TURNER — Leavitt girls’ basketball already has locked multiple KVAC championships and a Gold Ball into the trophy case.

The Hornets have made three straight state championship game appearances in football.

Is boys’ basketball feeling lost or lonely?

Maybe not for much longer.

On the heels of a school-record 14 wins in 2010-11, Leavitt’s blend of size and athleticism makes the Hornets one of the favorites in a race that is more crowded than usual.

“We’d like to play at least one more game in the tournament. We’d like to see what we can do about maybe being in a KVAC championship game,” said Mike Hathaway, himself making the stark, late-autumn transition from football to basketball coach. “To get there is a lot of small steps along the way.”

With the exception of a brief run by Maranacook, Camden Hills has dominated Eastern Class B and the KVAC for as long as most current high school players can remember.

In Western Class B — where Leavitt is assigned for tournament play — Cape Elizabeth, Greely, York and Falmouth usually dominate the conversation.

Nobody is engaging in either discussion this preseason without including Leavitt. It’s a distinction that the Hornets are enjoying with disarming cool.

“I definitely think the expectations are a little bit higher than they have been,” senior shooting guard Tim Dow said. “We have a pretty good group coming back. We’re working hard in practice and it should hopefully tie together.”

Two things that surprisingly don’t have an overriding common thread are Leavitt’s gridiron greatness and its newfound prosperity on the hardwood.

Dow, the grandson of former Lewiston High School athletic director and basketball coach Fern Masse, is a year-round basketball player. So is point guard Tyler Walton, who takes his only break to play golf.

Forward/center Jordan Hersom, named this week as a semifinalist for the Fitzpatrick Trophy, and sophomore Levi Morin are the only basketball players who started for the football team.

“I love basketball just as much as football,” Hersom said. “Football shape is definitely not basketball shape. There’s a lot more running and not much stoppage of time. They’ve been taking it easy on the guys from football and easing us into it a little bit.”

Walton, Dow and Hersom are four-year varsity players.

The third starter in Leavitt’s three-guard rotation is Andrew Middleton, a 6-foot-5 sophomore averaging 20 points per game in the preseason.

Greg Lake, Dustin Collins and Morin give Leavitt size and strength in the middle, something that the Hornets hope will keep opponents from focusing on — read: beating up — Hersom in the paint.

“You’ve got to have a little bit of both. You’ve got to have some guys who are basketball conscious and that’s their thing, and you have to have some guys who are athletic and are used to competing,” Hathaway said. “Hopefully that will mesh up pretty well.”

Leavitt’s playoff history includes a handful of quarterfinal losses at the Augusta and Bangor tournament sites during its days in Class A.

The Hornets hadn’t trekked to the tourney since returning to Class B until 2011, when they dropped a close decision to York in the quarterfinals at Portland Expo.

“During warm-ups last year, realizing that Leavitt boys’ basketball has hardly ever been there, it was kind of a shock,” Walton said. “Having the experience of being there last year is big. We won’t hit the floor and in the first five minutes be overwhelmed by the atmosphere.”

Not owning a win in that environment has made managing outsiders’ expectations for the Hornets easy for the players and coaching staff.

“Our focus is a lot smaller than that right now. We’re trying to get ready to beat Maranacook,” Hathaway said, referring to Leavitt’s regular-season opener on Friday. “We talked a lot this summer and since we started this winter about just working and trying to get ready.”

Leavitt won’t enjoy many breaks in the KVAC schedule.

Despite losing all-state players Tyler McFarland and Keegan Pieri, Camden Hills is still considered an elite team. In many quarters, Medomak Valley actually is considered this year’s favorite.

That doesn’t hurt the feelings of anyone wearing green-and-white and accustomed to cruising under the radar.

“Really it’s just about becoming the best team you can become over the course of the year. There’s going to be some adversity and some ups and downs, but that’s when the real teams pull through,” Hersom said, “Hopefully at the end of the year we can be sitting where we want to be.”

Whether or not they’ll admit it, peer pressure and pride being powerful as they are, you can be sure that goal involves holding some sort of trophy.

koakes@sunjournal.com