Head coach Steve Stewart talks to sophomore center Dylan Root about defensive positioning during a practice drill. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record

BATH — Beth Carlton likes to start each practice with a key word of the day. On Wednesday, the Morse girls basketball team’s final practice before the start of the 2024-25 season, the word was “contagious.”

The most contagious things about Carlton might be her love of the game and her drive to constantly improve. After a few months of being around their first-year head coach, the Shipbuilders are catching the bug, too.

Senior forward Waylon Rhorer dribbles the ball during a practice drill. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record

“With a new coach and a lot of new teammates this year as well, it’s like the whole program has just completely shifted its mindset,” junior guard Reese Darling said. “It’s all starting to look more positive, and the outlook is looking better.”

Two seasons ago, Morse won two games in Class A South. Last year, Morse reclassified to B South and won three games. Carlton’s expectations exceed those marks, and already she is seeing positive strides toward reaching that goal.

“We always can get better in different ways, but they’ve definitely bought into how I want to play every day,” Carlton said. “Every day we’re getting better. Each preseason game that we’ve played, we’ve gotten better. … Between attitude, how we’re playing, and just doing the little things, I’ve seen change. It’s amazing to watch. It’s amazing. These girls are very receptive and coachable, so it makes it easy.”

This is the first varsity head coaching gig for Carlton, formerly Suggs, who graduated from Morse in 2009 and played collegiately at the University of New England, where she scored 1,128 career points, won the Commonwealth Coast Conference’s Player of the Year award and was named an All-American honorable mention before graduating in 2013. She has since been inducted into the school’s hall of fame.

Carlton started coaching at Greely, spending seven years on the bench as a junior varsity head coach and varsity assistant, before returning to Bath.

There are a few on-court changes Carlton is trying to implement, most notably moving away from a zone defense in favor of a fast-paced, man-to-man full-court press, but most are cultural. Instilling confidence in everyone’s individual skills and creating a tight-knit group is at the top of the list.

Carlton said the starting five will always be up for grabs, and that she anticipates a deep rotation.

“I call myself an old school coach because I constantly talk on the sidelines, I’m walking up and down, I don’t sit, so I’m trying to bring that back,” Carlton said. “I’m trying to bring that intensity, that fire, the will to win. I’m trying to bring that back to the program, because I think that’s what’s been missing, that coach that’s intense on the sidelines (and) will do anything for their girls because their girls are doing anything for them and everything for them. So that’s why I eat, sleep and breathe basketball, because I want to have this program go from zero to 100.”

Steve Stewart is trying to do the same for Morse’s boys team.

A former assistant coach at Lake Region and Portland in the 2000s, Stewart takes over a Morse squad that went 6-12 in its first year competing in B South. Stewart’s return to the high school level after more than a decade coaching in the AAU circuit with Southern Maine Sting and XLP has also brought a renewed excitement to the Shipbuilders.

“There’s a lot of new energy with our team,” senior forward Gage Suitter said. “Especially, like past years, we’ve been a little more quiet and not really involved with the sport of basketball. (This year) I think we have a couple more people coming back that didn’t play last year, and I think our energies on all-time high.”

Miles Norris is one of those players back for his senior year. The point guard decided to sit out his junior season because he lost joy in playing the game he grew up loving. Norris said Stewart’s hire in the spring gave him hope for something new and fun.

Even after completely tearing the ACL and partially tearing the MCL in his left knee over the summer, Norris is committed to contributing to his new coach, whether that’s on offense, defense or from the bench. And unless doctors say otherwise, Norris plans to play as much as he can.

“I still wanted to promise to (Stewart) that I would play,” Norris said. “I didn’t want to let him down or let my teammates down. So it was more of a goal for me, but a goal for other players to have me on the court as well.”

Stewart says that due to injuries, sicknesses or involvement in the school-wide MoHiBa annual variety show, the entire group has only practiced together a couple times over the past two weeks. Still, he is encouraged by the team’s willingness to not “cheat the program by an inch”.

“They’re in here working hard,” Stewart said. “They are willing to do anything I ask them to do. They want it. It’s just going to take us time to get everything implemented and get everybody pushing in the same direction.”

The Shipbuilders will rely on fast and intense defensive effort, a calling card of Stewart’s teams, and an aggressive, but efficient transition offense to stay competitive in games this season.

Both Morse teams took on Waterville in Thursday’s season opener (boys on the road, girls at home), and although Carlton and Stewart are both still early in their tenures, both are looking towards the future. The two coaches constantly talk to each other about what’s necessary to maintain the buzz they currently have. One of their ideas is to start a Saturday youth clinic.

“There’s more opportunity to play basketball here than most communities, and we have a big group of kids that loves playing the game,” Stewart said. “So I don’t think it’s going to be that difficult to rebuild either one of our programs. You know, the kids are here, the facilities are in place, the administrators that we need to be successful are in place. I think it’s just a matter of us getting our voices out there and getting down and getting with the youth groups. I think the sky is the limit, really, for Morse basketball on both sides.”