Dexter girls are a regional basketball power again but can’t pursue a gold ball during pandemic
By Larry Mahoney, Bangor Daily News Staff
DEXTER — Dexter Regional High School girls basketball coach Jody Grant is trying to look at the positive side of things.
His girls are getting the opportunity to play during a season in which the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the regional tournaments and the state championship games.
But it is a real challenge for him.
His daughter, Peyton, is a senior and has scored more than 1,300 points in her impressive career. The Bangor Daily News All-Maine Schoolgirl basketball third-team selection won’t have a final chance to hoist the gold ball emblematic of a state championship.
Peyton Grant has played in two Class C North championship games, losing both by a combined seven points. Last season, the Tigers lost by three points to eventual state champ Central Aroostook of Mars Hill in the regional semifinals.
Dexter returned four of five starters off last year’s 15-5 team and its average winning margin during its 7-0 start this season was more than 30 points. In addition, Avery Herrick, a talented former starter who didn’t play last year, returned for her senior year.
“We’ve had some heartaches at the Cross Center,” Grant, the 18th-year head coach, said of the Bangor arena that hosts the Classes B, C and D North Tournament.
“I wanted the kids to have another opportunity to do something but that’s not going to happen,” he lamented. “I knew we were going to be real good and would have had a real good chance to do something, although everyone knows anything can happen at the tournament.”
Grant also noted that there are other teams across the state like his with a lot of returnees off highly successful squads from last winter that won’t get to make a run at a state title.
“For me, it hasn’t sunk in yet. It stinks. I began coaching these girls in fifth and sixth grade. But it’s nobody’s fault. We’ve got to try to make the best of it,” he said.
Peyton Grant got off to a terrific start, averaging around 30 points per game despite sitting out large portions of the second half because the Tigers had built such a large lead. She can score from anywhere and also plays good defense.
Jody Grant called senior guard Cheyenne Beam “one of the best defensive players I’ve ever coached” and added that she is a tough rebounder who has improved her shot.
“She does a lot of things that impact winning that go unnoticed,” he said.
The other returning starters are senior forward Abigail Wakefield and junior guard Elizabeth Kinney. The 5-6 Wakefield is a good rebounder at both ends of the court and Kinney is a reliable ballhander and defender who continues to improve the offensive part of her game.
Dexter also has two sophomores, 5-9 forward Jozlynn Paige and 5-4 guard Jill Poliquin, who are reliable contributors.
Jody Grant said Paige runs the floor really well and has improved significantly, as evidenced by her 22-point outburst in a win over Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield. Poliquin is a “pest on defense” said Grant, who prides himself in his team’s relentless half-court, in-your-face defense.
Herrick provides the Tigers with an established scorer and rebounder.
Freshman forward Hannah Dean and freshman guard Cally Gudroe have shown promise. Coach Grant said Dean has the makings of a solid rebounder and Gudroe has good potential as a scorer.
“They will be factors,” predicted Grant.
Junior Emma Page, sophomore Brooklynn Blockler and freshmen Mazie Peach, Lily Brown and Lily Bagley supply Dexter with good depth.
Grant has been looking for his team to play at a little higher tempo than in previous years.
Dexter will have a chance to win a tournament among teams in their region after its 12-game regular season ends.