University of Maine at Augusta’s Jamie Plummer, right, dribbles around Central Maine Community College defender Corrina Kinder during a Nov. 12, 2014 game in Augusta. Plummer is being inducted into the UMA sports hall of fame. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
AUGUSTA — When their University of Maine at Augusta basketball teams scrimmaged from 2013-16, Jamie Plummer and Keith Chesley weren’t allowed to guard one another.
In November 2013, Plummer, a freshman, was getting set to begin one of her first college practices. The practice followed the men’s team’s session on the same floor, where Chesley and his teammates were just wrapping up.
With the UMA women short on players that evening, Chesley, a 6-foot-1 sophomore forward, agreed to stay late and provide an extra body. His assignment? Guarding Plummer, who, at the same height, was one of the tallest players on the women’s team.
“We started joking with each other, and we just built this friendly rivalry,” Plummer said. “After a week or so of practice, my coach said, ‘OK, you guys have to guard different people’ because we would get too into it and get mad at each other.”
Nearly nine years later, Plummer and Chesley are husband and wife. They’re also the all-time leading scorers in the history of their respective programs — and, on Friday night, the two will be among four alums to be inducted into the UMA Athletics Hall of Fame. The school also will induct Michael Haskell, another UMA basketball standout, and former men’s basketball coach Dick Haskell.
Chesley, a Clinton native and the son of former UMA standout and current Lawrence High School girls basketball coach Greg Chesley, arrived at UMA in 2012. He went on to finish his college career with 2,119 points, surpassing the previous school record of 2,029 set by Deon Cheers (2006-09).
Keith Chesley scored more than 2,100 points on the University of Maine at Augusta men’s basketball team. The 2016 graduate is being inducted into the school’s sports hall of fame. Photo provided by the University of Maine at Augusta
Since then, Chesley has continued to follow in his father’s footsteps with a transition to the coaching ranks. He’s spent the last week on the recruiting trail as part of his new job as an assistant coach at Division I Virginia Military Institute but plans to be in attendance for the ceremony.
“When I got this new job, (coming back for the ceremony) was up in the air; I didn’t know if I’d be able to make it or not,” Chesley said. “I really wanted to make it back because my time at UMA was really special, and fortunately, it’s worked out where I’ve been able to hit the recruiting trail this week and will still make it Friday.”
He’ll be there alongside his wife, who went from that starry-eyed college freshman out of Richmond High School to by far the most prolific player to ever don a UMA women’s uniform. Plummer finished with 1,977 points and also set the school’s single-season rebounding record with 349 as a junior in 2015-16. The Moose made the USCAA tournament her freshman and junior seasons.
“Making that tournament for the first time was one of my best memories,” Plummer said. “We had never made it before, and even though the tournament didn’t exactly go as planned, it was a great experience. I also remember the great rivalry games we had with (Central Maine Community College).”
Michael Haskell scored more than 1,500 points for the University of Maine at Augusta men’s basketball team. Haskell is being inducted into the school’s sports hall of fame. Photo provided by the University of Maine at Augusta
Between high school basketball tournaments and their UMA playing careers, Plummer and Chesley have logged countless hours on the Augusta Civic Center floor. It’s also where he proposed to her in January 2019 with Plummer’s former head coach and the school’s then-athletic director, Jennifer Laney, waiting in the background to document the occasion.
“He had told her they were just coming to visit me there in my office,” said Laney, who was also the wedding officiant for the couple last summer. “He took her down to the court to play a game of horse, and I was hiding so I could take videos and pictures. That’s when he brought her to center court and proposed.”
In 2014-15, Chesley set what was then the program’s single-season points record when he scored 674 in his junior campaign. That broke the mark previously set by Mike Haskell, another member of this year’s UMA Hall of Fame class, in 1986-87.
Dick Haskell coached the University of Maine at Augusta men’s team for 15 years from 1970 to 1985. He won more than 200 games for the Moose. He is being inducted into the school’s sports hall of fame. Photo provided by the University of Maine at Augusta
Haskell, who played for UMA from 1983-87 after graduating from Erskine Academy, played under his father, Dick, as a freshman and sophomore. The 1984-85 team, which went 29-5 and posted a 14-0 record in Maine Small Colleges Conference play, was the best in program history.
“We were playing games in New York and all over the U.S.,” Mike Haskell recalled. “We even went up north to Toronto and played some foreign teams. It was a pretty robust schedule for a relatively small school like ours.”
Dick Haskell, who is being inducted posthumously, coached the UMA men for 15 years after being named the program’s first-ever head coach in 1970. He recorded more than 200 career victories and guided the program to seven MSCC championships, including three in a row from 1982-85.
The ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. in Jewett Hall’s Farber Forum on the UMA campus. It will be open to all who wish to recognize this year’s Hall of Fame class.
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