Coach Jim Seavey is aware the LA Maples lack size, but he knows the team’s strong athleticism — coupled with many new players — should make for an interesting season in the Women’s American Basketball Association.
This is the second year for the Maples, who were scheduled to face the New England Trail Blazers on Sunday at the Lewiston Memorial Armory, but the game has been postponed.
Maples general manager Sarah Soltan wrote in an email on Saturday: “Unfortunately, due to issues with the visiting team — the New England Trailblazers — we have been forced to postpone our season opener. It was completely out of our control and we are very disappointed to not be playing on Sunday.”
Seavey said the Maples have made some positive changes from their inaugural season.
“The makeup of our team is a little bit different,” Seavey said. “We don’t have as much size as we did, physically, last year, but I think we — and it is not a knock on last year’s team and I hope this comes across alright — I think we are a little more athletic overall, so it will be interesting to see how we stack up.”
Seavey said players like Oxford Hills alums Tianna Sugars, Anna Piirainen and recent Bates College graduate Jenna Berens from Durham, Connecticut, will play key roles for the Maples.
“Sugars will be a forward,” Seavey said. “She is kind of like the leader of the team. I don’t want to call her a team mom. They are all too young to be called team moms, but she has the experience. She’s played overseas a little bit in the past.
Tianna Sugars, a standout player at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School and Colby-Sawyer College, will play for the LA Maples again this season. John Quackenbos photos
“She played in the league last year. She’s got that personality. She gets along with everybody. … Some players haven’t played since college and that type of thing. It makes it a little easier for everybody to step in and feel like they are part of it.”
Sugars, a Colby-Sawyer College graduate who was an assistant coach for the Oxford Hills girls team that won the state title this past winter, is the only returning player from last season’s Maples team.
“I love basketball, and having the opportunity to play somewhere where I grew up and like it was always what I wanted,” she said. “… I also wanted to help, because obviously it is the second year so there is always some learning curves, and if I can be there to help, I can also help letting younger kids to know about (the game) so that’s something they are going to do.”
Seavey said Piirainen will be a shooting guard in the Maples’ lineup.
“She will play point a little bit,” he said. (She’s) pretty athletic.”
Piirainen was recruited by the Maples and will be playing guard for them for the first time. She played basketball and softball for Thomas College before graduating in 2022.
“I love the Maples organization,” Piirainen said. “Their message to young female athletes is really important, especially in today’s world, and I think sending our message and sending that out to all the young basketball players will be a really positive outcome.”
The 6-foot Berens, who played for the NESCAC champion Bobcats in 2021-22 and was named to the NESCAC Winter All-Sportsmanship Team this winter, should present a strong presence in the post as a forward.
“I still wanted to play basketball after I graduated, and I felt like this was a great opportunity to do that,” she said. “I am meeting a lot of great, new people. It has been really good so far. All of the players have college experience. So I think now that we are older, we are just bigger and stronger, and we bring more physicality to the game.
“I also really like the rules that the WABA has. Instead of five fouls, we get six fouls. They also have this red-light, green-light rule, which is based off turnovers. A basket off a turnover is an extra point than otherwise would be, which I think is really cool.”
Seavey is also impressed with the recent Bates graduate.
“She’s pretty solid — just physically strong,” Seavey said. “She is not afraid to bang around in the low post, which would work really good.”
Seavey cited other local players like Lewiston native Jenessa Talarico, a University of Maine at Farmington graduate, and another Oxford Hills alumnus Maighread Laliberte, who will help give the Maples the edge.
“Jenessa Talarico can shoot it,” Seavey said. “Maighread Laliberte is just a good all-around athlete. I think she is going to be a very good slasher. That’s her game. We will look for her to create off the perimeter.
Rhiannan Jackson, a Saco native, also played for the UMF Beavers.
“I am hoping she will be our lockdown defender,” Seavey said. “She will draw the assignment probably to match up against an opponent’s point guard and try to slow down their fast break a little bit because the fast break is vital in this league.”
Other players on this year’s roster are Rumford’s Chrissy Briggs (who played at Fisher College), Saco’s Hayden Campbell (Husson), and Kaylee “KJ” Ravagli of Lowell, Massachusetts, who played at Thomas Colllege.
The Maples took the WABA rules into account when putting together this year’s roster.
“But as far as the dynamics of the league, some of those special rules, we kind of built the team a little bit differently now that we have played in that league … and understand all the special rules and everything — you know, the 24-second shot clock and the seven-second backcourt rather than a 10-second backcourt — those are the little adjustments that we kind of learned on the fly last year last year…,” Seavey explained.
Seavey said the Maples roster still has openings and the lineup remains flexible for the first part of the season — to an extent.
“Last year it was a little frustrating on my part, as a first-year program, (and) there wasn’t any consistency to the rosters,” he said. “We played the Mt. Vernon Shamrocks three times and we never faced the same roster. They used a different roster every time we played them.
“We try to play by all the rules as best we could as we kept our rosters consistent. We didn’t add or cut anything. It was what we had on the original roster from Day 1.”
The Maples lost to the Shamrocks 89-62 in the postseason.
He added that teams can add players, but he can’t understand how a club can play with different rosters.
“I don’t know if they are going to stick by the rosters or not,” Seavey said. “I hope so. Again, we are going to do it the right way. We are going to do it the way it should be done.”
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