LEWISTON – Jason Fuller makes no bones about it.

“I’m a guard-oriented guy,” the Lewiston coach said. “I’m not going to deny it.”

Fuller prefers a frantic, full-court style, one that relies on creating chaos on the court using speed and quickness on the defensive end and thoughtful aggressiveness on the offensive end.

So it should be obvious why Fuller seems to be walking around with an extra spring in his step this December, even though he and his Blue Devils have joined the rough and tough Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.

Fuller has his dream backcourt, three seniors and a junior who work seamlessly together on the court and are best friends off of it. They’re deep, quick, smart, unselfish, experienced and capable of lighting it up from beyond the 3-point arc (they combined for 61 treys last year) and playing relentless defense from baseline to baseline.

The quartet of seniors Nick Beauchesne, Bryce Bryant and Joe Lee and junior David Labonte will be the main reason Lewiston could make immediate noise in its new league.

“These are four good guards, and what’s even better is how well they fit together in terms of being so complementary to each other,” Fuller said. “They all bring something different.”

At first look, it’s hard to envision a lot of individual differences. All four are roughly the same height, between 5-8 and 5-10. But, as their coach points out, their individual games and personalities are quite distinct.

“Nick is the leader of this team. He’s more vocal than anybody,” Bryant said. “Joe and I, and Dave, we just lead by example, I guess. We don’t talk as much. Nick just gets us pumped up and ready to go and we just go off that.”

“Bryce is kind of the muscle of the group. He’ll get down and play ‘D’ and pound with the big guys, because he wants to be a big guy,” Fuller said. “Then you’ve got Joe, who’s the shooter, and Dave kind of does a little of everything. It’s fun to see those guys interact as a group.”

Beauchesne does indeed do most of the talking, at least to outsiders. Labonte barely utters a peep, yet the junior is smart enough to know that as the “youngster” of the group, it’s better to receive wisdom than impart it.

“Being a junior playing with seniors, I’ve learned a lot from them,” Labonte said. “They’ve kind of taken me under their wing.”

“I think we challenge each other,” Bryant said. “Nick’s my best friend and he’s pushed me to be a better player and I’m sure that I push the younger kids. I think we feed off of each other.”

Fuller, who’s coached teams with internal problems in the past, appreciates how his guards set the tone for the team.

“They’ve given a tremendous amount back to the program,” Fuller said. “I think the seniors realize the importance of being a senior and they realize that they need to pass something down to the younger kids.”

“It’s not just us guards. This is the closest team that I’ve ever been a part of,” Beauchesne said. “Everybody on this team gets along and I think that’s going to help us a lot during the season.”

They’ll have other things going for them, as well.

Lewiston’s aggressive defense, which gave opposing coaches in the SMAA headaches in recent years, will have their KVAC counterparts heading for the medicine cabinet this winter. The Blue Devils think they can frustrate their foes at the other end, too..

“I think it’s going to be hard for teams to pressure us on the other side of the ball,” Beauchesne said. “I think if teams try to pressure us and they’re not athletic, it’s going to be tough for them to shut us down. All four of us can hit the open shot.”

And even though they’ll be the new, smaller kids on the block, they’re not worried about confronting the big, bad bullies of the KVAC.

“We’re kind of an unknown,” Lee said. “People are going to have to adjust to us more. It’s going to be hard for them to react to us because they’re not sure about how we play.”


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