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NEWPORT — It’s part workstation, part shrine. Take a look at Sue Paige’s desk at Nokomis Regional High School and you’ll see Duke basketball pictures, programs, schedules and memorabilia, all homage to the local boy who is in the middle of it all.

“They have Duke Crazies,” said Paige, a Nokomis computer tech. “We’re Coop crazies.”

Cooper Flagg and the Duke men’s basketball team are in the Final Four in San Antonio. The Blue Devils will play Houston at 8:49 p.m. Saturday.

As Flagg became the most talked about college basketball player in the country this season, the town and school where it all started has been beaming at one of their own, who ascended to the highest reaches of fame.

“He’s part of us. He’s family. There’s unbelievable pride through the whole community,” Paige said. “I’ve been in the store and I have my Cooper shirts on. … An older gentleman the other day at Wal-Mart, and he ran right over to me and said ‘He’s playing tonight!’ I said ‘Yes he is!’ It’s unbelievable, the amount of people that are all tied into this one boy.”

Kelly Flagg, Cooper’s mother, said she hears “daily” from well-wishers back home, throughout Maine and the family’s hometown of Newport.

“The love and the pride that Newport itself has for him and his family, it’s pretty indescribable, really,” she said. “It means a lot that the place that we still consider home, we know they have our back, and they have his back.”

One of those calls came from Town Manager Jim Ricker, who sought permission from the family to put up a sign noting Newport as “The home of Cooper Flagg.”

“I don’t take it for granted, I don’t think our family takes it for granted,” Kelly Flagg said. “I know that this is special.”

‘A SENSE OF PRIDE’

For a town of just over 3,000 people, it’s like watching a local win an Oscar, or become a platinum-selling musician. At Bear’s One Stop, a market just off Exit 157 off Interstate 95, owner Bob Berg said his customers, from opening to close, are buzzing about Flagg.

His store has a sign that is updated daily with references to the Duke freshman and Associated Press men’s basketball player of the year. On Wednesday, it read “Cooper Flagg the DiriGOAT,” a nod to the state motto: Dirigo. On Thursday, it was changed to “Houston, you’ve got a problem.”

“I deal with 600 to 900 people a day, every day. The No. 1 topic out there used to be the weather, or maybe politics. Now the No. 1 topic is Cooper Flagg,” said Berg, a Corinna resident. “They’re proud that this small little town of Newport, that’s basically known for nothing, (has this). Especially the older folks, they’re loving it, (going) ‘Newport, Maine,’ ‘Newport, Maine,’ ‘I knew him when he was a baby.’ It’s obviously a sense of pride.”

A video interview with Cooper Flagg and his family from April 2022.

Just down the road and over the town line into Palmyra, the Somerset Pour House has been a popular gathering spot for the Flagg faithful. During the NCAA tournament games, the bar has had as many as 100 people come in to see Flagg in action, bartender Zach Leal said.

“We’ve never had anybody that really has exceeded expectations and made it to the level that he’s made it,” said Leal, a Detroit resident. “You’re talking a potential No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, you’re talking future greatness, you’re talking Team USA. This is really more than we’ve ever seen. And the fact that he’s from here, we’ve had a lot of people from Portland and other parts of Maine. This really hits home for us because he’s from here.”

Flagg’s fame has allowed the members of his community to feel a sliver of that celebrity. Nokomis assistant principal Ryan Martin saw it himself when he went to New Jersey to see Flagg and Duke in the Elite Eight and stopped at a sandwich shop in Stratford, Connecticut.

“(The owner) said ‘You’re driving all the way from Maine?’ I said ‘Yeah, Newport, Maine, where Cooper’s from. I work there. I know him.’ He goes ‘You know him on a personal level?'” Martin said. “The guy’s mind was blown. … For us, he’s still Cooper. For other people, he’s a celebrity.”

SCHOOL SPIRIT

There’s a strong sense of pride at Nokomis, where Flagg played and won a state championship as a freshman. When Duke played in the ACC quarterfinals with a noon tip-off time, the game was on the cafeteria TVs. As the Blue Devils have gone on their tournament run, Flagg and Duke shirts, sweatshirts, hats and jackets have popped up daily.

“The Duke stuff is all over the place,” said Matt Brown, a media and broadcasting teacher and director. “I’ve seen shoes, Duke loafers. Everybody’s getting in on all the stuff.”

Mary Nadeau, the Nokomis principal, chuckled.

“There have definitely been days where I wondered if our school color went from burgundy to blue,” she said.

Flagg is a true part of the fabric. He was born there, spent his childhood there, went to games there, and made his best friends there.

“For all of us, we do know him. It’s not just like ‘Yay, it’s a kid from Maine,'” she said. “We really know him. He’s a part of our community. Even though life is taking him to a way bigger stage right now, we know that he still feels part of us.”

It’s been three years since Flagg left Nokomis for Montverde Academy, the top basketball prep power in the country, but his classmates are still there, now in their senior years. When they see Flagg on TV with his Duke teammates, they see the kid that they sat next to in English class or that they passed walking down the hallway, rather than the national celebrity.

“Definitely, at first, it was like ‘Whoa, this kid’s playing in the big leagues,'” senior Addie Hawthorne said. “But for most of us, it’s seeing an old friend living out his dreams and accomplishing what he wants to do.”

That it’s one of them doing all of this, and emerging as the most heralded basketball prospect in years, makes seeing the success all the more special.

“Everyone’s very excited and proud of Cooper, especially the people that really know him,” said Dawson Townsend, a close friend of Cooper’s who will be attending Duke’s Final Four matchup with Houston in San Antonio.

“They know that this is just a crazy opportunity that he worked really, really hard for, and that comes back to Nokomis when he spent time here. That hard work that’s kind of led to this moment,” Townsend said. “Everyone’s proud of him and they’re really showing that support well.”

It’s a surreal feeling for the teachers as well, to see where the student they taught is now. Shaunessy Saucier had Cooper and his twin brother, Ace, in her freshman Spanish class, where 20 boys and four girls made for “a lot of freshman boy energy.”

“He’d definitely have fun when it was time to have fun, he was kind to everybody in class. But when it was time to work, he knew he had a job to do,” she said. “There’s definitely a sense of pride when we talk about Cooper. And it doesn’t seem like he’s the celebrity that he is. … I love how he still talks to his friends here and he does have a sense of Maine pride, and talks about his state a lot.”

NEVER FAR FROM HOME

Even as Flagg’s celebrity has grown and he’s become a national brand, with daily appearances in commercials and on ESPN’s front page, he’s maintained a connection to his neighborhood.

He wears No. 2 at Duke as a tribute to his friend Donovan Kurt, who wore that number as a soccer player at Nokomis before dying of cancer in 2022 at the age of 19. He makes trips back up to his home state in the summer, and ran a camp for kids along with Ace at the University of Maine in August.

When another friend and former classmate, Aidan Anderson, was diagnosed with leukemia in the summer before his sophomore year, Flagg checked in with him regularly to get updates on his condition and lift his spirits. When Anderson, now cancer free, went to Duke’s game at Boston College in January, he got to see Flagg after it was over.

“We picked up right where we left off,” he said. “He almost brings us with him. He’s not just going out and telling about it, he brings us with him through his journey.”

Kelly Flagg said she hasn’t had to remind him to do that.

“It’s important for us, but it’s really important to him,” she said. “He has so many of his friends that are still in Maine, some of his best friends and family members. He, too, considers Maine to be his home.”