University of Maine women's basketball players, from left, Emmie Streams, Maddie Fitzpatrick and Sarah Talon watch a drill during practice Tuesday. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Brunswick High girls basketball coach Sam Farrell often hears his players discuss where Maine’s top players will play in college. And he knows there’s one destination in particular that sparks the most interest.

“I know for my players, every time a kid picks Maine … all my players talk about it, from the freshmen to the seniors,” he said. “And then I hear about it from other coaches, and other people in town, and they’re excited. Even people who didn’t go to UMaine.”

There’s been plenty to be excited about in the last few seasons. The Black Bears and coach Amy Vachon are enjoying a successful run of in-state recruiting, one that has seen the program succeed at keeping the best high school players local. There are five players from Maine on the roster (Sarah Talon, Jaycie Christopher, Emmie Streams, Izzy Allen and Maddie Fitzpatrick), the most there have been since the 2007-08 season.

Furthermore, the players coming into the program have been the best in the state. Christopher won the Miss Maine Basketball award as the state’s best senior at Skowhegan in 2022. Fitzpatrick won it last year at Cheverus. And there’s another one coming next year in Bailey Breen, a former Oceanside standout who was a favorite to win it this year before transferring to prep power Montverde Academy in Florida.

This follows a stretch in which the state’s best players — Sarah Marshall and Ashley Cimino; Nia Irving and Emily Esposito; Mackenzie Holmes and Anna DeWolfe — went out of state to play, and resulted in few homegrown players joining the team. There were varying reasons for that, including the program’s past struggles as well as bigger opportunities for previous players. Previous coaching staffs also made a point of recruiting international players.

After years of seeing the players in its backyard go elsewhere, Maine is flourishing as a destination again.

“There’s something really exciting about coming to play here,” said Christopher, a junior guard who transferred her freshman year after initially committing to Boston University. “We pack this place every home game. It makes it a great environment to play in, and then a great environment for kids who are coming and are like, ‘This is awesome. I want to play here someday.'”

With big-name players coming in, it only increases the chances that more will follow.

“I feel like sometimes people feel like they need to leave the state to play good basketball, but this is a great team, great program, great culture,” said Fitzpatrick, a freshman guard. “It’s just as good as anywhere else, if not better. … It shows players that this place is special, this place is different.”

Vachon said it’s a “refreshing” trend to see.

“I think the young girls in Maine are appreciating our program and really looking up to our players, and want to be like them and want to play here one day,” she said. “It’s the real things that matter and the real people and experiences that really matter. I think recruits are seeing that with our program.”

A dry spell

With five Mainers on the roster, there’s a local bond on the Black Bears team.

“Wearing ‘Maine’ across your chest is something special,” said junior guard Sarah Talon, a former Windham star. “It’s a surreal feeling.”

Joanne P. McCallie, who coached Maine to six straight NCAA tournament appearances from 1995-2000 before taking Michigan State to a national final, said that sense of pride is a reason why it’s important to recruit well locally. The Black Bears landed several Maine standouts during her tenure, including Vachon, Cindy Blodgett, Kelly Bowman, Trisha Ripton and Heather Ernest.

“It’s huge for the university and for the state, and the communities. It’s just a plus in every way,” McCallie said. “You want the best players, period, but when they were from Maine it was something you worked very hard on.”

Vachon said recruiting local players has been a priority since she was hired as an assistant on Richard Barron’s staff in 2011, and has continued since she took over as head coach officially in 2018.

“I think that’s always been the goal, to get all the best players in Maine,” she said.

For a while, though, it wasn’t happening. From 2001 to 2021, one Miss Maine winner ended up with the Black Bears. Six Maine players have committed over the past three seasons and in next year’s class, while four committed over the previous 10.

University of Maine women’s basketball coach Amy Vachon huddles with her team during practice Tuesday. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Vachon said it wasn’t due to deemphasizing local talent, but rather a litany of other factors. One was the team’s performance; Maine struggled through eight straight losing seasons from 2005-06 to 2012-13 and had to tap into out-of-state pipelines to find players who could help turn the program around quickly. Since 2012-13, Maine has brought in 25 players from overseas, some of whom, like Blanca Millan and Dor Saar, have been the Black Bears’ best players.

“We weren’t very good at the beginning, so when you’re trying to recruit Maine talent and you’re not very good, it’s not as big of a draw,” she said. “We needed immediate impact and we needed six kids in the spring, and you’re not going to find six Maine kids in the spring that can impact your team at the Division I level.”

Big-time schools also came after Maine’s top players. McAuley standouts Sarah Marshall and Alexa Coulombe went to Boston College, while another, Ashley Cimino, landed a scholarship to Stanford. Katie Rollins, the 2005 Miss Maine winner, went to Harvard. Gorham stars Mackenzie Holmes and Emily Esposito likewise got offers from schools in major conferences in Indiana and Villanova, respectively. Anna DeWolfe, who dazzled at Greely, went first to Fordham before transferring to Notre Dame.

“Schools like that, it’s not fair to compare those. Those are different, that’s a different level,” Vachon said. “(DeWolfe) had an opportunity to go to Notre Dame, (so) go to Notre Dame. Go. Absolutely.”

With some players, there was also wanderlust to compete with as they sought opportunities to develop themselves against top competition, and felt that leaving Maine was the way to do it.

“You get greedy with all the things you have here, and you’re like ‘Oh, I wonder what else is out there,'” said Esposito, the Miss Maine winner in 2017. “I think subconsciously, that had something to do with it. (And) I love to explore, I love to try different things. … I wanted to try something new, I wanted to push myself and I wanted to be in an uncomfortable situation.”

Esposito said the lure of the big time is also difficult to turn down.

“I think, sometimes, it gets put in your head bigger basketball is better basketball,” she said. “As a kid, you want the glitz and the glam, and you want these things that you see on TV.”

‘She’s just honest’

So, how has it started to change? What’s allowed Maine to become an in-state recruiting heavyweight again?

Winning, Vachon said, certainly helps. The Black Bears have won three America East championships over the past seven years.

“I think with our program, where we built it being a really, really good program throughout the country and playing against the best in the country, going to the tournament and winning championships, I think there’s a lot to be said for playing for your home state,” Vachon said.

Vachon is another big part — the way she relates to recruits and the culture she’s been able to build in Orono. When Fitzpatrick was asked what put Maine over the top even though she had offers to play out of state, her answer was quick: The coaching.

“She’s just honest,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think a lot of times in the recruiting process … sometimes people will try to show you the big, fancy arena, or all this new stuff. Stuff that is just materialistic. She doesn’t lie, she doesn’t beat around the bush. She just says it as it is, and that is very important to me.”

University of Maine women’s basketball player Jaycie Christopher (4), who went to Skowhegan High, looks to make a move during practice Tuesday. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Players say Vachon doesn’t load up her pitch with empty promises — playing time, starting jobs, roles in the offense. That transparency is a reason players like Bailey Breen, who had over 20 Division I offers, signed on.

“Throughout the process, you hear of a lot of coaches promising players things like that. But for her to be very honest with me about everything throughout the process … speaks loads on who she is as a person, and how she runs her program,” Breen said. “That’s someone I would want to be coached by. They care about you more beyond basketball. When they call you, they want to know about your outside life, and how everything is.”

That impressed Breen, who committed to the school in November.

“A big thing for me was the style of play and transparency when it came down to it. The coaches that communicated and were honest with you,” she said. “(Amy’s) never been an over-recruiter, in the sense that she’ll never blow up your phone. But she makes sure she connects with you enough.”

Vachon said her style for recruiting Maine players is the same with out-of-state kids, with a focus on building relationships and connecting with them personally. When the player is from Maine, however, she can tap into the same emotions that she experienced nearly 30 years ago.

“The feeling that you get to represent your home state is something that … is special, and we talk a lot about that when we’re recruiting kids,” she said. “When you have a program like our program that is very successful and challenges any other program you’re getting recruited by, possibly, why wouldn’t you want to stay in Maine and represent where you’re from?”