second one.
Game over, right?
Wrong.
Freshman Quinn Corrigan, with the poise of a senior, not only anticipated the inbounds pass and stole it, she got fouled putting a shot up. She won it by calmly sinking both free throws with four-tenths of a second remaining.
And there is more to come.
The NBA draft is June 25, and Flagg is an overwhelmingly clear choice to be the first overall pick.
A lottery will determine who gets the first pick from among the 14 teams that don’t make the playoffs.
You can expect Mainers to swarm to the TD Garden to see Flagg and his eventual NBA team face the Celtics next year.
Just like the UMaine hockey fans did.
