Dirigo senior guard Luke Lueders was a contributor to the Cougars’ last Class C South title team as a freshman and hopes to end his career with a state title. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

DIXFIELD — Cooper Chiasson and Luke Lueders grew up immersed in the proud Dirigo basketball tradition, and together, as best friends, they dreamed of one day contributing to it. 

When their turn finally arrived, Chiasson and Lueders were ready and eager to pay their dues, unfailingly attending open gyms and summer practices before their freshman year, getting bruises and occasional bloody noses while mixing it up with the upperclassmen, absorbing the wisdom, and elbows, of their elders.

“I looked up to them so much,” Chiasson said of the upperclassmen. “We grew up with them and watching them when we were little. When we got to our freshman year, we wanted to absorb how good those senior and junior classes were.”

“Those practices we had that year were probably the hardest we’ve ever had in our life,” he added. “It was definitely a ride.”

Three years later, Dirigo’s formidable senior backcourt is close to finishing its high school ride. Unlike their predecessors, however, they’ve experienced a bit of a roller-coaster ride.

Even as freshmen, Chiasson and Lueders were good enough and tough enough to earn meaningful playing time on a team that would ultimately reach the state championship game. Even as freshmen, they were wise enough to realize that one day they would be passing on the same hard-knock hardwood lessons that seniors such as Tyler Frost, Kaine Hutchins and Nick St. Germain had handed down to them.

“The senior class was really good to us that year and showed us the way, from beginning to end,” Lueders said.

Now they are striving for an ending that will trump their beginning, hoping to lead the Cougars to their first state title since 2012. 

“We want to show this town we’re still here to win,” Chiasson said.

“They both want to win so badly,” Dirigo coach Travis Magnusson said. “There aren’t many people that I can say want to win more than those two.”

Winning was commonplace for Lueders and Chiasson as freshmen and sophmores when they were part of back-to-back Mountain Valley Conference titles. 

But things took a not-entirely unexpected turn last year. After graduating two-time MVC Player of the Year Riley Robinson and a talented senior class, the Cougars figured to take a step back.

“We didn’t really know what kind of team we would have last year,” Lueders said. “We had a whole new team. We had a very young lineup. It was all just kind of see-what-happens.”

When the lone returning senior decided not to play before the season, Chiasson and Lueders suddenly became the Cougars’ elder statesmen.

“We had a freshman starting with two sophomores and two juniors,” Chiasson said. “It was frustrating going from freshman and sophomore years where we were the No. 1 team with Riley, the best player in the MVC. All of these teams that we had beaten by a lot just wanted to come out and kill us.”

The Cougars certainly took their lumps, finishing 5-13. They still made the tournament, earning the last spot, but got blown out by Hall-Dale in the preliminary round by 40 points.

“They both came up to me in the locker room after that game and promised me it wouldn’t happen again,” Magnusson said. “The next day, they were getting ready for this season.”

Their preparations suffered a setback when Lueders, playing quarterback, dislocated his elbow the second week of football season. Fortunately, he healed in time to rejoin Chiasson, a halfback, in the backfield near the end of the season, and was ready to go when basketball started.

The Cougars, as it turned out, were not ready. Their archrival, Mountain Valley, beat them, 71-48, in the season-opener. They started the season losing three of their first five.

“That showed we’re going to have to work our butts off to compete,” Chiasson said.

“We had to catch momentum at the right time,” Lueders said. “After we beat Winthrop, we had the confidence.”

They are 9-3 since that win, including a big one-point win over previously unbeaten Hall-Dale on Jan. 20. They will carry a 10-5 record into Thursday’s rematch with the Bulldogs in Farmingdale.

Magnusson credits the hard work and leadership of Chiasson, Lueders and fellow senior Jacob Gaudin with getting the Cougars on track. The coach and players agree the current Cougars have some of the best chemistry of any Dirigo team they’ve seen, due in part to the mentoring of those seniors.

As Chiasson and Lueders see it, they’re just paying it forward like their predecessors.

“We hang out with the freshmen and give them rides home and stuff. At the same time, we’re hard on them like they were hard on us (as freshmen),” Chiasson said.

The co-captains go about leading in contrasting ways. Chiasson is the outspoken one, usually delivering pre- or post-game motivation.

On the court, he backs up the talk with his versatility, toughness and a steady shot. He leads Dirigo in scoring, averaging 19 points per game. While he can beat defenses deep, he’s just as likely to score in the paint against players half-a-foot taller than him.

“I think people forget he’s not all that big, about 5-10, 5-11. He plays bigger,” Magnusson said. “Cooper is just such a tough player that makes plays for us. He scores. He rebounds. In our biggest games, he’s had big point numbers with the other team focused on him.”

“He’s a Chiasson. He’s a wonderful athlete. It runs in his family,” Lueders said. “I’ve been really lucky to play all the sports I have with him. Everyone looks up to him. He’s the biggest leader on our team.”

The more reserved Lueders leads by example, and the examples of hard-nosed defense and unselfish point guard play (he leads the team with seven assists per game) are too numerous for Magnusson to count. 

“We could be up 40 or down 40 and his expression doesn’t change,” Magnusson said. “He’s always focused and he knows what we need to do to be successful.”

The bond Lueders has with Chiasson, and vice versa, is evident when they’re on the court together.

“First off, we’re best friends. We’ve been doing everything together since day one,” Chiasson said. “He’s always been a point guard and I’ve always been the shooter, so he’s always created openings for me. Every point I get is most likely coming from him. I don’t give him enough credit, actually.”

The Cougars give their competition plenty of credit and know that if the seniors want to go out on top, the margin of error is very thin.

“Everybody has seen how evenly matched the top six teams are in the MVC,” said Chiasson, who plans to attend Maine Maritime Academy next fall and play football there. “You never know what’s going to happen. We’re just going to have to play hard and hopefully everything goes our way.”

“We’ve got to push ourselves and stay confident,” said Lueders, who plans to attend the University of Maine. “When things get tough, we can’t look down, just keep our heads up and work on the next play.”

Dirigo’s Cooper Chiasson is defended by Oak Hill’s Marcus Bailey as he drives to the basket during a game in Wales last year. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)