Maine is a small state with big communities. Everybody seems to know each other, or at least share some mutual connections. Six degrees of separation are more like two or three around here.
So it really shouldn’t be a surprise that, as people across the state are watching a Maine kid compete at the highest level of college basketball, plenty of them have their own Cooper Flagg stories to share.
They may have taught at his school, or been a coach at a summer league camp that he attended years ago, or had the opportunity to meet him at a basketball event that he headlined in Portland last year.
And they may have even played against him growing up.
Like Kyle Horr from Brewer, whose teams competed against Flagg repeatedly over the years, starting around fifth grade in travel basketball, middle school and then high school matchups.
“It’s pretty wild,” Horr said Saturday night in Bangor while watching Flagg and the Duke Blue Devils advance to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. “Playing against him growing up, you never thought something like this could happen coming from Maine.”
The Brewer High School team that Horr played on was the only squad to deal Flagg’s Nokomis Warriors a loss in the 2021-2022 season, when the Newport school went on to win the Class A boys basketball state championship. Brewer won one of two games against Nokomis during that regular season but then lost to the Warriors in the North regional title game.
Horr was a sophomore at the time and said he was “riding the pine” for Brewer that season. But that was just one of the many instances that he and Flagg overlapped on the court.
“I think it’s probably closer to .500,” Horr said when asked who got the better of the matchups. “I mean, in high school he obviously got us, playing for Brewer. But I think middle school was pretty even growing up.”
Now in college, Horr wasn’t the only former Flagg opponent watching from here in Bangor as Duke continued its tournament action this past week. Emmitt Byther, one of the best high school basketball players in the state this year as a senior from Old Town, followed along Thursday night as Flagg and the Blue Devils took on Arizona in the Sweet 16.
Byther said he played against Flagg “back in the day,” though he couldn’t recall what grade exactly. He didn’t hesitate when asked who won that matchup.
“Not us,” Byther responded.
Byther was glad to see Flagg representing Maine on a national stage and was rooting for Duke.
“It’s really great to see a Maine guy in the national spotlight, really representing Maine in a good way,” Byther said.
That national spotlight is shining bright for Flagg, and so too are his local ties. Walk into a Maine bar or restaurant where people are watching Duke play in March Madness, and there’s a decent chance that you’re sharing the experience with someone who has crossed paths with Flagg at some point. That’s Maine, and that’s how personal this unprecedented moment in Maine sports continues to be for a lot of people across the state.
It’s a testament to the connectedness of Maine and Flagg’s strong roots here.
Keegan Gentle is several years older and didn’t play against Flagg, but said he coached at a summer league basketball camp that Flagg attended as a young kid. He called it “a bit surreal” and “awesome” to now be watching Flagg rise to the top of college basketball.
“He was good then, but nobody thought he was going to be the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft,” Gentle, who was a 1,000-point scorer for Houlton High School, said Thursday night.
Kaiden Crowley was watching Thursday night’s game with Gentle and former Erskine Academy basketball player Dagan Savage. Crowley, who had his own impressive high school career for Jonesport-Beals several years ago, talked about Flagg realizing the dream of so many kids who grow up watching players at the highest level and wanting to be like them.
“He’s living something that we all wanted to live,” said Crowley. “Like Keegan said, it’s surreal. It’s awesome.”
