Jaimi Poland’s list of colleges is a string of capital letters comparable to an angry person typing on Twitter: USM. KVCC. EMCC. SMCC.
“I actually transferred quite a lot,” Poland said. “It was about the program I wanted.”
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Poland, a Skowhegan native, started off at the University of Southern Maine before moving on to Kennebec Valley and Eastern Maine Community Colleges. For the past three years, she’s been at Southern Maine Community College, playing on the women’s basketball team. The Seawolves are the No. 6 seed at the USCAA national championships in Uniontown, Pa., and face No. 3 seed Penn State Lehigh Valley at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
“Once I got to know the people here and the team, obviously that was a big part of me coming here and staying here,” Poland said. “The people here are just really welcoming.”
After college, Poland plans to be an echocardiographer — her main duty would be taking ultrasounds of people’s hearts. Playing on a basketball team in which everyone gets involved in the scoring, Poland is a regular starter. She averages 6.0 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.
“Jaimi, for us, is the one person on our team who is really versatile,” SMCC coach Julia Howe said. “We start her as a guard, and then sub her in as a post player. She’s a good rebounder, a good free throw shooter. She does a little bit of everything for us, which is extremely helpful.”
Poland, SMCC’s only senior, doesn’t have the classic build for a post player. She’s listed at 5 foot 8, but has nevertheless guarded players like UMaine-Augusta’s Jamie Plummer, who stands 6-1.
“Obviously, I’m not a very tall post player,” Poland said. “I’m actually 5-6.”
SMCC went 19-8 last season but lost to UMaine-Augusta in the conference semifinals, and lost out on a bid to nationals. Poland was part of the culture that pushed the Seawolves to 20-8 this season and a No. 4 ranking in the USCAA poll.
“She worked out really hard this summer,” Howe said. “She set a great example of what needed to be done this season.”
“We have a lot of freshmen in that came willing to work hard, and the returners have come up big,” Poland said.
The No. 1 seed in the tournament is the College of St. Joseph’s of Rutland, Vt., which beat SMCC by five points in the Yankee Small College Conference championship game. So SMCC has as good a chance as anyone to win the tournament. The Seawolves are outscoring their opponents by nearly 25 points per game, and outrebounding them by 14 boards per night. SMCC has seven players who have played at least 21 games and average at least six points.
“We’re very, very balanced.” Howe said. “We’re a hard team to scout, because you never know who’s going to step up on a particular day.”
All but two of SMCC’s players went to high school in Maine, but many or even most are like Poland and were unheralded in high school. Although the conference named a “Player of the Week” 13 times, only once (Amira Jones in November) did the honor go to an SMCC player. The player who has received the most attention might be sophomore guard Tiana Burton, who carried a tray of food in a Boston Globe photo when the newspaper ran a feature on the Fat Boy Drive-in in Brunswick.
But this group thrives on its depth, and has blended amazingly well together.
“We have people from all over the place,” Poland said. “I think we all just came together with the same mindset. We have the same goal, we want the same things, and we all work together to try to achieve that.”
One of the things the Seawolves want is to be playing in Pennsylvania this week. That’s especially important to Poland because it extended her college career.
“At the beginning of the year, it was something that I really wanted,” Poland said. “Now that it’s actually here. I couldn’t be more grateful and couldn’t be more proud of my team.”
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
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