Coach is Prepared for Basketball Season. by McKayla Ivey

Scott Graffam, a physical education teacher and basketball coach, has been coaching high school basketball for 35 years. Before he moved to Oxford Hills in 1982, Graffam grew up in South Portland and went to Medomak Valley High School, where he played four years of basketball and was an all state player. After high school Graffam went to Colby College in Waterville, ME. Graffam has lived in the Oxford hills region for about 25 years.

As a basketball coach he states “ I find the most interesting thing over the 35 years I’ve been coaching, is watching the change from how good the kids are athletically when they first get to the high school to when they leave. Also how in tune they are to their sport(s). I think it’s also interesting how much more the parents are involved as far as getting their kids into other basketball leagues. Some pay a lot of money to support their kids playing one sport or even several sport” and the worst thing is the referees. After being a coach for so long he has come to the conclusion that nothing could have prepared him to be a high school basketball coach, other than the years he played as experience.

Last year, the Oxford Hills varsity basketball team made it to playoffs. The first game against Bangor they won 44-41, in which Andrew Fleming scored 24 points. The second game against Brunswick the team won in overtime in which Andrew Fleming and Dalton Rice both had 21 points. Then when we went to the Eastern Maine Championship, the team lost to Hampden. To prepare for this season, along with quite a few new varsity team players, Graffam and his fellow staff go to conferences and listen to college coaches talk. Graffam informs, “For this particular season we’ve done a lot of research on what we are going to run for our offense and we already know what we are going to do for our defense. We have staff meetings with the coaches” and they have also gone to the state conference and the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference (KVAC) league meeting.

“I think it’s going to be very similar this year. Every game will be a hard game, there’s no easy win. I think every team on our schedule could beat us, and we could beat every team.”