LEWISTON – He was part pitchman and part master motivator.

During his first season with the Lewiston girls’ basketball team, Jim Hood tried to sell the idea of success to his Blue Devils.

It wasn’t an easy task. He felt they were capable of being among the top teams in Western A, but they had only hovered around .500 the year before.

When the season began, Hood may have been the only one to believe Lewiston could do so well, but by the time his Blue Devils reached the Western A finals, he had made believers out of everyone.

Now, Hood is making the same pitch, only in a different conference.

“There’s no question that the potential is there,” said Hood, whose team lost to the eventual state champions in the Western A championship. “Down the road, if we can keep on going from where we are now, if we can get them to where they’re doing some good things and they’re progressing and getting better, then we’ll be playing with almost anybody at the end.

” I still think we’re going to be in that top grouping. Without seeing anybody, I’m going by what we had last year and know where we were in that group, and we’re not far off that pace.”

Lewiston finished sixth overall last year at 13-5 and proceeded to knock off higher seeded Westbrook and Deering with some late playoff game heroics.

Though the Blue Devils lost guards Katie A. Morin and Shannon Godin and forward Meagan Lever, Lewiston has the rest of the squad back, including regulars Katie L. Morin, Amanda Bryant, Tracy Bradley and Kelsey Varney.

“I think our team has a lot of confidence,” said senior forward Allyson St. Pierre. “We know we worked well together last year and have a lot of returning varsity players.”

“It’s like picking up from where we left off but with a couple of new people,” said senior guard Lindsey Foster. “It’s like everyone still clicks.”

In the SMAA, Lewiston was a small team faced with the tall orders of playing the likes of McAuley, Deering and Westbrook. Lewiston proved they could compete with all three.

“We learned that size is not the most important thing,” said Foster.

Lewiston may not face such a size disadvantage in the KVAC but playing their style will still be a determining factor.

The Blue Devils rely on a strong defensive game.

They play at a fast pace and have a balanced offensive attack.

Those are all things the team may benefit from this year after learning how to do them so well last year.

“I think the experience on varsity, coming back a second year, you want to push yourself to continue that performance,” said St. Pierre. “The fact that we were able to work well last year and grow together as a family, I think we’ll succeed this year.”

After producing an unexpected trip to the regional final, the Blue Devils could be a prime candidate for complacency, but the players say that won’t happen. The fact that they see a whole new schedule and unfamiliar teams forces them to be on their toes.

“I think being in a different conference this year, it’s going to be a challenge playing different teams,” said St. Pierre. “But, our team is strong, and we play well together.”

The Blue Devils got off to a slow start in the preseason thanks to the recent snow. That wiped out more than half the team’s preseason scrimmages. Hood scrambled earlier this week to squeeze in a game with McAuley, just to get Lewiston a second game.

“The girls are ready to play,” said Hood, who liked what he saw as his team lost by two points. “The downside of playing so well last year is that we might be a little inflated. I think we have to play before we judge how well we’re doing.”

Lewiston will have to see how its style works in the KVAC. After last year, they certainly believe in their potential. Now it is a matter of working their way back to that point once again.

“Through the season we progressed over games and games,” said Foster. “We learned a lot from our mistakes and what not. By the end of the season, we were pretty much at our highest point.”

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