In-state recruiting buoys Mariners 15 of 16 women’s hoop players from Maine

Meghan Marshall of Madawaska joked that Maine Maritime Academy’s 6-to-1 ratio of men to women has its benefits.

While that might be enticing, she explained the continued growth of the MMA women’s basketball team and the close-knit atmosphere within the program are the real reasons coach Craig Dagan is attracting so many talented players to the Castine campus.

This season, MMA’s 16-player roster that includes 15 women who played high school ball in Maine.

“It’s been a lot of hard work over the last three years as far as revamping our roster and getting not only good basketball players but better athletes,” said Dagan, MMA’s fourth-year coach, who guided the Mariners to a league title in 2001-02.

The Mariners continue to emerge on the state’s Division III basketball scene. They went into the semester break holding first place in the North Atlantic Conference East Division with a 6-1 overall record (4-0 NAC).

MMA already owns a confidence-building win over Colby College of Waterville.

“We’ve proved to everyone in the league that we can play,” said junior forward Julia Knights of Brookton, who starred at Woodland High. “We’ve done the right things and we’ve been waiting a long time, so the hard work is paying off.”

Dagan, a former assistant coach at Division I Massachusetts, has been a tireless recruiter.

Point guard Stacy Jones of Bath is the only senior on the club, but she was joined by a solid recruiting class in 2002. That group, this year’s juniors, features Knights, Marshall, Crystal Parker of Bradford, Amanda Johnson of Dedham and Katie Clapham of Crawford.

Marshall and Clapham have been key regulars while Parker and Johnson also have contributed. Knights, the league MVP two years ago, is coming off a knee injury that kept her out most of last season and required three surgeries.

In the early days, Dagan sought quantity. He landed a few standouts but also recruited potential. After MMA won its first conference title, more talented players followed.

Dagan admits it was a challenge initially to sell young women on MMA, which has a stellar reputation as a marine engineering school with a military component.

Marshall said it has much more to offer young women.

“It’s definitely a misunderstood place in the fact everybody thinks you have to go to MMA and wear the uniform and ship out on the boat,” Marshall said. “The majority of the [women’s] basketball and soccer teams are business students.”

Last season, Dagan added more Eastern Maine standouts, including Mount Desert Island High product Shelly Gott of Tremont and Ashley Hayden of Bangor, both of whom are starters, along with Maegan Cloutier of South Portland and Winthrop’s Rebecca Moore.

MMA experienced some difficult times in 2003-04, incurring key injuries and a tough conference lineup with the addition of the University of Maine-Farmington and Husson College of Bangor.

MMA’s momentum wasn’t adversely affected. This year, the Mariners welcomed Division II transfer Alyssa Burns of Dixfield, who has emerged as the team’s leading scorer (13.5 points per game) and rebounder (8.9 rpg).

She was joined by Brewer’s Amy Freeman and Caitlyn Grant of South Thomaston, both of whom have cracked the starting lineup, along with Kaitlyn Leeman of Baileyville, Jessica Norwood of Bar Harbor and Quebec’s Valerie Robitaille, who is redshirting with a knee injury.

“We want impact players now,” Dagan said. “Our recruiting philosophy has changed a lot as we have progressed here.”

MMA’s starting lineup this season has featured swing player Burns, guard Gott (12.4 ppg, 5.1 rpg) and center Hayden (4.3 ppg, 6.1 rpg) along with guards Freeman (5.4 ppg) and Grant (2.7 ppg). However, Marshall (6.7 ppg, 3.4 rpg) and Clapham (3.0 ppg) have started two games each.

With such a large roster and a continued influx of outstanding players, the on-court dynamics of the squad are constantly changing.

“We’re just excited to be winning and having fun,” Marshall said.

And implementing an uptempo attack means Dagan can utilize MMAs depth.

“[Two years ago], we were the team that everybody picked on,” Knights said. “Now, we get to retaliate and give it back.”

MMA is back in action next week at the Land of Magic Classic in Daytona Beach, Fla., where they Mariners will face SUNY Potsdam on Dec. 30 and Mary Washington on Dec. 31.