Van Buren girls basketball coach Steve Lapierre doesn’t have an assistant this year. There’s no junior varsity team. And the Crusaders only have enough girls for one full team of five at practice sessions.

Yet Class D Van Buren is off to a fine 8-1 start, a record that includes wins over some of the top teams in Aroostook County.

The Crusaders recently beat Class B Fort Kent and have Heal Point-worthy victories over Fort Fairfield and Limestone. They recorded a huge win Jan. 4, knocking off previously undefeated Class C Madawaska 49-46.

Van Buren’s only loss this season came Jan. 8 against Limestone – a 42-41 game in which the Crusaders led through three quarters and the Eagles needed a late score for the win. Leading scorer Nicole Corbin had a game-high 19 points in the loss.

Van Buren was seeded third among Class D Northeast region schools in last week’s point standings. Still, the small team doesn’t have many opportunities to practice 5-on-5.

“That’s where [the team’s size] hurts us,” Lapierre said. “It’s real tough to get in a good practice. We try to have some of the JV boys come in, but they have their own games.”

Senior point guard Corbin has been the offensive spark for Van Buren. She’s been averaging about 20 points per game but is capable of far more – she put in 39 against Easton Saturday, including her 1,000th career point, in the game.

Height has been a big plus for the Crusaders this year. Van Buren starts two tall forwards, 6-foot Michelle Parent (10-12 rebounds per game) and 5-9 Danielle Gagnon, who have both improved their play this season, Lapierre said. Swing player Tasha Gagnon, who runs the out-of-bounds plays, and Andrea Doucette, a shooting guard who can run the point when Corbin is out, are also starting.

Hard work and late-game poise (the Crusaders haven’t had many blowouts this year) have been key, along with a little luck: Lapierre has just one player nursing an injury (sprained ankle).

“We can’t really afford anything else,” he said.

Injury shakes things up at PI

Freshman Natasha Deschene was having more than a promising season as Presque Isle’s starting point guard – she was the Wildcats’ leading scorer with about 13 points per game.

Then, Deschene broke her arm the final 11/2 minutes of a Dec. 29 home game against Nokomis of Newport.

“She played awesome against Nokomis, she almost single-handedly brought us back up there,” PI coach Jeff Hudson said. “She was playing her best, and then with about a minute and a half to go she just reached in.”

Deschene is expected to miss at least the rest of the Class A regular season. Hudson hopes to have her back for the first preliminary game of the playoffs (scheduled for Feb. 23).

Deschene’s injury has had plenty of repercussions and has meant the shifting of some roles.

“We had a chance to be good with her because she could take some of the pressure off of [guard Billi Blanchard] and she could shoot outside,” Hudson said. “Now we just don’t have the outside threat that we need. It makes it a little bit harder for [forward Autumn Tuttle] inside.”

Herbold making a splash

Speaking of promising freshmen, Bangor swimmer Isobel Herbold has posted some of the top times in the state and has become a critical piece of the Rams relay picture – especially as Bangor will likely be in contention for the Class A state championship.

As of Jan. 7, Herbold had the top time in the 200-yard freestyle (2:02.19) by about 31/2 seconds, was 10th in the 200 individual medley, sixth in the 100 free and third in the 500 free. She was the anchor on a 200 medley relay that has the state’s fifth-best time, and led off a 400 free relay that is almost seven seconds better than the second-place team.

She made an immediate impact – in her first meet Herbold put up the fourth-fastest 200 free time and third-fastest time in the 500 free in Bangor High history.

Herbold, like many of the Bangor High swimmers, still competes for the Bangor YMCA Barracudas. She has seen her times improve this year in part because she’s swimming more frequently with the older high school swimmers and not as often with the younger age-group swimmers.

“It’s pretty much the same thing, and pretty much the same events, but I’m swimming much better this year,” Herbold said.

Bangor’s experienced swimmers, who have been posting some fine times themselves, enjoy having the freshman around.

“She’s good to swim with in practice because she’s really intense,” said Katherine Mullen, a senior captain and freestyle specialist. “It’s good to have an underclassman pushing you along and you get to work hard with her.”

And the seniors are happy to have her times as they take aim at the state title.

We haven’t been talking about it too much because we don’t want to psyche out the freshmen swimmers, but we have a good team this year,” Mullen added. “We have Isobel, [junior] Sarah Gordon’s new this year, [seniors Erin Woolley, Margie Ervin and Whitney Lingenfelter] have all been fast. So we’re really excited, especially the seniors. We’ve been waiting for four years.”