The Morse boys basketball program has a new head coach in Sam Hayes, who hopes to better the Shipbuilders’ record of 4-14 last year, the first in Class B.

“I think that we are fairly deep as a team and should be able to play quite a few guys every game,” said Hayes, a former Brunswick and Hall-Dale mentor. “I hope to be competitive every night out regardless of who we play. That’s our goal right now. Play hard and let the chips fall where they may. The kids have a great attitude and are working very hard.”

Returning seniors include Kevin McKellar (forward), D’Vaughn Myers (guard), Matt Munster (F/center), Jordan Lister (G) and Paul Whalen (F).

In the junior class look for Trenton Moore (G), Jacob Freeman (G), Liam McDonough (G/F) and Chris Paulus (C).

Newcomers are senior guard Grady Madden, senior Keegan Drouin (F), sophomores Casey Watson (G/F) and Ethan Winglass (G/F), and freshman Keegan McDonough (G).

“I am looking forward to the season. I feel we should be competitive,” said Hayes, whose squad visits Gardiner on Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. Morse hosts Maranacook in its home opener on Dec. 11.

Girls basketball

Becky Roak replaces Mike Hart. Previously she coached at Southern Maine Community College.

Last year, the Shipbuilders went 7- 11 in KVAC Class B, with no postseason.

Morse’s strengths, according to Roak, are “good size and depth in the post position, hard work ethic with good court sense, and young talent mixed with some veteran leadership.

“Offensively, we will look to pound it inside to our post players and hopefully create a little offense at the free-throw line,” added Roak. “We will look to push the ball when we can. We have a couple quick scrappy guards with long arms that will play in passing lanes and get their hands on as many passes as they can. If we can take care of the ball and limit our turnovers on offense we should be able to compete.

“Defensively, we will try to play up-tempo in the half court, forcing our opponents to make mistakes.

“We have young guards that will need to fill big shoes after losing Katie Henrikson, Tori Fields and Kerry Cummings to graduation. We do have a young developing talented team that have a lot of sense on the court. They seemed to have picked things up quickly, work hard and have good chemistry.”

Morse will sport five returnees with seven newcomers, three of whom are freshmen (Signe Ostergaard, Emma Harrington and Izzy Paulus).

Returning sophomores are Sophie Sreden and Leia Graves.

“We will look to our senior leadership for stability, with shooting guard Megan Hixon, and post players Sadia Crosby (center) and Hannah Rossetti (forward),” said Roak. “We will look to these three ladies to lead this young team to playoff contention.

“No one is expecting us to be a threat, but we hope to shake some teams up this season and create some excitement around Morse girls basketball. We will continue to work hard and have some fun while doing it.”

Morse opens Dec. 7 (H, Gardiner), and key dates are Dec. 18 (H, Lincoln Academy), Jan. 21 (H, Camden Hills) and Feb. 2 (H, Medomak Valley).

Wrestling

Longtime coach Shawn Guest led the Shipbuilders to a fifth-place showing in State Class B. Gary Stevens (126) and Wyatt Brackett (145) were state champs, while Kyle Bonti was third at 106 and Michael Alvarez fourth at 152.

Juniors include Bonti (106). “Kyle should improve upon last year’s state finish. He can be really tough,” said Guest.

Other juniors are Aidan McGowan at 145 (“Aidan has had a string of bad luck with a broken back. We hope he can make it to the states because he is a tough kid who can score points for us,” said Guest) and Michael Armstrong at 170 (“Michael has been in the weight room and really worked hard at getting in shape.”).

In the sophomore class look to Chad Bonti at 152 (“Chad placed second at regionals and had a great day. We hope he can repeat his performance from last year.”), Corey Lent at 170 (“He placed third at 220 at regionals after sitting most of the year with a broken collar bone. Has lost weight and is in good shape.”).

“Incoming freshmen all look really good and are tough kids,” added Guest of Hunter Reed (126/130), Bailey Paige-Nichols (182) and Justin Trottier (170/182).

Other newcomers include seniors Anthony Alvarez (126), Nick Theriault

(170) and Zech Thomas (180), juniors Deandre Dinkins (138), Kyle Perry (152) and Justin Reynolds (136), and sophomores Cody Merenius (126) and Austin Talgo (220).

“I am not sure what to expect from this year’s team,” continued Guest. “We are young and have a lot of inexperienced wrestlers. The only returning senior is Michael Alvarez.

“I would like to think that we could be in the top-five at states, but there are some other teams out there who have a lot of experienced wrestlers. I suspect we will mature as the season unwinds and that we will ‘show up’ as we usually do for the end of the season tournaments. Morse has had quite a run of top five finishes and we would like to see that continue.

“We are extremely thin in the lower weights and at this point do not have a 285-pound wrestler. Three freshmen from the Bath Middle School team that won their league championship last year have transferred to Cheverus, Lincoln Academy and Wiscasset. All three placed as eighth-graders and when they don’t come to Morse that hurts our program substantially. That is our feeder program.

“The KVAC looks wide open, but Skowhegan is loaded with tough kids in A. Class B could be a dogfight, with depth determining winner. Regionals looks to be Mountain Valley with York and Wells right there. States is a toss-up with Mountain Valley, York, Ellsworth and Belfast leading the way.”

The Shipbuilders opened on Saturday (Westlake Tournament at Bath Middle School) and key dates are Dec. 15 (At Tiger Tournament, Gardiner), Jan. 16 (At Mt. Ararat), Jan. 26 (KVACs at Cony High School) and Feb. 9 (State Class B Championships at Augusta Civic Center).

Swimming

Coach Todd Marco returns, and 20011/12 highlights included the girls second in KVACs as Guerin Morissette was third in the 50 free. The ladies were eighth in State Class A.

The Morse boys were second in KVACs as Jake Olsen won the 50 free and Albin Werwaiss captured the 100 back. The Shipbuilders were seventh in State Class A as Olsen was third in the 50 free and fourth in 100 free.

“We have a small team this year, 10 boys and 11 girls,” said Marco. “For returning boys we have seniors Jeff Cooney and Jay Saunders, juniors Kyle Bauer, Otto Werwaiss and Josh Valentine, and sophomores Wesley McKenna, Drew Ceglinski, Paden Stanton, Trevor Patterson and James Lasur. The boys should be able to compete well in the KVACs top three-four and probably top-10 in the state. We are in a building year this season and look forward to a fun year.

“For returning girls we have seniors Catie Ludee and Danica Moore, and sophomores Madison Burch, Bronwyn Morissette and Allison Plummer.”

Newcomers include freshmen Emma Berkowitz, Amelia Franklin, Lexi Stevenson, Meghan Stover and Marisabel Rodriguez.

“The girls also should compete OK in the KVACs and will do OK in the states. Also the girls are in a building year. We are looking at having a fun season and spend a lot of time with swimmers one on one.”

Morse visits Brunswick for its season opener on Dec. 11, and hosts Mt. Ararat (Jan. 4). The KVACS are at the Bath Area Family YMCA on Feb. 9, with the State boys meet at Bowdoin College Feb. 18, with the girls at Greason Pool Feb. 19.

Indoor track

A handful of athletes are training with Brunswick at Bowdoin’s Farley Field House.

Morse will compete in KVAC meets during the regular season and in Class B in the postseason.

The girls are seniors Elizabeth Walfield (hurdles and sprints) and Amy Franklin (distances), while the boys are juniors Noah Lapointe (distances), Nate Stover (distances) and Bolt von Huene (distances), sophomore Aaron Ouellette (distances) and freshman Chris Walfield (distances).