One of the state’s top basketball players will be back on the court this winter, but don’t look for her to play the same role as she did last year.

Cony of Augusta junior Cassie Cooper, who helped lead the Rams to the Class A state championship from a forward position, will start this year at point guard.

It’s a reflection of Cony’s personnel – vastly changed since last year’s title run – and the fact Cooper will likely get an offer to play basketball at an NCAA Division I program.

The Rams graduated the two starting guards from last year’s squad, along with two other starters, which makes Cooper the leading returning scorer and rebounder (14.2 points per game, 7.3 rebounds per game) and most experienced player.

“I think you have to have your most experienced player at the position that’s going to give you the best opportunity to win, and at this time that’s what we feel it is,” said coach Paul Vachon, who is in his 21st season.

Cooper, a second-team All-Mainer, KVAC first-team member and Eastern Maine Class A all-tourney pick, said Vachon told his summer team someone would have to volunteer to play point guard.

That was all Cooper needed to hear.

“I decided that as a leader I should step up and take that role,” she said. “So I worked on my ball-handling skills all summer. … I just like having the ball in my hands and having control over the pace of [the game].”

Aside from helping out the team, Cooper is also hoping to round out her game in preparation for college.

Basketball beyond high school is very much on the junior’s mind.

“I’m getting all my stuff together now,” she said.

Cooper spent Saturday evening at dinner in Providence, R.I., with Cindy Blodgett, the former UMaine and Lawrence of Fairfield star who is now an assistant coach at Brown University. Cooper said Ivy League schools such as Brown and Harvard, the school that successfully recruited her former Cony teammate Katie Rollins, and the University of Maine are among her top picks right now.

Former Cony standout Ashley Underwood is playing at UMaine, and Vachon’s daughter, Amy, was a record-setting UMaine point guard who graduated in 2000.

“I like the type of game they play and I know the coaching staff,” Cooper said of the Black Bears. “I have friends there, and I think I would be comfortable there.”

Paul Vachon said Cooper could settle into a guard role once she moves on to college.

“I think she has guard skills, and I think in college she’s gonna be able to play the 2 or the 3,” he said. “Maybe not the 1, but I think [moving to point guard is] certainly something that’s going to help her. For her development and for our team play right now I think it’s the best thing that we have.”

Stratton coming back from injury

Kelsey Stratton likely won’t start for the Mount Desert Island girls basketball team in its opener Friday night at Sumner of East Sullivan, but she’ll be back on the floor soon enough after working through a shoulder injury during the summer and fall.

Stratton, an Eastern Maine Class B all-tourney honoree and All-Big East Class B first-teamer, said she has been bothered by three impingements in her left rotator cuff. An impingement occurs when the part of the shoulder blade puts pressure on the rotator cuff when the arm is lifted.

Stratton started having discomfort in her freshman year and dealt with it then, but it came back last season.

She didn’t play summer basketball with the MDI team.

“I’ve been doing physical therapy for a while, more than three months, ” the 5-10 forward said after watching the Trojans fall to Winslow 34-30 in a preseason game at the Bangor Auditorium. “It’s almost taken care of, there’s a little bit left, but it’s getting better.”

Stratton is righthanded, but the injury has still limited her.

“Dribbling’s a little hard, and lefthanded layups, and if I go too far out shooting, like 8-10 feet, I start to feel it in my left shoulder,” she said.

And that’s not what the Trojans want from Stratton, who is MDI’s top 3-point threat and a tough perimeter matchup because of her height.

Stratton said she may try to practice Tuesday and play in a preseason game this week – the Eastern Maine Class B runner-up Trojans will take on Class A Bangor Wednesday. MDI coach Chip Taylor said she likely won’t start in the regular-season opener, but she will probably play.

Stratton averaged 12.3 points per game in the tourney and 17 ppg in the regular season.

Her best postseason game came in the semifinals, during which she poured in 22 points for the Trojans, including the game-winning 3-pointer.

Friday’s preseason game was a rematch of last year’s EM final. Winslow won that game and went on to earn the Class B state title.

Jackson, Flagg to join D-I teams

Belfast High has played some of the best field hockey in the state the past two years, so it’s only natural some of the Lions’ top players would be heading off to Division I colleges.

Kelsey Jackson, who Sunday was named Miss Maine Field Hockey, and teammate Jamie Flagg, an all-state player, have both earned scholarships to play field hockey in college next year.

Jackson is going to William & Mary, while Flagg committed to Albany.

Playing at the next level and gaining a scholarship to do so has always been a goal, Jackson said. She has a partial scholarship.

The weather played into Jackson’s decision to commit to William & Mary. The school is located in Williamsburg, Va., which has fairly mild winters and steamy summers.

“I wanted to kind of get out of the New England area, just to get away and into the warmer weather,” said Jackson, a center midfielder who had nine goals and 14 assists. “It was really nice there. I had a lot of fun on my visit.”

William & Mary made it as far as the semifinals of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament, where the Tribe lost to Old Dominion.

Jackson swims in the winter and participates in track and field in the spring.

Flagg, a left midfielder who scored five goals and added four assists this year, was also named to the all-state team last year and is a four-time KVAC all-star.

She also considered UMaine and Boston University, but picked the Great Danes in the end. Flagg will have a half scholarship her freshman year.

“I liked it because they only carry 18 on the team … so there’s a better chance of me playing,” she said. “I went there and fell in love with the team and the coach.”

Albany fell to UMaine 1-0 in the America East tournament semifinals, and Flagg said the two teams have become rivals.

It’ll be even more so for Flagg, because her friends Mallory Shute of Skowhegan, Lynsey Seymour of Gardiner and Alyssa Cloutier of Cony have all committed to Maine.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Flagg said of matching up against her Maine Event teammates.

Flagg is also a Belfast basketball player.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.