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Maine
Ace Flagg is ready to be a star again in Maine
Ace Flagg is a power forward on the Greensboro Day School boys basketball team. Flagg will attend the University of Maine next year. Auden Forsberg/Greensboro Day School
It was a hard decision to make. For a while, at least.
The summer before Ace Flagg’s senior year was nearing its end, as was the time to make a decision on his college basketball future. He had plenty of options to choose from — Division I colleges from across the country had made their pitches.
One, though, always stood out.
“When I started weighing all the options and everything that it meant to me, I think it became pretty obvious, pretty quickly,” he said. “I knew I wanted to come home.”
It’s been nearly two months since the Newport native announced his commitment to the University of Maine men’s basketball team.
It made news around the country, and fans celebrated when Flagg made his homecoming official. After all, Ace and his twin brother, Cooper — a freshman star at Duke — have captivated the state since their high school debuts at Nokomis Regional High three years ago.
“I liked everything about it. It was great to see the attention it got, and all the support and love from all the Mainers,” he said. “It was amazing. It helped me so much. It made the whole thing a lot easier. I’ve been blessed to be able to play in Maine and have the support of everyone there.”
Flagg feels fortunate, as does his future team.
“I just love what he brings to the table, in terms of his toughness, his basketball IQ, his inside-out skill set,” Maine coach Chris Markwood said. “He’s our type of guy. He’s a Maine guy, hard-working, tough, hard-nosed and a great feel for the game.”
The announcement, though, was only part of what’s been an eventful season for Flagg. He’s also at his third school in four years, playing his senior year for Greensboro Day School in Greensboro, North Carolina. He’s adjusting to life without Cooper, on the court without his brother for the first time.
Ace Flagg averaged 12.7 points and 7.2 rebounds through his first 15 games for Greensboro Day School. Auden Forsberg/Greensboro Day School
Everything has been new: the environment, teammates, coaches and friends. He’s had to learn a new game, one that’s going to better prepare him for the college level that awaits him, and embrace a new role as a team leader.
“So far, so good,” Flagg said in a phone interview this week. “I wouldn’t say I was anxious. More just interested … to see what it would be like.
“It’s been a smooth transition, and I honestly feel like I’ve been here longer than I have.”
‘He’s unique’
Flagg said Greensboro reminds him more of the schools he grew up attending than Montverde Academy in Florida did.
“It feels a lot more like a public school, almost,” he said. “Greensboro has a more open kind of feel to it. … (There are) a lot of local kids, and not a lot of kids from all over the country.”
The kid from Maine, however, can only blend in so much.
“They do like to call me a Yankee, that is true,” he said. “They like to try to be country boys, but I tell them north is country, south isn’t. Which they don’t like.”
Flagg has made it a point to ingratiate himself with not just the team, but the community. Several of his closest friends aren’t basketball players. When Greensboro coach Freddy Johnson hosted a rec league with teams of third-, fourth- and fifth-graders, he asked Ace to work with a couple of the teams. Flagg instead spent hours working with all six.
“He’s unique,” Johnson said. “I like being around him, because he’s just such a good kid.”
Cooper Flagg, left, and his brother, Ace, share a laugh during a youth basketball camp on Aug. 10 in Orono. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel
He’s also had to adjust to not sharing the court with Cooper for the first time since middle school. Flagg said there’s now more on his shoulders, which can help him as he prepares for college.
“Playing with Cooper makes the game easier,” Flagg said. “After playing with him for so long, not having him just makes everything tougher. You have to do a lot more on your own when you don’t have a player like him with you. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s going to push me to be even better than I would have been before.”
Being Cooper’s brother, let alone twin, creates a shadow that is tough to escape, given Cooper’s status as the country’s most coveted college prospect. Ace, however, said there were “no hard feelings at all” on his part as he watches the buzz around Cooper soar.
“I’m super proud of him and everything he’s doing. He deserves everything that he’s got, he’s worked so hard. Seeing all this attention for him is just amazing,” he said. “I want him to succeed more than maybe he does. I have nothing but love for him and hope nothing but the best for him.”
Growing his game
Johnson didn’t have much of a scouting report on Flagg when he came aboard in July.
“I really didn’t know much about him, other than he was a good basketball player,” said Johnson, who earlier this month became the sixth high school coach to reach 1,200 career wins. “He has a lot of respect from a lot of different people.”
Johnson quickly saw the tools Flagg had, and the set of abilities that have helped him average 12.7 points and 7.2 rebounds per game (as of Tuesday) while leading the 13-2 Bengals in minutes.
“His feet are unbelievable,” he said. “He has such good movement, he knows how to fake and get guys up. He can go around a 6-9 guy. … He passes like a point guard.”
It’s been a season of adjustment and acclimation, however. A pure forward who played as a big man with Nokomis and Montverde Academy in Florida, the 6-foot-7 Flagg has been playing more on the perimeter for a Greensboro team that likes to run and has four players around the center playing positions based on matchups.
“I’ve started to play out further, closer maybe to a 3 (small forward) than a 4 (power forward), and playing a lot out on the wing,” he said. “It’s one of the things that I needed. Playing that 4, 5 role at 6-(foot-)7, it doesn’t usually work out. I knew I needed to start transitioning outside and sharpen up my skills there.”
Ace Flagg looks for an open teammate while playing for Montverde Academy during a game in Portland on Jan. 6. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
It didn’t click right away. Flagg was unselfish to a fault while playing with his new teammates, and Johnson spoke to him about taking over with the ball.
“Around game 5, 6, I reminded him that he needed to be more assertive,” he said. “He wanted to keep all his teammates happy by sharing the ball, and I explained to him that we’re not running five plays for him to catch the ball and throw it to somebody else. We want him to take it and score.”
The chat worked.
“If you saw him play the first three games and you saw him play the last three games, he’s a totally different player,” Johnson said.
A home state spotlight
It’s not as if Ace doesn’t generate his own hype and attention. Johnson said attendance at Greensboro games, both home and away, has climbed, and that the opportunity to cheer or jeer the player they’ve seen in stories and video clips online is likely what’s brought the fans out.
“He has his fan section that comes to cheer against him,” Johnson said. “We draw more on the road than we ever have.”
When he committed to Maine on Oct. 30, the news stretched beyond the state and even landed as a headline on ESPN’s homepage. He’s been in the spotlight for a while, but Flagg said those moments don’t get old.
“It’s definitely a little weird,” he said. “Growing up, you’re always watching games on ESPN. Seeing yourself on there is definitely a strange feeling.”
Flagg announced his Maine commitment on Instagram, sharing a SportsCenter post, and the post has garnered 215,000 likes and 710 comments. News quickly reverberated around the state and zipped through the Orono campus.
“When the news hit, that was the big talk around the rec (center). ‘Ace is coming, Ace is coming,’” said Landen Chase, 19, a UMaine sophomore. “I had a friend who texted me, he doesn’t know a lot about basketball, but he texted me and his whole family was curious about why Ace was coming and what happened. It was cool. It was all around campus, everyone was talking about it.”
It’s buzz that hasn’t been there for a program that went 28-105 between the 2017-18 and 2021-22 seasons.
Ace Flagg drives to the basket while playing for the Greensboro Day School boys basketball team. Flagg will attend the University of Maine next year. Auden Forsberg/Greensboro Day School
“They want to win (at Maine). It’s a winning mentality there,” Chase said. “People feel like, with Ace, this is going to step up our program and make games more enjoyable, and give us a better chance to win.”
That’s Markwood’s interest as he continues to try to build Maine into a contender in America East. Sure, having more eyeballs on the program is nice, and Markwood knows the Black Bears’ profile got a boost when Flagg signed.
“There’s obviously a major buzz behind him and obviously his brother, Coop. In Maine, those two guys, everybody’s watching them grow and evolve in the highest level,” he said. “I think everybody’s excited for Ace and for us, that we’re able to get a player of Ace’s caliber to come back home and represent our state.”
What Markwood is most interested in is what Flagg can do on the court, and how he can help continue the upward trend of a team that’s gone 36-39 since Markwood took over in 2022.
“He’s got a really good knack inside, he grew up as a big man, so he’s got great touch around the rim from 15 feet and in, and now he’s really added and developed his game around the perimeter,” Markwood said. “You’ve seen the evolution, and he’s still only scratching the surface.”
That’s Flagg’s focus as well.
“I’ve never played basketball in my life with the intention of not winning,” he said. “I’m trying to bring everything I can to win. That’s what I want to do.”
The pressure’s already there. Markwood said he won’t want to add to it.
“I want Ace to enjoy the process on his own journey, at his own speed,” he said. “I don’t want him to feel like he’s got to come in right away and be Michael Jordan. He’s got to come in and be himself.”
Whatever expectations await him, Flagg knows he’s ready for them.
“I look at it as a positive,” he said. “Being able to be recognized by anyone is a blessing. … I would never take it for granted. I think every day that I’m blessed for everything I have.”
Politics
Our political journalists are based in the Maine State House and have deep source networks across the partisan spectrum in communities all over the state. Their coverage aims to cut through major debates and probe how officials make decisions. Read more Politics coverage here.
A Maine Republican Party online survey on the gubernatorial primary has sparked frustration and exposed divisions among the crowded field just a week before the party aims to project unity at its convention in Augusta.
Multiple campaigns told the Bangor Daily News they were not aware of the poll in advance or had not received the survey in an email sent out widely by the party last week. The campaigns said the survey’s timing and the fact that not every candidate had the chance to work the poll and vote for themselves sent the wrong message.
Former fitness executive Ben Midgley won the straw poll, which the party noted was not scientific. His campaign cited the nearly 32% support as a sign of rising momentum in a race that’s been led so far by lobbyist and former federal official Bobby Charles. Charles came in second at almost 30%, and entrepreneur Jonathan Bush came in third at 13%.
Charles has led previous polls without spending nearly as much on advertising as Bush or groups backing lobbyist and former Maine Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason. Midgley was among a large group of candidates stuck in the single digits in a survey released in March by Pan Atlantic Research.
Staffers at two campaigns said there was briefly talk of boycotting the convention after the poll. Delegates are poised to gather over Friday and Saturday at Augusta Civic Center, where the party says another straw poll is planned.
Mason said he did not see the survey in his email but acknowledged it may have been received by his team without it getting up the chain.
“It probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do for party unity,” Mason said. “It’s not the best look.”
Vincent Harris, a Charles spokesperson, said the campaign “did not push or promote this straw poll to a single person.” He said the campaign was unaware of the survey until Midgley’s release.
“As Republicans, we believe voter integrity is important and yet there was no clarity here,” he added.
Entrepreneur Owen McCarthy’s campaign was also not aware of the online stroll poll until after results were released. A spokesman for the campaign called it “unfortunate that with the convention right around the corner, the whole process has been tainted by the perception that party insiders are trying to foist their preferred candidate onto grassroots primary voters.”
Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine GOP, said the party believed all the candidates had received the poll, but “we take everybody at their word that says they didn’t receive it.”
He and a spokesperson for the Bush campaign also separately noted that the straw poll was discussed during a pre-convention Zoom meeting, and he said it went to the party’s entire email list. The poll went to at least two BDN email addresses.
Savage emphasized that the convention poll would be “one person, one vote” per delegate.
“Everything in a few days is going to be about the convention,” he said. “Everybody is invited to compete and do their best and see how they can do.”
More than 200 Fort Fairfield Middle High School students, staff and administrators filed into the school’s gym on April 8 for an anti-bullying assembly.
On stage, surrounded by neon tube lights, was the Icon Dance Team, a New York-based troupe that travels to schools around the U.S. dancing and singing to radio hits interspersed with messages about self-respect and standing up for others.
Parents were notified of the performance in advance, MSAD 20 Superintendent Melanie Blais said. No one contacted the district afterward to complain.
But six days later, on April 14, the conservative influencer Libs of TikTok blasted a series of posts about the performance — and its lead dancer — to its millions of social media followers and accused the district of “openly grooming” its students.
“This is what schools are pushing on your children using our tax dollars,” one caption reads. “SHUT THEM DOWN.”
Commenters tagged the U.S. Department of Justice and called Maine a “demonic” state. Some encouraged violence against one of the dancers.
District officials insist the performance focused only on encouraging positive self-esteem and counteracting bullying. And despite the recent furor on social media, they say local people have shared no concerns.
“The content of the program included messages about standing up for oneself and others, reporting bullying to trusted adults, encouraging students to set goals and to include peers who may be left out,” Blais said.
The issue concerned the group’s frontman, James Linehan, who is also a musician with the stage name J-Line. In his music career, Linehan bills himself as “your favorite gay pop star” and is currently on a tour called the “Dirty Pop Party,” where he performs alongside other LGBTQ artists.
Libs of TikTok, run by Chaya Raichik, a former Brooklyn real estate agent turned social media provocateur, pulled photos from Linehan’s music website, in which he is shirtless, and targeted his sexuality to argue that he was pushing sexually charged content on children.
The Icon Dance Team, which also goes by the names Echo Dance Team and Vital Dance Team, is a separate entity. The group, active since at least 2011, features Linehan and two backup dancers and has performed at more than 2,000 schools, according to its website.
Performances consist of 30 minutes of choreographed dancing and singing to songs about self-acceptance, followed by Linehan recounting how he was bullied in grade school and his journey to finding his life passions and respecting himself.
School officials reviewed the group’s website before scheduling the performance and found it aligned with the district’s anti-bullying goals, Blais said.
“The group was chosen based on strong recommendations from several other school districts where similar performances had been presented in the past,” Blais said. “Those districts described the assemblies as positive and energetic and praised their messages about self-esteem and anti-bullying.”
Hours of the group’s school performances posted by other districts online and reviewed by the Bangor Daily News do not include suggestive dancing and Linehan does not mention his sexuality.
This is not the first time the dance team has faced criticism, nor the first time Libs of TikTok has taken aim at Maine.
In the past year, the account amplified a school board debate over the harassment of transgender students in North Berwick and the election of a Bangor city councilor with a criminal record. The account was among the right-wing influencers that successfully campaigned to doom a 2024 bill before the Maine legislature that surrounded gender-affirming care.
Icon’s performances at schools in Utah, Ohio, Texas and Tennessee have come under scrutiny from parents who referred to Linehan’s music career and posts on his social media accounts.
A district in Missouri canceled two assemblies in 2023 after receiving complaints. Some of the criticism is linked to allegations that Linehan encouraged students at some performances to follow his Instagram, which is tied to his music career. Parents alleged it contained “inappropriate” content.
That Instagram page is now private. Blais said they raised the issue with the group ahead of the performance.
“That was not a part of the performance in any way and we clarified this with the company prior to their visit to our school,” she said.
Linehan did not respond to a request for comment.
Libs of TikTok has almost 7 million followers between X, Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social, the platform founded by President Donald Trump.
Raichik, the account’s creator, has mingled with Trump and other right-wing politicians and activists at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, the president’s Florida residence. Her posts, which can receive hundreds of thousands to millions of views, have helped shape anti-LGBTQ discourse in conservative circles and have been promoted by the likes of podcaster Joe Rogan and Fox News.
The Southern Poverty Law Center labels Raichik as an extremist.
But despite the assembly generating national outrage last week, in Fort Fairfield, the community appears unshaken.
“We’ve not received a single call or email from local community members that I am aware of,” Blais said. “We initially received a handful of calls from individuals who were clearly not affiliated with the school district in any way, but they were not interested in hearing what actually took place.”
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