Season Review/Awards
2013-2014 Season Awards
MVP: Corey Creeger
Offensive Player of the Year: Corey Creeger
Defensive Player of the Year: Austin Dutremble
Most Improved Player: Patrick Pearl
6th Man Award: Codie Ramos & Jeremy Lugiano
Coach's Award: Will Durkin
2013-2014 Game Awards (Most Games with...)
3 or more offensive rebounds: Will Durkin
Offensive Charges: Austin Dutremble
4 or more assists: TJ McCann
Transition Sprints: Corey Creeger & Patrick Pearl
On ball defensive pressure: Patrick Pearl
Teammate of the Game: Jeremy Lugiano
Made Foul Shots: Patrick Pearl
2013-2014 Season Review
After losing 10 seniors and having only 8 points returning from the 2012-2013 season, the Biddeford Tigers were in rebuilding mode. The 2013-2014 team consisted of 3 seniors, 1 junior, 6 sophomores, and 2 freshmen. While the Tigers did not win a game in the 2013-2014 season, the future of Biddeford basketball is very bright and the program is in a better spot than one year ago. The Tigers were awarded the SMAA and MPA Sportsmanship Award and Corey Creeger was selected to play in the SMAA Senior All-Star Game. The two sportsmanship awards were a testament to the character and quality individuals on the Biddeford varsity roster.
Senior Corey Creeger was awarded the MVP and Offensive Player of the Year Awards. Corey had 5 games of over 20 points including a career high 28 points vs. South Portland. In two of those games with over 20 points, Corey was extremely efficient, shooting over 50% from the field, including a 5 for 5 game from the 3 pt. line vs. Gorham. Corey was excellent in the open court and despite his size was excellent finishing at the rim. The SMAA senior class was very good this year and for Corey to finish in the top 10 in scoring and be selected to the all-star game was a remarkable accomplishment.
Freshmen Austin Dutremble was awarded the Defensive Player of the Year. Traditionally, when you have any young player, especially a freshman, you try to hide them as much as possible on the offensive and defensive end. We not only did not hide Austin, but we gave him the most responsibility on defense. We did that for a very simple reason. We had the up most confidence in his ability to execute a defensive game plan. We didn’t care Austin was shorter, not as quick, or not as strong as his opponents. Rather, we trusted Austin’s heart, character, attention to detail, and willingness to sacrifice himself for the better of the team. Austin guarded the best offensive player each team had, whether it was a guard in Pitts-Young from Portland, a big man in J. Muller from SP, or a combo player in Richardson from TA.
In a game versus Bonny Eagle, our defensive strategy against Dustin Cole was based solely on our confidence in Austin. We put him on the as the block help side defender because we knew he would be willing to step in early and take the charge or force Dustin to shoot the pull-up jumper. As a 5’7” freshman playing the power forward spot in the SMAA, Austin had 3 games of more than 7 rebounds and took 11 offensive charges this season, the next closet player had 2. He was our best post defender, our best help side guy, and our best close-out defender. What he was able to accomplish as a freshmen on the defensive end was a remarkable feat. It is easy to predict that no freshmen will ever win defensive player of the year for Biddeford basketball in this century that is how impressive Austin’s accomplishment was this season.
Fellow freshmen Patrick Pearl was awarded the Most Improved Player Award. No player has improved more in the past 12 months or since the start of the season than Patrick Pearl. Patrick obviously has some rare athletic ability and talent to do what he did this year at the varsity level as a freshman. But what people may not know is no one in the basketball program worked harder and put more time to improve his game than Patrick. Patrick’s raw talent did not guarantee him a varsity starting position, especially as a freshman, but rather his dedication, effort, and hard work at his game allowed him to utilize his talent to the best of his ability. Patrick was one of the few players to show up over 70% of the time this summer and plays at a high level for spring and fall AAU teams. We as a program are very lucky to have our most talented player to be first: just a freshman and second: to be my hardest worker in the off-season. That is great news for this program, and not so great news for the other teams in the SMAA.
On the court this season, Patrick improved in two areas of his game significantly. First, the original plan as to have Patrick play point guard this year. After the first game scrimmage at Lewiston, the coaching staff felt that Patrick was not ready yet for that responsibility and he would be more successful at the 2 position. After the 10th game of the year vs. Portland where he handled Portland’s pressure, we knew he was ready. For the remaining season, Patrick did an excellent job as point guard, even getting 6 assists in a game vs. Sanford. Playing point guard in this league is tough, playing point guard in this league as a freshman is beyond tough and Patrick did that.
Second, Patrick made tremendous improvement on the defensive side of the ball. He was second on the team with offensive charges taken, but his greatest improvement was his on ball defense. In the summer, Patrick struggled with on ball defense as any 8th grader would do trying to make the jump to the varsity level. But as the season continued, Patrick was our best player at putting pressure on the ball. His played his best defensive game of the season at TA, where he put tremendous on ball pressure on his opponent and did not allow dribble penetration.
Senior Will Durkin was awarded the Coach’s Award. Two stories represent why Will is the perfect selection for this award. First, during Will’s early season injury, Will never missed a practice, showed up a late to a practice, or asked to leave early. With his injury, he could have easily asked. But he did not. He knew what his responsibility was to the team and coaches.
Second, Will and his family during the MLK weekend went to Philadelphia where they left Saturday afternoon after a morning practice, and returned early so Will could attend Monday morning’s practice. That is a lot of traveling on the road for a very short stay. Will did not ask to miss a practice or leave early or show up late. In fact, he did not even tell the team of his sacrifice he and his family were making to have Will at both practices. It would have been very easy for Will as a senior captain to ask to leave miss Saturday practice to leave early so they could get on the road earlier and I likely would have granted that request. Will demonstrated exactly the commitment the Tiger program would want from any Varsity player, especially a captain.
Finally, Sophomores Codie Ramos and Jeremy Lugiano were awarded the 6th Man Award for this contributions to the team off the bench. First and more important, Jeremy is one of the best example we have on this team of someone who cares more about the team more than his personal stats. Jeremy was our biggest supporter from the bench as he was always “in the game” whether playing or sitting. He was also the first to pick up player in a game or practice.
Second, Jeremy was patient and he continued to work his butt during the early moments of the season. The first couple of games, Jeremy did not play many Varsity minutes. But instead of crying, complaining, or going negative; Jeremy did just the opposite. He continued to be mentally prepared for games and practices. And when his chance came, he was ready to make an impact. Other players would not have been ready when their chance came, but not Jeremy. Jeremy scored 5 points at Westbrook and from that game his minutes increased and he had a consistent role in future games.
Codie’s energy and positive attitude were great additions to the team in practice and games. Codie was always ready to play and gave him best effort. Codie had a strong sense of pride in his defense and always tried to do what a coach was instructing him to do. Codie was willing to sacrifice his body, being one of the three players to take an offensive charge this season, plus he had many near charges which could have went his way.
Codie’s best game, which demonstrated his worthiness of the 6th man award, was home vs. Sanford. In this game, Will fouled our early in the 3rd quarter and Codie was needed to step in and play against one of the better big men in the SMAA. Codie responded with his best rebounding game of the season. His 9 rebounds were critical in keeping Biddeford in the game, and the Tigers went on the mini run to tie the game, when Codie was on the floor.
With returning players such as, Patrick Pearl, Austin Dutremble, Jason Vadnais, Alex Millett, Codie Ramos, and Jeremy Lugiano, the Tigers will still be young next year. But this year’s experience, their off season commitment to basketball, and their high character, Biddeford basketball is in good shape.