“We've got some work to do,” said Coach I.J. Pinkham, a week before the first game of the regular season at Lisbon on Dec. 11.

Pinkham, entering his 41st season as the Boothbay Region High School boys varsity basketball coach, said Tuesday that the preseason has shown him that team play is somewhat lacking.

“We had two scrimmages at Medomak and we played perhaps one good half,” said Pinkham, who has coached high school basketball for a total of 48 years and has 615 wins. "The kids have to learn to play together and they are working at doing that."

With only six players returning from last year's team, there is some molding to do.

“We lost our top two rebounders to graduation, Austin Campbell and Carter Babcock, so that is a part of the game we need to work on,” said Pinkham. Last year, the Seahawks finished 12-8, losing to Madison in the Class C South quarterfinal.

Returnees include senior co-captains Kyle Ames and Elijah Gudroe, senior Nick Simpson, junior Steve Reny, and sophomores Hunter Crocker and Nicholas Morley. Newcomers include seniors Sam Burnham (a three-year player on the junior varsity), Cameron Crocker and Jacob Wilson, and three freshmen, Kaeden Davis, Ben Pearce and Sullivan Rice.

“Kyle was our leading scorer last year (15 points per game) and led us in assists (2.5 assists per game) and Eli scored 7.8 points per game,” said Pinkham. “We have some good athletes, but it's a matter of getting them all to work together.”

Pinkham said the three freshmen will also get valuable playing time by swinging down with the junior varsity, who will again be coached by Dan Hallinan.

Ames, Reny, Gudroe, Hunter Crocker and Morley will be Pinkham's starters to begin the season, with the speedy six-footers Ames and Reny manning the guard positions while Gudroe (6'4"), Crocker (6'2") and Morley (6'3") are the team's forwards. Some needed rebounding off the bench will come from Simpson, who is the team's tallest player at 6'7", and the aggressive, former wrestler Cameron Crocker (6').

Pinkham said he is hoping the team can play well against the top teams, which the Seahawks only face once during the season.

“Madison, Dirigo, and perhaps the best team in our conference, Hall-Dale, are teams which will provide us with needed Heal points,” said Pinkham, “along with Spruce Mountain and Mountain Valley, which has improved since last year.” Boothbay will play two games each against Wiscasset, which lost several players from last year's tournament team, as well as Carrabec, Mt. Abram, Telstar and Lisbon.

“We hope to finish in the top four (in Class C South), but we'll need to beat the better teams to get points,” said Pinkham.

Besides Hallinan, Pinkham will be assisted by longtime assistant Dennis Rice. Statisticians are Max Hoecker and Tyler Field.