DIXFIELD — Tyler Chiasson’s job title for the Dirigo Cougars is point guard. His job description is much more extensive.

“He’s one of those guys that we can run out of a lot of different positions at both ends of the floor,” Dirigo coach Dave Gerrish said. “He brings the ball up, but we might have him play the ‘four’ or ‘five.’ On defense, we might have him play the point guard or the post player. His versatility is instrumental to what we do.”

The 6-foot-2 senior leads Dirigo into Saturday night’s Class C state championship game against Washington Academy as the Cougars’ most difficult player to pigeonhole. Dirigo’s offense usually starts with Chiasson bringing the ball up, but good luck trying to predict what he’s going to do once he crosses halfcourt. 

Chiasson has the quickness and ball-handling ability to blow by a defender. He can pull up for a mid-range or 3-point jumper, or he can hand the ball off to a wing and go down low to post-up a smaller defender. He was fifth in the Mountain Valley Conference in scoring (16.5 ppg).

More often, though, Chiasson is looking to set up his teammates, whether it’s Nic Crutchfield on the baseline, Eric Bolduc and Kyle Hutchinson in 3-point territory or Tyler Gates on the wing. His 4.6 assists per game were fourth in the MVC.

“He gets things going. When we need a basket, he’s our go-to guy,” Crutchfield said. “He can play inside, outside and in-between.”

“I don’t know what we’d do without his ball-handling,” Hutchinson said. “He’s the chief ball-handler. He gets the ball up the court through pressure and he sees the court really well.”

Getting the ball up the court against Dirigo’s hard-nosed defense is a chore, especially with Chiasson, who averages three steals a game, comfortable defending any position.

Chiasson should feel at home anywhere on a basketball court. His parents, Chris and Amy (Arsenault) Chiasson, played for Rumford and Dirigo, respectively. He started playing at a young age in the GRCC and with travel teams, and absorbed as much as he could from a wide variety of coaches, from his father to current Dirigo assistant Jamie Robinson, from former Dirigo coach Gavin Kane to Gerrish.

“I’ve been coached by many different coaches. I think I’ve been privileged to have been coached by all of them,” he said. “I’ve had some awesome coaches.”

He emerged as an all-conference and Sun Journal All-Star guard last season, playing alongside Thomas Knight. With opponents focused on stopping the Cougars’ big man, Chiasson was usually the one to exploit the gadget defenses they used.

Dirigo fans and those who watched them on a regular basis understood that the Cougars weren’t a one-man team, and Knight frequently vocalized that sentiment. But the spotlight always shone on the Notre Dame-bound senior as Dirigo won its first Western Maine title in 26 years.

Chiasson wasn’t worried about individual recognition then, and he isn’t now.

“Every year, a player has their role. You do what you’ve got to do to win the game, and a lot of times the last couple of years, that was to get the ball to Tom Knight,” he said. “But you know what else Tom did? Tom left a lot of openings, because he’d be double- and triple-teamed, and that would leave a lot of openings for the other players on the court.”

Knight’s graduation left a leadership opening for the Cougars. Chiasson was the logical candidate to help fill the void.

“He’s a vocal guy. He’s an enthusiastic guy,” Gerrish said. “He plays hard every night and plays hard in practice every night, and that’s just what you want out of your leaders.”

Chiasson happily accepts the responsibility, though he deflects the credit to his teammates.

“When you’re a point guard, you’ve got to be a leader,” he said. “But we start five seniors, so they know just as much as I do. They want it as much as I do.”

Chiasson, who is still considering a handful of colleges to study pre-med, wants nothing more than to cap his career with Dirigo’s first state championship since 1983.

“It would be awesome,” said Chiasson, who like a number of his teammates played on the state title-winning football team in the fall. “I love basketball. I love playing basketball. If we could finish with a state championship my senior year, it would be incredible.”‘