Sidelines: Flagg’s latest return home takes us back a year — and reminds us we’re still watching

It’s been a year since Cooper Flagg’s athleticism and skill got basketball fans going in Maine, but that hasn’t made the Newport prodigy any less a part of Maine basketball.

He knows the fans at home haven’t forgotten him. While his games are no longer just a quick jaunt up I-95, there’s no less curiosity about what the 6-foot-7 ex-Nokomis star is up to now that he’s 1,000 miles from where that he calls home.

Well, on Saturday, you’d never know that Flagg, now a sophomore at Montverde Academy, had ever traded the snow-capped highlands of central Maine for the sunshine and palm trees of Florida. He was as locals remember him: he wore Nokomis attire, carried around the gold ball, and itched it with his teammates like it was a regular day.

“Just being back in that gym where I’ve put in so many hours and seeing my friends and family and my old teammates is just an amazing feeling,” Flagg said. “I think it’s really something where we’ll always be a family. I just love seeing all these people and spending time with them.”

Saturday was a reunion of sorts for last year’s Nokomis boys’ basketball team, who made history by winning the program’s first-ever state title. It was a chance for Cooper, who won 2021-22 Maine Gatorade Player of the Year, and his brother Ace to rejoin the teammates with whom they shared a legendary run that has inspired fans across the state in ways they can their power brought squads ever have.

During last year’s season, the obsession that Newport and the surrounding community had with the Warriors peaked. One of the highest-ranking contestants to ever come out of Maine, Flagg wasn’t just a star player; He was their star player, one who popularized the area.

That hasn’t stopped, even now that Flagg has completed almost an entire season with another school. There are few people in this part of the state who aren’t curious about what the sophomore prodigy is up to, and many, like Nokomis director Mary Nadeau, are willing to go further.

“Cooper and Ace, I hope you agree that we can embark on your journey and live vicariously through you,” Nadeau told a crowd of about 150 in attendance to commemorate Cooper’s honor and celebrate the six state championship teams at Nokomis sports history. “The whole Warrior Nation is with you, and if anyone down there ever causes you grief, let us know.”

were some odes to last year’s championship trip. Queen’s “We are the Champions” blared from the speakers after the ceremony concluded, just as it did a year ago during a car ride home with teammate Ethan Cote’s family in Flagg on the way back from the state title game in Portland. Then there was Flagg, who you never knew was away from Nokomi’s basketball for a year as he piggybacked his old teammates and shared countless laughs.

It’s hard for Flagg to call his ex-teammates “old.” He’s not – and never has been – someone who thinks he’s too big for little old Newport. These teammates are no less his friends or cronies than they were while enjoying their Gold Ball win. The 2021-22 team’s group chat, his mother Kelly said, is as active as ever.

Flagg can be reserved at times, but nothing puts a smile on his face like being at home. The Nokomis gym and the faces in it, he noted, are the reminder of big moments like championships and the small (but no less memorable) like bus rides and team dinners.

He enjoys it all the more now that he doesn’t have the opportunity to do it every day. It’s one of the few times he’s been able to return to Maine since heading to Montverde, which is finding itself on somewhat shaky stretches after concluding its regular season a month ago.

However, a month between games doesn’t mean Flagg hasn’t been busy. Montverde is currently preparing for GEICO Nationals, an eight-team tournament that will see the Eagles face off against eight of the country’s other top prep teams. It’s a training regiment, he said, known as “boot camp.”

“There are some difficult practices, but I just realized that this is going to help us in the long run,” Flagg said. “It’s really about getting better and working harder every day. That’s what really counts and if you get better it’s all worth it.”

He knows Maine is behind him on this journey. Flagg, in his own words, feels he “didn’t play exceptionally well all season.” That might sound ridiculous when talking about someone who’s been named a Naismith High School All-American Second Teamer and Team USA Men’s Player of the Year, but that’s the standard Flagg holds himself to.

However, there was one period of play where Flagg felt differently about his game this season: in mid-January at the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Massachusetts. As this tournament was a little closer to home, there were plenty of friends and family in attendance – and his elevated game, he told the crowd, didn’t feel like a fluke.

“There were 150 people that I recognized in the stands the entire time,” Flagg said. “I think I had my best game of the year that night and I think that’s because of the community support that built me ​​up. … I think that’s a core memory that I’ll always hold onto.”

Of course, the scenes with family and friends in the stands aren’t that common anymore for Flagg, since his games are held in Massachusetts, Indiana, Arizona and the like instead of Newport, Skowhegan, Augusta or Brewer. However, he knows he is still a source of inspiration to thousands back home.

“It’s great to know that there are still so many people supporting me in Maine,” Flagg said. “I have to thank them all for still watching me and cheering me on from now on.”

Yes, Maine is still watching — and as long as Cooper Flagg is doing Cooper Flagg stuff, the watching won’t stop.

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