Like most high school girls, Seve Deery-DeRaps and Taylor Esty have their goofy side.

“Taylor and I, we’re both pretty funny, if you ask me,” Deery-DeRaps said. “We’re known for our singing duets, and our rapping occasionally.”

They’re also intensely focused on a goal. They play basketball at Rangeley Lakes Regional School, and the Lakers have finished as Western D runner-up each of the last three years. Rangeley is 17-0 this season, and has won every game by at least 17 points. Still, it’s all been just a preamble to the tournament.

“I feel that we’re in a better place this year,” said Rangeley coach Heidi Deery, Seve’s mother. “We plan on taking charge of our own destiny, but we all know that sometimes it’s not left up to you. If for some reason, it doesn’t go our way, life goes on. Through resiliency, people develop strength and confidence.”

Deery-DeRaps is Rangeley’s point guard, and Esty plays the post. They’re both seniors and the team’s leading scorers, although their numbers are brought down a bit because Rangeley has won games this season by scores like 70-4, 61-17, and 95-6. Deery-DeRaps is a fine ball-handler who can shoot, pass, or drive inside, while Esty has the tools you want in a 6-footer.

“Obviously, Taylor helps us on both ends of the floor,” Deery said. “She’s taken much more pride in her defense this year. She’s a great shooter, and she’s unselfish with the ball — almost to a fault.”

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Esty has also dealt with other people’s expectations about how much a 6-footer should dominate in Class D.

“I’ve kind of expected it,” Esty said. “People come up to me and they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re six feet. You must destroy and stuff.’ I just play basketball.”

As for Deery-DeRaps, you don’t see many girls named Seve in Maine, but her mother was always attracted to the name.

“Seve Ballesteros was one of my favorite golfers,” Deery said. “I liked that name, so I said, ‘I think I’m going to use it if she’s a boy or a girl.’ I don’t think a traditional name would have fit her, because there’s nothing traditional about her.”

“I definitely think it’s a good name for me,” Deery-DeRaps said. “I’m a very unique person. I do things my own way. I like it. I wouldn’t want a name that everybody has.”

Seve (the basketball player, not the golfer) also recently won a Gold Key at the Maine level in the Scholastic, Inc. Art and Writing Awards competition. Out of about 250,000 entries across the country, Deery-DeRaps has a chance to be one of 10 to win a Gold Key at the national level.

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Deery-DeRaps entered a portfolio of eight oil paintings in the competition. While she has been interested in art since kindergarten, she had done a total of two oil paintings in her life before that portfolio. Oh — and she did seven of those oil paintings over three weeks.

Basketball is another passion for Deery-DeRaps, and it’s one she shares with her mother.

“It’s been fun,” Deery said of coaching her daughter. “I laid it out early that, in order for it to work, she had to understand that she was going to be held to a higher standard — because in order to ask players to do more, she would have to lead the way. And she has.”

“I think it has been a good experience,” Seve said. “It’s definitely been, at moments, challenging. But it’s definitely made me a stronger person and a better person. Overall, it’s been fun, and I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Esty and Deery-DeRaps will also be playing together next year at Central Maine Community College in Auburn, a national power in the USCAA. Esty committed first, but there was no plan for the two to play together in college.

“It just kind of happened,” Esty said. “We were going to practice one day, and she was like, ‘Hey, come here. I’ve got something to tell you. I’m going to CM.’

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“I really liked that it was a smaller school,” Esty added. “I liked how the basketball team was really close. I wanted an intense basketball program, not something that was going to be easy to go into. I’m definitely going to have to work at CM.”

“It’s easy to tell in the first five minutes that they can play at the next level,” CMCC coach Andrew Morong said. “It’s all the intangible stuff that we just fell in love with. We’re just really excited to get them.”

One thing Deery has especially appreciated is that Esty and her daughter haven’t “checked out,” so to speak. They’re excited about college, but mentally as well as physically, they’re still present with the team.

If this team has demons, they come from the final game of last season. Rangeley led 52-50 against Forest Hills in the Western D final, but Kori Coro sunk a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“For a while,” Deery-DeRaps said, “it was just something we didn’t talk about. We’ve really worked on using it as something to give us motivation.”

Over and over this season, Deery has punctuated how important defense is — that defense is where the Lakers lost the regional title last year, and defense is what they need to improve to achieve what they want to this year.

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Two of her captains are the future college teammates with a goofy side. They’ve bought into that as much as anyone.

“If we’re playing the way we don’t want to play,” Deery-DeRaps said, “one of the captains will stop and say, ‘Hey, remember last year? It wasn’t fun. Let’s go.'”

“Last year definitely brought us a lot closer together,” Esty said. “I wouldn’t really say I’ve changed the way I’ve played, but it’s a do-or-die situation. It’s my last push.”

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243

mdifilippo@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Matt_DiFilippo


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