Harry Louis, left, and Fisher Tewksbury are back to lead the Valley boys’ basketball team. Mike Mandell/Morning Sentinel

BINGHAM — You don’t need a townie or a basketball historian to tell you what the game means here. The first thing you see when you enter Upper Kennebec Valley High School is all you need to know.

Walk through the main entrance, and immediately to your right is a trophy case featuring the seven Gold Balls won by the Valley boys’ basketball team. There’s also pictures that feature not just the teams with their trophies but the entire student body and faculty from those years as well.

“People get into it here,” said Gordon Hartwell, coach of the girls’ team. “There’s a lot of excitement at Valley around basketball, especially when both (the boys and girls) teams are doing well and make it far.”

That was the case last year when, for the first time in school history, both Valley teams won Class D South titles. With key pieces returning to the first practices of the season this week, both teams are aiming to take it one step farther in 2024-25.

‘REVENGE TOUR’

It’s easy to see why there’s excitement around the Valley girls. A year ago, the Cavaliers went 21-1, crushing Waynflete 71-26 for the Class D South title. They have their entire starting five back — Kiersten Bigelow, Rylee Clark, Liana Hartwell, Madeline Hill and Brianna Mills — from the team that fell to Southern Aroostook in the state championship game.

“After we lost, we were really sad, but we realized, ‘Wait a minute, we have our entire starting five coming back,’” Liana Hartwell said. “We’ve been waiting for this. We’re excited to come out and hopefully be able to win it all this year.”

That loss, though, is still on their minds.

Valley led Southern Aroostook early in the game, but as the game wore on, Gordon Hartwell said, the veteran Warriors seemed to outexecute the Cavaliers. Southern Aroostook ultimately outscored Valley 24-7 in the final quarter to seal the win.

The Valley girls’ basketball team poses prior to practice Tuesday in Bingham. Mike Mandell/Morning Sentinel

There’s something else that’s been eating at the Valley girls, too: the fact that none of the shiny Gold Balls in that trophy case by the school’s entrance are theirs. The Cavaliers are 0-4 in state finals, and there would be no better feeling than to end that drought in the Class D title game this year.

“I think it would be a huge accomplishment to be the first to do it,” said Hill, Valley’s top scorer in 2023-24. “Last year was a disappointing end, but we still had a great season, and it’s just motivation for us this year. … We’re calling this the revenge tour.”

BOYS EYE ANOTHER DEEP RUN

Last year was a breakthrough for the Valley girls after they failed to win the Class D South tourney as the top seed in 2022 and 2023. It was a similar story for the boys’ team, which lost in regional finals to Forest Hills those years but beat St. Dominic Academy for the Southern Maine title last year.

The two big standouts return for the Valley boys (17-5 last year), juniors Harry Louis and Fisher Tewksbury. The two reached 1,000 career points in the same game in February, and they give Valley a strong chance to return to the Class D final, where they lost 44-31 to Bangor Christian last season.

“I like this returning group we have,” said Louis, who, along with Tewksbury, has been starting for Valley since eighth grade. “Talent-wise, I think we got better. We just have some hard work to do — we have to get stronger — but we’re motivated to get back to that game.”

Valley did lose big men Jared Ricker and Ryon West to graduation. Yet the Cavaliers had success in Cony’s G&E Roofing Summer League with Hunter Mills in the post, posting a 5-3 record in a league consisting primarily of Class A and Class B teams.

“We’re hoping (to make another deep run), and we should,” said Coach Mike Staples. “We had a good summer, and we’ve got a good core group back. Our junior class is very strong with Harry, Fisher and Collin (Nichols), and we’ve also got Kamdyn Conrad back.”

Conrad, who took last season off, is one of a few key additions for a Valley boys’ team that has also brought in eighth-grader Brayden Lay and freshman Cameron Lay. The girls also have a potent newcomer in Karlee Cates, a talented eighth-grade point guard.

It all adds up to what could be a season to remember at a school of just 56 students. After their special runs last year, both teams have set the stage for possibly even greater success in 2024-25 — and hope that, just maybe, they can go the distance together.

“We cheer for each other, and it was special (to both win regionals) because not a lot of schools get to do that,” Louis said. “I would say there’s a big drive to win for both of us because we’re very competitive; we both want to get that Gold Ball first.”