MADAWASKA – This is supposed to be a time of celebration for the Madawaska boys basketball team.

One year removed from their first-ever tournament victory at Bangor Auditorium, the Owls are back as the No. 4 seed in Eastern Maine Class C and poised to face No. 5 Washington Academy of East Machias in Tuesday night’s regional quarterfinals.

But no matter the success the team finds during Tourney Week ’06, it will be tempered by the memories of a teammate lost.

No one feels that more than Mark Sirois, a 17-year-old senior forward who led Madawaska in scoring and rebounding this season.

Sirois still grieves the loss not only of a teammate, but of his identical twin brother, Kenny, who died June 3, 2005, of a heart ailment while the brothers were running home after a late spring evening of one-on-one basketball.

“I miss everything about him,” said Sirois. “Basketball was a big part of our lives, but Kenny was a lot more than basketball. We were together pretty much every single hour of every day. We’d wake up in the morning, go to school, and after school we’d practice and then eat and go play basketball or just be together until we went to sleep.

“For seven hours after school we’d be together doing whatever, playing Madden or basketball, or just talking and hanging out. It was like we were married, because we were always there for each other.”

A program of promise

The Madawaska boys basketball program was riding high at this time last year, its 56-47 quarterfinal victory over George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill in the Eastern C quarterfinals marking the school’s first basketball tournament victory ever – boys or girls.

The team was tall and talented, and no one represented that physical nature and the players’ collective passion for the game more than Mark and Kenny Sirois, each at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds.

“Both of them loved basketball,” said their mother, Wendy Sirois. “You’d watch them play, and if Mark passed the ball, without even looking Kenny knew where it was going.”

The two were not identical on the court, but quite complementary. Mark’s game was based more on rebounding and offense generated near the basket, while Kenny was more of a perimeter threat, a ballhandler and a jump shooter who had developed 3-point range.

“At the end of last year Kenny had really started to bloom,” said Matt Rossignol, a teacher and the boys varsity basketball coach at Madawaska. “He might have been our best player at the end of last season.”

The Owls’ playoff run ended in the semifinals as Dexter pulled away in the second half for a 52-39 victory that propelled the Tigers to the 2005 Eastern Maine championship.

But it was still a taste of basketball success that was new to Madawaska, and one that left players, parents and fans longing for more.

No sooner had last season ended than enthusiasm for this winter was born, with the collective goal of taking the program to even greater heights.

And there was considerable reason for hope. Among last year’s key players, only point guard Myles Morneault had graduated. The Sirois twins were coming back, along with classmates and fellow starters Alan Campbell and Josh Pelletier. In addition, Dominique Rossignol was set to transfer to Madawaska from nearby Van Buren to join his father’s basketball team and replace Morneault in the lineup.

“Before Kenny died, I think everyone thought we’d be a powerhouse, because we had everyone coming back except Myles,” said Campbell. “He was a great player, but we had everyone else coming back.”

But that optimism faded far, far into the background on June 3, 2005.

Coping with tragedy

June 3, 2005, was like any other late spring day for Mark and Kenny Sirois.

A day at school was followed by baseball practice, as Madawaska was gearing up for the Eastern Maine Class C playoffs and the Sirois twins were starting outfielders.

After practice, there was basketball, basketball and more basketball, a succession of one-on-one battles that went on for hours.

Finally, as darkness was approaching near 9 p.m., they began jogging home. Jogging soon evolved into a more competitive pace, and when Mark arrived home first, he looked back for his brother, who wasn’t to be found.

He retraced his steps in search of Kenny, and found him collapsed on a neighbor’s lawn.

The cause of Kenny Sirois’ death was determined to be hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart valve weakness also known as HCM that kills an estimated 200 to 300 Americans each year.

It was a tragedy that touched an entire community, an entire region. More than 600 mourners packed the high school gymnasium for Kenny’s funeral, a tribute to a National Honor Society member and standout athlete nicknamed “Gentle Giant” and “Hangtime,” names that reflected both his demeanor and his love of basketball.

The town and the entire St. John Valley offered their support to the Sirois family – Mark, his parents, Wendy and Vincent, younger sister Lisa and younger brother Matthew.

Concerns soon focused on Mark and whether he was susceptible to the same affliction. He underwent a number of tests and ultimately received a clean bill of physical health, but the emotional recovery was even more complex.

“Mark lost his best friend, his brother, his identical twin,” said his mother. “I don’t think they had been apart since they were 5 years old and Kenny needed to go to have stitches.”

Indeed, things just weren’t the same. Whether it was one-on-one basketball, or playing a homemade brand of football in which one brother would throw the ball off the roof of the family home, go tag a designated spot and then return to catch the ball as it came down – all while the other brother was playing defense – Mark’s partner in sports and life suddenly wasn’t there, and the teen-ager struggled to regroup.

“It hurts when you go home and he’s not there, and it hurts when someone says they’re coming over, but they have to cancel,” Mark said. “You’re alone, and it was never that way with me and Kenny because we were always together.”

But from that homemade football game, Mark Sirois found some solace last fall. He joined Aroostook Football, a six-on-six league for high school age players based in Caribou and Presque Isle.

That he was interested in football came as no surprise. Born on July 20, 1988, Mark and Kenny spent the first few years of their lives in South Carolina before the family moved to Corinna, and then eventually relocated to Madawaska when the twins were sixth-graders.

“I’d dreamed of playing football ever since we came up here from South Carolina,” Sirois said. “It’s a physical game, and you can take out your aggression on the field.”

Mark took on the football challenge with great relish, helping to recruit a dozen players from the Valley to make up their own team, a roster that included Campbell.

“We started out with just six guys, but I kept finding guys who wanted to play,” Mark said.

His team tied for first place in the four-team league, and Sirois was named the league’s defensive most valuable player. But he derived much more than the mere satisfaction of winning games.

“I think football helped me,” he said. “I met some new friends, we hung out together after the games, and it gave me something to do in the fall.”

Tributes to a teammate

As Madawaska began preseason basketball practices shortly before Thanksgiving, Rossignol adopted a low-key approach in bringing the team together.

“Certainly I didn’t want to make this into something to use motivationally, because this was much bigger than just basketball,” said Rossignol, now in his eighth year with the Owls. “I tried to keep it business as usual as much as I could, knowing how all the kids felt about Kenny.”

The rawness of those emotions revealed themselves one day before the season began when Rossignol handed out team uniforms.

Kenny’s No. 22 white home basketball jersey was being retired and already had been taken to be placed in a wooden shadow box and displayed in the school gymnasium. But when it came time to hand out the team’s road jerseys, one of the jerseys in the stack was the No. 22.

“It was something I wish hadn’t happened,” said Rossignol. “When I unfolded it and saw the number 22, Mark looked at me, and everyone got teary-eyed. It was a tough situation, and afterward I apologized to him.”

Since then the team, the school and the local boosters’ club have honored Kenny Sirois in several ways. His uniform number was retired during ceremonies at the Owls’ first home game. There are blue-and-white bracelets similar to the Lance Armstrong yellow “Live Strong” bracelets that say “Kenny Sirois – No. 22 – Hangtime.” The players wear T-shirts that include Kenny’s picture and the phrase “Always Remember” before each game, and their final pre-game words before taking the court are a tribute to their teammate.

“We think about him a lot,” said Sirois. “We think about how he’s still with us, about how things would be different if he was here, and about how he wanted to win.

“There was a lot more to Kenny than basketball, but he could play basketball. He could shoot the 3, he could rebound, and he was a team leader who gave us spirit and energy. He was everything to us.”

A scare and then hope

Madawaska has emerged this winter as a legitimate threat to contend for the school’s first Eastern Maine basketball title.

But the season hasn’t been without a scare.

As the Owls were preparing for a Jan. 13 game against Fort Fairfield, Mark Sirois came to practice one day but hadn’t changed into his basketball gear.

“He said he’d been having some chest pain, but until then he hadn’t really said anything about it,” said Rossignol. “We were worried.”

According to Wendy Sirois, Mark was checked out locally. An initial electrocardiograph test showed some abnormalities so his parents took him to see his cardiologist in Bangor, where he underwent a thorough checkup before being cleared to play basketball.

A subsequent EKG turned out fine, his mother said, and regular follow-up exams are scheduled.

Mark Sirois returned to the team just in time for that Fort Fairfield game and scored 22 points – 10 in the first quarter – in leading the Owls to an 86-40 victory.

“For a 24- to 48-hour period, we didn’t know what was going to happen,” said Rossignol, “but he came back with his doctor’s clearance, and he was happy to be playing.”

Mark Sirois finished the regular season averaging 18 points and 12 rebounds per game, while the 6-4 Campbell posted similar numbers in leading the Owls to a 13-5 record.

“I hoped for better but I’m happy with the season,” said Sirois. “We’re going back to Bangor, and that’s what our goal was, to get back to Bangor, so I’m happy about that.”

One of the team’s most notable games so far was a six-point loss to Class C favorite Calais, one of just two undefeated schoolboy basketball teams left in the state this season.

“I don’t think we’ve reached the level we need to be at yet, but I think we’re ready to take the next step,” said Rossignol. “The best team is Calais, and we played right with them. I think the kids come into the tournament feeling like they have a chance, and that’s a good feeling.”

There is the inevitable goal among many of the players to win a title for their fallen teammate.

“A lot of people on the team want to do this for Kenny,” said Campbell. “We’d like to win the states for him.”

And Rossignol, while proud of the team he has, can’t help but think about how the Owls would fare with both Sirois twins in the lineup.

“I’ll be honest,” he said. “If I had a dollar for every time I’ve thought during the season that if we had Kenny right now I don’t know if we’d have lost a game, I’d be a rich man.”

For Mark Sirois, an honor roll student who plans to study physical education in college, there are similar thoughts for sure. But there are also thoughts much more personal.

“I just miss everything about him,” he said. “Before the games we’d get pumped up with each other, and then we’d go out and play. I miss that.

“Some of the guys talk about winning the state championship for Kenny, but I can’t make that promise. You just don’t know what’s going to happen.”