Saturday game to give Lee early progress report

The second-year Lee Academy postgraduate basketball team will make its Eastern Maine debut Saturday afternoon when it faces The Winchendon School (Mass.) at Nokomis Regional High School in Newport.

As for how his collection of players from five states and three other countries – Australia, Bosnia, and Poland – has developed since beginning formal practices Oct. 10, Lee coach Carl Parker suggests the 3 p.m. game against Winchendon will represent an early-season measuring stick.

Winchendon, a traditional New England prep school power, has two players who already have committed to the University of Connecticut for next year, Parker said, along with several other Division I prospects.

“I think we’ll find out where we are Saturday,” said Parker, a longtime high school and AAU coach from Bangor whose resume also includes five years as an assistant coach under Max Good with the Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield postgraduate program.

“For the most part we’re playing very unselfish and playing very hard. I’m not sure we’re playing as well basketball intelligence-wise yet, but I’ve seen flashes. We’ve only been together for 30 days, and it takes a while.”

Parker estimates that this year’s Lee roster includes two high-major Division I prospects, two mid- to high-major prospects, and seven or eight other scholarship-level players, either Division II-caliber or at the low- to mid-Division I level.

Two of the team’s international players, 6-foot-2 point guard Nate Tomlinson, a high school junior from Heathcote, Australia, and 7-1 Tomasz Kwiatowski of Bidgoszcz, Poland, are among the most heavily recruited of the group.

“Our point guard has a chance to play at the highest level,” Parker said. “He’s very intelligent, he has a great basketball IQ. He sees the court extremely well and understands where the ball should go – he’s the type of player who can see two or three passes ahead.

“Tomasz has a great up-side. He’s 7 feet, 245 pounds and has good feet and decent hands, and he wants to be good and is willing to work to be good.”

Other prospects on the roster include two players back from last year’s team, 6-7 forward Travon Wilcher of Springfield, Mass. – who has committed to the University of Massachusetts – and 6-2 guard Corey Bingham of Lynn, Mass., as well as 6-5 guard Chris Baez of Kissimmee, Fla., 6-2 forward Jimmy Chaundry of Brockton, Mass., and 6-3 swingman Sesoo Ikpah of Williamstown, N.J.

They are joined by 5-10 guard Kola Togunde of Garland, Texas, 6-3 guard Alan Branch of Fresno, Texas, 6-2 guard Aaron Christian of New Bedford, Mass., 6-2 swingman Dorian Williams of Teaneck, N.J., 6-4 forward Jeff Britto of Dorchester, Mass., 6-1 guard Sasa Devis of Sarajevo, Bosnia, 6-2 forward Shomari Moore of North Brunswick, N.J., 6-5 forward DeShawn Gibbons of Boston, and 6-4 forward Eliseo Nieves of Hartford, Conn.

Lee’s schedule includes five tournaments and matchups against many of the premier prep school programs in the Northeast, including Maine rivals MCI and Bridgton Academy. In-state highlights on the schedule include playing in the Dec. 2-3 MCI Invitational at Pittsfield and home games against MCI on Jan. 13 and Bridgton Academy on Jan. 24.