PORTLAND – We like to forget the bad times in life, but it’s important not to toss out the baby with the bathwater. The Gorham girls basketball season ended on a sour note on Feb. 26, but their season was something that fans, players, and – particularly – the team’s three seniors should look back upon fondly.

The Rams were hot right out of the starting gate, going 3-0 to begin the year. In victories against Scarborough, Marshwood and Thornton Academy, Gorham outscored their opponents by a total of 78 points, quickly establishing themselves as one of the top contenders in Class A West. Although the Rams suffered their first defeat 51-40 at the hands of Deering on Dec. 21, they followed this setback with a six-game winning streak, proving in the process that they could shrug off adversity and carry on. According to senior captain Natalie Egbert, this was due in part to the way the team’s three seniors came together.

“We have just had this close bond all four years,” she said. “When I look back on this season, our leadership has soared this year.”

Egbert, along with fellow seniors and co-captains Alyssa Clark and Mia Rapolla, worked in tandem to form the engine that made the Rams move. Without them, Gorham never could have gotten so far.

“Obviously, we are going to miss the three seniors that are leaving,” said Head Coach Laughn Berthiaume. “Alyssa and Natalie are both four-year varsity players, and Mia is a three-year varsity player, but this year she has had a single season that was just outstanding.”

And it is impossible not to pause and focus a bit on Rapolla. She and her 22.7 points per game average is the proverbial elephant in the room; the champion, the white knight that the Rams rallied around all season. Back on Jan. 4, when Gorham beat Portland 51-46 and Rapolla put up 27 – a typical outing – Berthiaume commented that “as Mia goes, we go,” and there was no truer statement about the Rams all year. When Rapolla was “on” – and she usually was – so were the Rams. In fact, it was a rare game when Rapolla wasn’t the lynchpin of Gorham’s attack. The fewest points she scored all year was 14 in an unusual 31-28 loss to Westbrook on Feb. 11. The most she scored – in arguably the highlight of her career – was 34 against Windham in the quarterfinals on Feb. 24. The Rams won that game 54-33.

Rapolla outscored the Eagles by herself.

“She scores in a number of different ways, and she competes on every possession,” Berthiaume said. “You know she can go inside, and she can shoot the jump shots. She is versatile. So that allows her to get her points, even when it looks like she has to work so hard for everything she is getting.”

But before you go and think that this year was a story about one player, or even a trio of seniors, stop and examine the makeup of the Rams. Outside of seniors Rapolla, Egbert and Clark, there were just four juniors – Courtney Burns, Kiersten Turner, Vicki Parker, and Audrey Adkison – on Gorham’s roster. Six players – just under half the team – were underclassmen. This was a young bunch that played above and beyond any preseason expectations. The reason their season-ending 39-30 loss to McAuley on Feb. 26 seemed so devastating was because of how good they were. Nobody saw Gorham coming. But when they arrived, they dominated. That’s what they’ll remember. That’s what we should remember.

“(The) highlights were definitely beating McAuley the first time we played them,” Clark said. “Just coming this far has made me happy, and I had a great season with the girls. (I will) definitely (look back on this a little more fondly once some time has passed after tonight, though).

“It’s been really fun,” an emotional Rapolla said shortly after the loss to the Lions. “I am definitely going to miss it – sorry, I just can’t (find the words) – I don’t know. We are so close, these three (seniors). We have just been together forever. I know my freshman year I wasn’t on varsity, but I played alongside them in middle school and coming up. And even when I wasn’t on varsity, we still played together, so it’s feels like we’ve always been together.”

Gorham’s Mia Rapolla fights back tears as she hugs Kristin Ross during the closing seconds of the Rams’ season-ending loss to McAuley on Saturday.
Staff photo by Mike Higgins