Every now and then, a group of can't-miss middle school basketball prospects emerges. That was the case four years ago in the Capital Area Middle School League.

Back then the league consisted of two Augusta schools, Hodgkins and St. Mary's, along with Gardiner, Maranacook, China, Lisbon, Winthrop and Hall-Dale.
Who were these guys? Well, how about Maranacook's Ryan Martin, Will Bardaglio and Mike Poulin? Martin attended St. Mary's back then while Bardaglio and Poulin went to Maranacook. They have since won a state Class B championship (two years ago) and are currently undefeated.
At Gardiner, Kyle Stilphen and Mike Lavallee were middle school stars and are today helping the Tigers to a Class B tournament berth. China featured Erskine Academy twins Peter and Jack Garrity along with Dan Hussey, who is no longer playing basketball. Hussey, the quarterback for the Waterville football team, was one of the league's top leapers in middle school and at 5-foot-10 could easily grab the rim.
The list goes on with Winthrop's Sam Leclerc and Tim Gingras. Leclerc is fielding Div. I offers while Gingras is one of the top defenders in Class C. Andrew Pullen, who attended Hodgkins, recently went over 1,000 career points at Cony.
It's sometimes tough to predict who will succeed in high school based on middle school prowess. You don't know who will continue to grow or if players will lose interest in the game. That wasn't the case four years ago when the league was as good as any in the state and many of its players were dedicated to future success.