Cheverus Stags Spring Athletes of the Year

BRENDAN ROGERS, Senior—Track

Courtesy Cheverus High School.

Rogers capped a most-productive Cheverus career with an abundance of personal records this spring.

Rogers competed in both indoor and outdoor track in all four of his high school seasons and served as a captain as a junior and a senior. As a freshman, Rogers was part of a runner-up 4×100 relay team. As a sophomore, he placed second in the 400 and was part of a state champion 4×400 relay team. As a junior, Rogers was second in the 400 and eighth in the 200. After placing third in the 400 indoors in February, Rogers had a solid senior outdoor campaign.

Rogers set new personal marks in the 100 (11.48 seconds), 200 (23.06) and 400 (49.78), was second in the 400 at the conference championship meet, breaking the 50-second threshold (49.78), then was third in the 400 and seventh in the 200 at states, helping the Stags tie for 13th place as a team.

Rogers is off to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts and we he will be long remembered for his contributions to Cheverus.

Coach John Wilkinson’s comment: “Brendan led by example by never missing a practice and putting in 100 percent effort starting with our daily stretching exercises and including our twice-a-week lifts. He did every rep and every set each session. His classmates obviously looked up to him, for they elected him Male Athlete of his four years at Cheverus. The success of the team went through him. Because he believed in the program and his coaches, everyone else followed. He will be greatly missed next year.”

Previous winners:

• 2023 Matt Connor (baseball)
* 2022 Frank Morang (track)
* 2021 Sam Clark (baseball)
• 2020 No season
• 2019 Jack Mullen (baseball)
• 2018 Griffin Watson (baseball)
• 2017 Jared Brooks (baseball)
• 2016 Frank Curran (lacrosse)
• 2015 Jake Dixon (track)
• 2014 Isaac Yeobah (track)
• 2013 Thomas Lawson (lacrosse)
• 2012 Louie DiStasio (baseball)
• 2011 Nic Lops (baseball)
• 2010 Jack Terwilliger (track)
• 2009 Mick DiStasio (baseball)
• 2008 Topher Pochebit (lacrosse)
• 2007 Todd Keneborus (baseball)
• 2006 Michael Antoniou (lacrosse)
• 2005 Ben Michaud (track)
• 2004 Ben Michaud (track)

ADDISON DEROCHE, Freshman – Softball

Brewster Burns / Sun Journal

• Maine Gatorade softball Player of the Year
* SMAA Player of the Year
* SMAA Pitcher of the Year
* SMAA all-star, first-team
* Freshman/Sophomore all-star

Brianna Soukup / Portland Press Herald

DeRoche was a shining star from start to finish, a player who not only lived up to the enormous hype, but blew it out of the water, dazzling with her nonpareil arm and bat and lifting her team to a stratosphere it couldn’t have previously imagined.

And she’s only a 15-year-old who just finished her freshman season.

DeRoche, who lives in Westbrook, was already well known in the softball world from her time on the mound on the travel circuit and this spring, she embarked upon arguably the finest high school pitching season in state annals, by a freshman or otherwise.

DeRoche’s final statistics at first glance appear to hail from fantasy, or a video game, but ask any batter she faced and they’d tell you she, and they, were for real.

DeRoche, who completely handcuffed the opposition with a myriad of unhittable pitches, finished with a 12-1 record, striking out a whopping 212 batters in 87 innings, while only one earned run, good for a microscopic 0.08 earned run average.

DeRoche debuted on April 23 by no-hitting longtime powerhouse Scarborough in a 6-0 victory. She only allowed a walk, fanned 15 and in a season-long theme, excelled at the plate as well, with a double, a triple, two runs batted in and a run scored.

There would be many, many more highlights to come.

In her next outing, against Kennebunk, DeRoche gave up one hit in five innings and struck out 14 in a 10-0 victory. Marshwood was next and in another 10-0 triumph, DeRoche again allowed one hit in five innings while fanning 14. In a 13-0 (five-inning) win at South Portland, DeRoche gave up a leadoff triple in the first inning, but stayed unscored upon, retiring everyone else she faced and finishing with 14 Ks. In the Stags’ first close game, a 3-0 home win over Gorham, DeRoche threw a one-hitter, striking out 15, and she homered as well. DeRoche then no-hit Biddeford (7-0), walking one and striking out 16, no-hit Portland (5-0), walking one and fanning 18 while hitting another home run, and the next time out, she threw a five-inning perfect game to beat Massabesic (11-0), striking out a dozen. DeRoche and her teammates finally met their match in the regular season finale at Windham, a 3-1 loss (she fanned 12 but gave up three hits, including a home run, and the only earned run she’d surrender all year).

Cheverus was the No. 2 seed for the Class A South playoffs and would embark on a first-ever championship run, with DeRoche doing most of the heavy lifting.

In the quarterfinals, a 3-0 win over Massabesic, DeRoche threw a no-hitter, walking two and striking out 19. She then no-hit Scarborough in the semifinals, 8-0, fanning 12. That set up a regional final showdown versus Windham at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham and a game for the ages, perhaps the finest pitcher’s duel seen in state history. DeRoche and Eagles ace Brooke Gerry traded zeroes for nine innings. Finally, in the top of the 10th, the Stags pushed across two runs and DeRoche slammed the door with her record 23rd strikeout (she only walked one and surrendered two hits) to finish off the 2-0 victory, sending Cheverus to states for the first time.

DeRoche would pitch in the finale against Oxford Hills, but not before she and her parents, Joe and Bridget, resolved a logistical challenge.

Playing for her Mojo-Lewis’s 16U team in a travel tournament in Kansas City, DeRoche received her coach’s blessing to return home to Maine to pitch in the final and after a weather delay, DeRoche got back at 2 a.m., just 11 hours before she took the mound with a title at stake. Like everything else this spring, fatigue was no match for DeRoche, who capped her legendary season by allowing just one unearned run on one hit, walking one and striking out 21 in a 3-1 victory, which elevated the Stags to the pinnacle for the first time.

“Sure, I won individual awards, but I couldn’t have earned those without my team behind me,” said the always-humble, always-complimentary-of-her-teammates DeRoche. “It was so much fun. Absolutely unbelievable. Winning a championship with Cheverus when it had never been done before was the pinnacle of my first high school season. We’re a tight group and to put up the first ever softball banner in our gym is an honor and something that means more to me overall. It unites us together forever.”

DeRoche is already in the crosshairs of recruiters from top schools across the country and while she won’t be able to make her choice until her junior season, rest assured it will be her choice of where to go to college. First, all accounts suggest that she’ll be back in a Stags uniform in 2025, which is great news for everybody.

Because you can only imagine what Addison DeRoche will do for an encore.

Coach John Eisenhart’s comment: “You can’t say enough about what Addison did for us. She’s so incredible, she’s such a great competitor and she’s so talented. She’s just an incredible person, too. She’s mentally tough. She’s physically intimidating. She works so hard. She’s very poised and she can swing the bat too. She’s a competitor. She can throw four pitches for a strike in any count. For me, it’s easy calling pitches because she’s so good. I’ve coached a long time and this is the type of kid who comes along maybe once or twice. She’s just a generational player.”

Previous winners:

• 2023 Reese Belanger (lacrosse)
* 2022 Riley O’Mara (lacrosse)
* 2021 Victoria Bossong (track)
• 2020 No season
• 2019 Zoe Mazur (lacrosse)
• 2018 Victoria Bossong (track)
• 2017 Emma Gallant (track)
• 2016 Emily Turner (track)
• 2015 Abby Biegel (lacrosse)
• 2014 Brittany Bell (softball)
• 2013 Alex Logan (lacrosse)
• 2012 Meredith Willard (lacrosse)
• 2011 Paige Lucas (lacrosse)
• 2010 Theresa Hendrix (softball)
• 2009 Theresa Hendrix (softball)
• 2008 Theresa Hendrix (softball)
• 2007 Dana Proscia (lacrosse)
• 2006 Dana Proscia (lacrosse)
• 2005 Meaghan Morris (track)
• 2004 Kate McLaughlin (track)