Boys’ basketball: John Fossett puts Poland back in contention

The No. 8 Knights’ reward is a 4 p.m. tap against top-seeded Lake Region, which rolled 82-61 in the rivals’ lone regular-season meeting.

If fans feel intimidated by any of those details, Poland coach Tyler Tracy recommends — OK, perhaps with asterisks, disclaimers and reservations — that you model the demeanor of your team’s senior center, John Fossett.

“He’s the type of kid who if I let him, he would ride his dirt bike to school,” Tracy said. “He jumps off 70-foot cliffs. He’s extreme. We go camping in the summer, and some of the stuff he does, it’s like, ‘Oh my Gosh, John.’ He just tells me, ‘Oh, no, don’t worry.’”

Tracy can take that approach when Fossett is on the floor. He led the Western Maine Conference in rebounds and steals per game this winter while averaging 20 points per game.

Fossett fueled Poland with 32 points in its preliminary round win over Oak Hill, sending the Knights to the quarterfinals for the third time in five years.

“I had three coaches tell me he was a beast,” Oak Hill coach Tom Smith said. “We played against Riley Robinson (of Dirigo), and he’s great and everything, but this guy is a different challenge. He has all the moves. Inside, outside. He is a big kid. We didn’t really have anybody who could stop him.”

Two years ago, Fossett was the wiry sophomore sixth man on a Poland team that etched itself in tournament lore.

As the sixth seed in the bracket, Poland pushed through No. 3 Spruce Mountain, No. 2 Morse and No. 1 Greely, the last with a colossal comeback, to win the regional title.

Being asked to lead a much younger team as a junior was a vastly different challenge. Greely achieved a measure of payback with a win in the 2015 prelims.

“This year definitely over the summer I got a lot stronger with basketball,” Fossett said. “The goal was to get back (to Portland). Now we’re going, and now we hope to go all the way like we did two years ago.”

In addition to being an immovable object in the paint, and equally dangerous launching baseline jumpers or baby hook shots, Fossett has evolved into a smarter player.

Tracy viewed the sophomore Fossett as an enforcer who got his physical money’s worth out of his limited minutes. It was difficult to shake that mentality when he cracked the starting lineup, and Fossett had trouble staying out of foul trouble and on the court.

Now, he channels that frustration into points, rebounds and tireless defensive production.

“He’s easily motivated. If somebody fires him up or something happens that he doesn’t like, he works that much harder,” Tracy said. “The challenge for us is trying to find new stuff to fire him up every game.”

Poland’s brutal schedule never fails to provide such motivation.

In addition to the Lake Region loss, the Knights fell by double digits to Greely, Cape Elizabeth, Yarmouth, York and Waynflete. All are tournament teams, three of them from Class A.

Don’t look for Fossett to slow his team down, however. Win or lose, the Knights are at their best when they employ a furious tempo.

“We stay conditioned,” Fossett said. “We know we need to work hard in practice. We’re not the biggest team, so we know we have to make up for it in speed.”

Fossett’s emergence as one of the dominant low post players in the league has helped make Nate Chouinard, Patrick Kuklinski and Jared Martel more dangerous from the perimeter.

It opens doors for Cakeb Hodgkin in the paint, as well. Double-teaming the Knights isn’t wise.

“I think it’s just working as a team,” he said. “Trying to get other people open, it gives me the opportunity to get open.”

And if he isn’t explicitly free, Fossett sometimes still finds a way to earn his keep — in ways that make his coach smile and shake his head.

“He’s very unorthodox, but it’s crafty and it’s just hard to stop. He does things with his body I just don’t understand, but it works for him,” Tracy said.

“You get that a lot with natural athletes. We just try to tweak it and adjust it so he gets better and quicker, and that’s a step that he’s taken. He’s always been quick, but now he’s learning to be patient and use his quickness at the right time.”

On courts, cliffs, and wooded trails, no doubt.

koakes@sunjournal.com

#Tourney16

Complete coverage of the high school boys and girls basketball tournaments includes: