Wyatt Nadeau pitched sparingly for Gorham High as a freshman in 2022, but he caught the attention of college coaches that summer during a showcase event in Rhode Island. As a sophomore this spring, was a second-team all-SMAA selection. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
Wyatt Nadeau of Gorham, a 6-foot-6 right-handed pitcher who has verbally committed to play baseball for Vanderbilt University, is now attending Westminster School, a prep school in Simsbury, Connecticut.
As a sophomore this spring at Gorham High, Nadeau was a second-team all-SMAA selection. He had committed to Vanderbilt in November.
“It’s great. I love all the people here. It’s definitely helped me with my social skills because I have to talk to teachers by myself and handle stuff on my own,” said Nadeau. “That’s kind of the reason my family and I decided to come to this school, to help better myself in all aspects, not just baseball.”
In August, Nadeau competed in front of scouts from all 30 Major League teams at the Area Code Underclass Games in San Diego, an elite showcase for 175 top players who will graduate in 2025 and 2026.
Nadeau’s father, Chuck Nadeau, is also leaving as the Rams’ varsity baseball coach, a position he held from 2009-2023, earning SMAA Coach of the Year in 2013 and directing the Rams to the 2018 Class A state championship game where Gorham lost to Bangor.
“We’re going to be spending a lot of time traveling back and forth to see him play and that would make it tough to give the Gorham team what it needs,” Chuck Nadeau said.
Gorham recently hired Ed Smith as its varsity baseball coach. Smith was a Gorham assistant the past four seasons. He previously was an assistant at Cheverus and is Gorham’s head groundskeeper.
“He’s been around the league 10-plus years and knows the league well. It’s great to hand it off to somebody like Ed,” Chuck Nadeau said.
TWO TOP CLASS A South boys’ soccer teams will meet Tuesday night when No. 3 Deering (6-1-2) travels to No. 1 Windham (9-0-1).
Prior to Saturday, both Deering and No. 4 Portland (7-1-1) joined Windham as the only teams in A South without a loss. Then on Saturday morning, in quick succession, Portland lost at Fitzpatrick Stadium to Kennebunk, 1-0, and across town Deering lost 1-0 to Scarborough at Memorial Field.
“Windham is undefeated and they have been the best team all year, on paper at least,” said Deering Coach Joel Costigan. “It’s also a bounce-back game for us.”
Deering has impressed this year after graduating three players from the 2022 Maine Soccer Coaches Association Southern Maine State Team: midfielders Adilson Vidal and Patricio Mowa, and back Celda Mouckala. Scarborough, which won Class A South, was the only other team with three picks to the MSCA Southern squad.
Costigan said juniors Peter Sargent and Ethan Fisher “have been great at center midfield,” because of their high soccer IQ and now beginning to realize what he called their “crazy potential.” Newcomers to Deering Benedetto Nzeza and freshman Nathan Dimandya, along with 2022 swing player Alvaro Pulido-Ladero, have also had big roles in the center of the field.
The Rams’ scoring is coming from Chandrel Mangele-Laza (10 goals) and Nick Simon Mboumba.
“No one is faster than Chandrel,” Costigan said.
Windham has carried a belief born of last year’s run from the sixth seed to a heartbreaking overtime loss in the A South final to Scarborough.
“That was a building block that set a tone and carried into the offseason and even before we stepped on the pitch Aug. 14 there was already this timbre and tone within this group that we want to make something happen,” said Jeff Neal, who took over as head coach just before the 2022 season.
The Eagles have two of the league’s most productive offensive players in senior Nick Marion and junior Luke Cunniffe. Center backs Owen Dakin and Connor LeClerc have been “absolutely stoic” as shutdown defenders in front of goalie Lukas Hammond.
While Deering has games with No. 2 Gorham (7-1-1), which has won six straight games, and then Portland left on its schedule, this will be Windham’s last game against a team currently in the top six in the A South standings.
Neal, who grew up in Buxton, was Costigan’s coach at Bonny Eagle and then was Costigan’s goalie coach at the University of Southern Maine.
THE KENNEBUNK BOYS’ SOCCER team’s 1-0 win over Portland was a satisfying one for Rams’ Coach Nate Bean.
He saw Kennebunk (6-3-1) stay composed and competitive and display qualities that can produce playoff wins. It was also Bean’s 100th win at Kennebunk. Bean, a social studies teacher, is in his second season back as the head coach after leading Kennebunk from 2003-2013.
“We got a couple big saves from Dylan Jones which is part of our formula any time we get a big win. He did that against Scarborough, too,” Bean said. “Our strengths match up with theirs. Portland’s three midfielders are outstanding and we kept it close and stayed composed and finished a chance we got at the end.”
The “scrappy” goal came on a Devin Roy header with seven minutes to play off a Theo Pow cross to the far post. Ben Urban, who teams with fellow juniors Cooper Thompson and Blake Dallara in the Rams’ midfield, started the play.
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