Coach Brown Looks Far and Wide to Build Bengals
July 24, 2020 • Fort Kent, ME

These new recruits should make their mark at UMFK for years to come. 

Fort Kent, Maine—Head Women’s Basketball Coach, Fletcher Brown, looked all over the country, overseas and in his own back yard to find the future of the UMFK Women’s Basketball program. He announced the addition of six skilled new comers to the program today. The six new additions to the team are a mix of freshman and transfer students from all across the United States including right at home in Fort Kent, ME and a player from abroad. Each new player brings tremendous athleticism as well as great versatility to an already talented Bengals squad that returns many key players from the roster last season that made the USCAA National Tournament.

The first commit was Sarah Gudeman, originally from Indiana but competed for Allan Hancock College in California last season, “Sarah can play almost any position two through five and will bring great leadership skills and a winning resume to our team next season.” said Coach Brown.

Also from the California community college pipeline are Hannah Jones of Fullerton College and Jzane Money from Diablo Valley College. Coach Brown said, “Both Hannah and Jzane come to us from very successful coaches and junior college programs in California. They are both high level athletes who did a little bit of everything for their teams last season. I know they will be able to make immediate impacts for us next year. I couldn’t be happier they decided to join us.”

For the first time since Coach Brown took over the Lady Bengals basketball program, three incoming freshman will be joining the team. Arieyle Baker, of Frostproof, Florida as well as Nahia Aranda of Huarte, Spain and local product Desirae Hafford are poised to be stand-out players for the program over the course of the next four years. “It had been difficult to find freshman to join the team but we finally found three willing to commit to us for their entire collegiate careers and I’m very happy about the very bright future of our program with these three leading the way.” Both Baker and Aranda can play the guard and forward positions, only adding to the position-less style of basketball the Bengals hope to play next year. Hafford will prove to be a valuable piece of the puzzle for the Bengals and will be representing her home town of Fort Kent, Maine.

Coach Brown stated, “Recruiting was a unique experience this year due to the pandemic, as there is so much uncertainty surrounding sports. But I’m very pleased with how things turned out because we have some extremely talented players coming in who, more importantly, demonstrate strong character values and who I am confident will be leaders not only on the court but in the classroom and in the community.”

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