Following Cooper Flagg, these Maine 7th-graders are seeing AAU success

The youth basketball ecosystem in Maine is more intriguing than ever before.

Due to single sport specialization and changes to Maine’s demographics, youth sports participation is at a historic low . But the state is producing top Division I talent led by incoming Duke freshman Cooper Flagg as well as Tennessee’s JP Estrella, recent Indiana graduate Mackenzie Holmes and Anna DeWolfe, who just finished her college career at Notre Dame.

The next generation of Maine hoopers is also going toe-to-toe with the nation’s top athletes.

This weekend, Team Maine’s seventh-grade AAU team will head to Manheim, Pennsylvania, to play in the Made Hoops East Spring Circuit Championships against seven other premier teams from New York to North Carolina.

Made Hoops — the production company behind the Flagg brothers’ return to Maine in January — is affiliated with the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League, which runs top-tier AAU events such as the Peach Jam in South Carolina that Cooper Flagg and Maine United shook up last summer .

Only the best middle school AAU teams can play in the Made Hoops circuit, and Team Maine 2029 is competing as the fourth seed in the East Spring Circuit Championships, most recently winning the Zero Gravity Northern New England Championship in April.

“They’re right in the cream of the crop nationally,” Team Maine club director Matt MacKenzie said. “The idea was for all the best Maine players to get together and represent the state.”

These eight boys from Madawaska to Waterboro average out at nearly six-feet tall, rivaling many high school teams. They also complement each other’s styles and strengths.

In the frontcourt, Quinn Pelletier of Madawaska (6-foot-4) and routine dunker Khaelon Watkins of Massabesic of Waterboro (6-foot-2) provide size and mobility around the rim, Gage Mattson (6-foot) of Hall-Dale is a versatile, physical wing, and Ephraim Luseko (5-foot-11) of Portland is the team’s “workhorse defensive stopper.”

In the backcourt, Carter Braithwaite (6-foot-2) of Cony is the team’s smooth, selfless point guard that can see over the press, Jaxon Gideon (5-foot-10) of Portland brings the energy, and Tyrus Baxter (5-foot-9) of Ellsworth and Connor Labrie (5-foot-9) of Maranacook are “knockdown shooters” from the perimeter.

“They come from all walks of life, and have come together to transform themselves into a formidable team,” coach Mark Baxter of Ellsworth said. “They love the game of basketball, and they love to work hard.”

Team Maine 2029 only came together last November, but has quickly gelled and is beating top teams all over the region. This winter, the team finished with a 7-3 record in the 14U Made Hoops East Winter Circuit, and won the Junior HoopHall Classic in Springfield, Massachusetts.

They’ve held practices at various locations around the state, including MacKenzie’s Results Basketball facility in Veazie, Maranacook Middle School in Readfield, Portland, and on the road.

“In the winter circuit, we were the underdog. We had to prove we belonged,” Baxter said. “Sometimes we’ve practiced the day of or the night before a tournament, scouring Yellow Pages for a gym we can find. This group and their families are resilient.”

Team Maine is also coached by Tom Labrie of Readfield and Michael Harmon of Portland, with Matt McCluskey of XLPortland serving as a social media coordinator and an assistant coach.

MacKenzie also helped coach and run the Flagg brothers’ Maine United AAU team, and Team Maine similarly dons uniforms with “Maine” across the chest.

MacKenzie and company insist that this group of seventh graders is carrying the torch passed on by Flagg’s cohort, while also blazing their own trail.

“Every basketball player from Maine will be associated with Cooper for a while, but we wanted to go in a different direction,” McCluskey said. “This team is a conduit for bringing the whole state together.”