After winning five games last year, this tight-knit Eagles team put in the work on its own and during the summer and sits at 10-1 and atop the Class AA North standings.

Steve CraigPress Herald

WINDHAM — Coach Chad Pulkkinen knows he has a special group this season.

It’s not just because his Windham High boys’ basketball team has already won twice as many games as last season and sits atop the Class AA North standings at 10-1. Nor is it just because they play an unselfish, team-oriented style.

The key is how much everyone wants to be together.

“The commitment level is extremely rare,” Pulkkinen said prior to Wednesday’s practice. “This summer we had 30 to 40 guys in the gym, five days a week for 7 a.m. practices. Then they’d leave here and go home and find some other place to play.”

Making the tight bond somewhat unusual is that the top seven players in the rotation are two sophomores, two juniors and three seniors. While coaches love to have young talent contributing, sometimes that’s hard for older players to accept.

“There’s no separation from grades. We’re just one together,” said senior tri-captain Erik Bowen. “We’ve just had excellent leadership and have been able to include everybody no matter their age or grade. I’ve been on teams or seen parts of teams where there was definitely a gap between ages or grades and we just don’t have that.”

When last year’s 5-13 season ended, the Eagles just kept playing, either at the new outdoor courts at the school or at the two half-court basketball barns at the homes of junior Creighty Dickson and sophomore AJ Moody.

All the extra time together is paying off. Windham won its first 10 games before an unexpectedly lopsided 67-40 loss at hot-shooting Gorham on Monday afternoon. Gorham is also 10-1 and leads the AA South standings.

“It was a tough loss but it was a good learning experience,” Dickson said. “A loss is good because then you can respond and get back and you get that grit feeling. But it also hurts. It would have been nice to be undefeated.”

The Eagles have beaten the other three top teams in AA: Scarborough (10-2) from the South and Cheverus (11-2) and Portland (9-2) from the North.

Windham’s rapid turnaround is not a surprise to the players, said Bowen.

“Last year we were in a lot of games but we were young. We’re not young anymore so now’s our time,” Bowen said. “It’s really not a shock to us because of all the dedication and hard work these guys have put in.”

The Eagles are not a big team.

“We’re small team, actually. But we’ve got heart,” Dickson said. “We’re all guards. It does help because everyone can do everything and it spaces the floor and everyone can drive and shoot.”

There is no singular standout. Instead they are a team that, when playing at its best, moves the ball well, makes good decisions and trusts each other to get a good shot.

Sophomore sixth man Tyrie James, a 41-percent shooter from 3-point range, leads the team in scoring at 12.6 points per game.

“Off the court we’re just really close. We just hang out for fun, not just because we play basketball,” James said. “When you know people, you start to play with them more and be not so nervous.”

Blake McPherson, a 6-foot-4 senior captain, scores 11.8 per game. Moody, a lean and bouncy 6-2 sophomore, averages 10.8 points and a team-high 2.9 steals.

Dickson, who was a point guard as a freshman, is a sturdy 6-2 and leads the team in rebounding at 10.6, scoring nine points a game. Quinton Lindsay, also a senior captain, leads AA North with 5.3 assists a game, scoring nearly eight points with five rebounds nightly. Conor Janvrin, a junior, is another key contributor off the bench.

Moody said Pulkkinen, a former standout player at Windham and St. Joseph’s College, deserves credit, too.

“We have, in my opinion, the best coach in the league and he makes love for basketball so easy,” Moody said. “What we do here, we enjoy. Just because we had five wins last year, we knew (this) year we were going to keep on going further so we just worked for it, worked for it, and now we get to 10 wins and we’re just going to keep uprising.”

Before the tournament begins Windham will have rematches at Portland and Cheverus in back-to-back games Jan. 25 and Jan. 30. Those games could be good predictors of playoff success, but Pulkkinen said his team is not wired to look too far ahead.

“We knew Gorham is really good and it would be a tough game. Obviously we wanted a different outcome but when we went into the locker room (the players) were already talking about the next game,” Pulkkinen said. “With these guys it’s all about just wanting to play our best basketball the next game. And, to play for each other.”

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Windham Coach Chad Pulkkinen talks to his team during practice at Windham High School on Wednesday. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer