Jamier Rose of Noble and Madelynn Deprey of Caribou were named Mr. and Miss Maine Basketball, respectively, on Friday. Photos by Brianna Soukup and Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald

BANGOR — Madelynn Deprey of Caribou High School is less than a week removed from a remarkable win in an all-time classic state title game. Jamier Rose, from Noble, led a program that had spent years at the bottom to unprecedented heights.

The parting gifts for both? Shiny trophies fitting for the state’s finest players.

Rose and Deprey were announced Friday as the winners of the 2025 Mr. and Miss Maine Basketball awards. Rose beat out fellow finalists Wyatt Benoit of Thornton Academy and Gabe Lash of Medomak Valley, while Pelletier was chosen over Lexi Morin of Brunswick and Ella Pelletier of Oxford Hills.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” Rose said Friday. “It’s a great feeling, obviously, but I think it’ll hit me later when I really think about it. … It’s not easy being here — it takes a lot of dedication and a lot of hard work — and I’m just happy I’m here.”

Deprey averaged 22.0 points and 8.3 rebounds for Caribou, which went 21-1 to claim its first state title since 1983. She was also chosen as the Big East Conference Girls Player of the Year, as well as Maine’s MaxPreps Girls Player of the Year.

Deprey saved one of her best performances as a Viking for last. In the Class B state final Saturday against Biddeford, she had 29 points and 16 rebounds as Caribou prevailed 49-48 in an overtime thriller after the Tigers roared back from a 10-point deficit late in regulation.

“(That still) has not set in yet,” Deprey said. “I don’t know when this will set in, either, or if it ever will. … I keep saying this just doesn’t feel real; it doesn’t feel real at all.”

Given her family basketball history, the performance was fitting. As a sixth grader in 2019 and a seventh grader a year later, Deprey watched as her brothers, Parker and Sawyer, guided the Caribou boys to back-to-back Gold Balls. Both of those victories were also in overtime.

In her speech, Deprey mentioned the days she spent playing her older brothers 1-on-1. Those afternoons were ones that helped drive her to this point, and she’ll remember forever the props she got after the Biddeford game from Parker and Sawyer — not usually ones for compliments.

“They had never told me, until after the state championship game last Saturday, that I had played well or had a good game,” Deprey said. “I think that’s what kept me pushing, was wanting for them to be proud of me and for them to think I’m good. That’s really what I wanted.”

Rose averaged 19.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, 8.1 assists and 5.1 steals for Noble (18-3). Like Deprey, he was chosen as MaxPreps Maine Player of the Year.

Before Rose’s emergence at Noble, the school was an afterthought in basketball. From 1988-2023, the Knights had just one winning season (11-9 in 2013-14), won more than six games just three times, and did not produce a single 1,000-point scorer.

Rose and his teammates, though, were determined to change the culture for the better — and they accomplished exactly that. After going 16-5 last year, Noble’s 18 wins this season were the most in program history. The Knights were the runner-up in Class A South both seasons.

“I think it was a group effort, me and my whole grade and a few kids that were younger than us,” Rose said. “Growing up, the teams really weren’t that good — nobody really liked coming to games — but seeing the community coming together through basketball has been great to see.”

Rose’s remarkable basketball season followed an equally successful one on the football field in the fall. He completed 105 of 168 passes for 1,554 yards, 18 touchdowns and three interceptions and rushed for 958 yards and 13 touchdowns, winning the Fitzpatrick Trophy as the top senior player in Maine.

The Mr. Maine Basketball honor, then, gives Rose his very own place in history: Until Friday, no Maine high school athlete had ever been chosen as both the Fitzpatrick Trophy winner and Mr. Maine Basketball.

“Just to think about being coach of a kid who’s done something that’s never been done with all the talent in both sports is incredible,” Noble coach John Morgan said. “He’s simply one of the greatest high school athletes ever in the state of Maine. I’m proud of him.”