As the season began, Paul Vachon had one simple strategy for his basketball team – Katie Rollins.

With a young Cony girls’ team, the veteran Rams coach knew he had a go-to player in the 6-foot-2 center. He was also fully aware that for Cony to be successful, the Rams had to go to her often.

“We started off the year just going inside to Katie,” said Vachon, who had just Rollins and Briiana Rende returning for veterans players after losing the likes of Ashley Underwood and Karen Sirois. “We just thought our bread and butter this year was to go inside and see what teams would do. She did extremely well.”

And that is why Rollins has been named the Sun Journal Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year for her stellar season.

Teams spent much of the year trying to figure out what to do against Rollins. The Cony junior was virtually unstoppable for most of the year and helped carry the Rams to unexpected heights. Even with a new lineup, Cony managed a perfect regular season, an Eastern A championship and an appearance in the state game where it lost to Deering.

“I really don’t think that there are many teams that thought we were going to go undefeated in the regular season,” said Vachon. “A lot of teams thought this was the year Cony could be beaten. She made it easier for the young kids to adjust.”

In past years Rollins didn’t have to be the No. 1 option for Cony. With a group of fine outside shooters, the Rams could feed the ball inside and utilize Rollins’ ability to pass it back to the perimeter to set up quality shots. Rollins got her chances in the post and on the boards, but she didn’t have to carry most of the scoring responsibility. This year, the Rams went for her on the block from the start. Her scoring would carry the Rams in the early going. As other teams tried to scramble to contain her, it opened things up for the rest of the Cony lineup.

“She carried a young team a long way until we were able to develop into a good basketball team,” said Vachon.

During the season, Rollins reached the 1,000-point mark in just her third year. She had 34 points and the last-second winner in a key early season win over then-unbeaten Skowhegan. She had 38 points against Mt. Ararat and 31 against Lewiston. She had over 30 in five games and finished averaging nearly 25 points per game. She also averaged nine rebounds and five assists. She was not only chosen the KVAC’s top player but also was Maine’s Gatorade Player of the Year.

“As soon as we established our inside game, teams had to adjust, and that created other opportunities for us,” said Vachon. “I think teams really thought, ‘We can’t leave that girl alone.’ That’s a tremendous compliment to her. They had to double-team and triple-team her. That made us a better team.” Vachon admits he had to steer Rollins away from a tendency to pass the ball. He wanted her to be more selfish and determined to go to the basket.

Besides increasing her production, she also had to take on a larger leadership role as well.

“She was the only player coming back that had any experience,” said Vachon. “She led a young inexperienced team to a great season.”

In the postseason, she helped beat Skowhegan in the Eastern Maine championship game with 25 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks and was named the tournament MVP. She had 21 points in the loss to Deering in the state game.

She’s attracting a wealth of attention from Division I schools such as Maine, Michigan State, Penn State, Duchesne. Vachon says she heard from as many as 35 schools and will begin the weaning out process this week.

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