By Mike Whaley
(This is the second in a series on the eight 2025 NHIAA state championship basketball teams.)
To say Jamie Walker is low key might be an understatement. But you could hear his normally even-toned voice rise a few octaves when he was asked about his team’s undefeated Division IV state championship basketball season – Woodsville’s fourth title in five years. “I did think we would be competitive,” he said. “I would have told you you were crazy if you told me we were going to go undefeated and win a state championship. That would have never entered my mind.”
Indeed, the Engineers ran the table with a 22-0 record, which included a nail biting 51-48 overtime win against North Country rival Littleton in the championship at Colby-Sawyer College.
Woodsville’s previous season ended with a semifinal loss to Littleton. From that team, four of the first six players graduated, leaving coach Walker with some positions to fill. The good news? The Engineers returned two of the best players in the division in his son, junior point guard Ryan Walker, and 6-foot-3 senior forward Landon Kingsbury. The key, however, was surrounding that duo with a complementary supporting cast. Coach Walker was able to do that.
After the Engineers lost in the 2024 semis, Walker knew he had his son and Kingsbury returning. “We didn’t know what we had around them,” he said. He figured senior Jacob Putnam and junior Cowan Kimball would be solid. Although both had played sparingly in big games, they did get quality minutes in the semis when one starter was too sick to play and another, Connor Houston, incurred an ankle injury that prevented him from playing in the second half.
The possible fifth starter was 6-2 senior Devin Sabina, who had spent three years as a JV point guard. “I had a conversation with his mother back in May (of 2024) and I said ‘I think Devin can help us next year, but he’s got to start playing now and continue on throughout the year.’” Sabina made the commitment. He played AAU ball with Kingsbury and Ryan Walker, and did all the summer stuff. He also had to embrace a new position inside as a forward since there was no way he was supplanting Ryan Walker at point guard.
The first guy off the bench turned out to be senior Owen McClintock, who did not play as a junior. He was a kid who could shoot the basketball. When coach Walker got wind that McClintock was thinking about playing, he asked his son to nudge McClintock into making the summer commitment, which he did. He became a valuable asset as the first player off the bench. “As the season progressed, I told him ‘your job is to come down and get your feet set, find a place you like, and somebody will find you and you’ll get the 3s,’” coach Walker said. “He hit 3s all year long for us.”
Eventually that group of six became the rotation and it turned out to be a very good one, certainly better than anyone could have predicted. Kingsbury noted that Woodsville used the summer to try to build chemistry with its new lineup. “Chemistry was the big thing,” he said.
It took the rest of Division IV some time to catch up with what Woodsville had going on. Early on, Kingsbury and Ryan Walker received a lot of attention. “They pretty much said those two aren’t going to score,” coach Walker recalled. “And then everybody else started scoring. They thought ‘well there is a little bit more there than Ryan and Landon.’”
The big “coming out game” was the first Littleton contest on Dec. 19 at home – a 58-38 win. Walker and Kingsbury were held to six points each, but Sabina and Kimball stepped up big time with 21 and 15 points, respectively. “They were left wide open and made shots,” coach Walker said. That revelation made the Engineers even stronger as teams now had to respect the shooting ability of their secondary players.
Still it took a while for the offense to get into sync with the new players learning how to play with the veterans and vice versa. While the offense was a work in progress, Woodsville put its nose to the grindstone and focused on defense. “We figured if we play defense, we’ll get the turnovers and that leads to baskets and that’s always good,” coach Walker said.
In coach Walker’s mind there was no clear favorite in the north. He wasn’t as sure about the south, but in the north “I didn’t think there was anyone heads and shoulders better than us,” he said. “I thought it was a pretty competitive year for the top five, six, seven teams.”
By the second half of the season Woodsville was still undefeated. The schedule tightened up as the Engineers started seeing some teams for a second time. In their final nine games, five games were decided by seven points or fewer and two others were competitive wins of 11 and 13 points. It didn’t come easy. “We always found a way to win,” said Ryan Walker. “We always had someone step up and push us over the other team and win the game.”
The beauty of it was that Woodsville was getting contributions from everybody. They weren’t just relying on Kingsbury and Ryan Walker. Putnam hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win at Profile, 42-39. McClintock’s late shot beat Littleton at their place by three, 61-58. “I’ve told a ton of people this,” said coach Walker. “They were just a good team that enjoyed playing together and knew each other. They knew what their strengths were. They knew what they didn’t do well. They all played a role in us winning.”
Ryan Walker was the glue that held it all together. It was not a surprise that he was the Division IV Player of the Year and the top point guard in the division. “The reason we don’t look rattled in close games is because he’s pretty calm out there with the ball in his hands,” said the coach. “That takes a lot of pressure off everybody else on the team. … He doesn’t turn it over. Turnovers are key in close games, big games. He gets us into our offense. That’s very, very important.” Bottom line in Division IV, nobody had what Woodsville had at the point.
“I kind of let the game come to me,” said Ryan Walker. “Everyone on the team could score, so I knew that kind of takes a little pressure off me. I just try to get everyone involved.”
Kingsbury’s evolution as a player was also important. A four-year varsity member who played on championship squads as a freshman and sophomore, he was primarily a scorer before this year. “This year he started doing the little things,” said coach Walker. “Defensively he was taking charges and getting steals. He was rebounding offensively and defensively. He started to round out his game. He wasn’t just a scorer anymore.” Kingsbury still scored, of course, averaging a shade under 20 points per game to lead the team, hitting the 1,000-point plateau, and earning D-IV First Team All-State honors. Next year he plans to attend and play basketball at Central Maine Community College.
Kingsbury knew that as the team’s biggest guy on the floor, he had to take more of a big man role. “I realized I had to start playing a little bit better defense,” he said. I have to try to get more rebounds and try to help my team out with more than just scoring.”
Ryan Walker could also score, providing 16.9 ppg, while Sabina (8.2), Kimball (7.8), Putnam (6.1) and McClintock (3.4) chipped in. Kimball and Putnam (a D-IV All-Defensive pick) were the stoppers on defense.
When the regular-season dust settled, Woodsville looked around and found itself at the top of the D-IV heap with an 18-0 record.
“If you came to any of our practices, you never heard the word undefeated,” said coach Walker. “I’m not sure we ever discussed what our record was. We just focused on the next game. The kids might have been talking about it. I never heard it in practice. Everybody in the back of their mind knows they have a target on their back. Everyone wants to be the one that beats you.”
The Engineers opened at home in the first round vs. No. 16 Lin-Wood, who they had beaten by 38 points during the regular season. It was close to start, but Woodsville was able to get it into double figures by the second quarter and keep it there in a 61-46 win. Kingsbury led the way with 21 points, while Walker added 12, and Sabina and Putnam split 19.
A tough game with No. 8 Farmington never unfolded because their top player, Demery Hadges, got injured in their first-round game and was not close to full strength in the quarters. The Engineers played their best first half of the season, leading 18-3 after the first quarter and 36-9 at the half en route to the 57-40 win. Kingsbury and Sabina each had 14 points, while Walker added 11.
The semis was against No. 5 Gorham, who Woodsville had beaten twice during the season. This proved to be the perfect time for the Engineers to play their finest defensive game of the season to hold in check the Huskies high-scoring duo of Isaac Langlois and Jack Saladino to 14 points between them in a convincing 43-27 victory. Putnam slowed down Saladino and Kimball limited Langlois, the division’s top scorer. “I tried to force him left and keep him out of the paint,” Putnam said of his Saladino assignment. “I was up on him all night.”
“We knew what we had to do,” said Kimball, who held Langlois to a season-low nine points. “Keep the ball out of Isaac’s hands.” Those words were stressed by coach Walker. “Stay on him. Don’t help out. Wherever he goes, you go.”
Walker led the offense with 17 points. Kingsbury and Kimball added 11 and 10, respectively.
That set up an all-North Country championship at Colby-Sawyer College with No. 3 Littleton. The Crusaders had vanquished the division’s other undefeated team in the semis, Concord Christian, by a 64-51 score. This was the third meeting between the two rivals, both won by the Engineers (58-38, 61-58). “Littleton had just knocked off Concord Christian,” recalled coach Walker. “I’m sure they were saying ‘we just knocked off one undefeated team, let’s beat the other one.’”
The Gorham win came with some potentially crippling news. Late in the game, Ryan Walker severely rolled his ankle. “I tried to jump a passing lane and I landed on someone’s foot,” he said. “I rolled my ankle. It happened with a minute to play in the game. I probably shouldn’t have done that.”
As Walker recalled, the ankle was pretty swollen. There was no way, as far as he was concerned, that he wasn’t going to play. “I just wanted to rest it and get it to be as good as it could be,” he said.
The silver lining, if there was one, was that the semifinal game was played on a Monday, so he had four days to recover. “I iced it a lot,” Walker said. “I really didn’t do much on it. As the days went by, I was walking fine. On Friday, I didn’t practice or anything. I just shot around a bit and it felt a little bit better. I just wasn’t sure what it was going to feel like come game time.”
On the ride home from the Friday practice, coach Walker could see an improvement in his son. “He was positive in his talk. ‘He seemed a little upbeat,’ I said to myself. ‘OK, this is a little different than the guy limping around for three days.’ I kind of thought he was OK.”
That being said, even though the tape job made the ankle feel good, Walker hadn’t done anything on it since Monday. “He hadn’t been running up and down the floor,” his dad said. “He hadn’t cut right to left.” He definitely wasn’t 100 percent. There were times in the championship when he looked like his old self. “He looked quicker and could get by people whenever he wanted,” said his dad. “But there were (also) times when he looked a little hobbled.”
Coach Walker wasn’t sure what percentage to put his son at. “He wasn’t 100, but he was certainly closer to 100 than he was to 50.”
Woodsville was fortunate that the semifinal game was played on Monday. Had it been played on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, his dad said he would not have played in the championship. “There’s no way,” coach Walker said. “He was limping pretty bad for two days after. You really couldn’t see his ankle until Thursday or Friday when the swelling finally went down.”
Ryan Walker recalls warming up before the championship and he felt at that point he was probably at 60 percent. “Once the game came around and the adrenalin was flowing, I was probably higher than that,” he said. “I tried not to be aggressive around the rim and land on anyone’s feet. I was playing away from the rim and fading away, when I usually go towards it.”
A third meeting with Littleton was certainly going to be a tough nut to crack for Woodsville. Walker expected it to be similar to the three-point second game. “They’re a tough team to defend,” he said. “No matter what five are on the floor, they can all dribble and shoot. There’s no leaving someone alone on that team.”
The game was as good as advertised. Littleton jumped out to a 10-point lead in the first quarter, but the Engineers battled back to take a three-point lead at the break on McClintock’s 3-pointer at the buzzer. Predictably, it was a game that came down to the final seconds.
The Engineers didn’t help themselves as time was winding down. With the game tied at 43-all, they called timeout with 18 seconds to play. But they then turned the ball over on the inbounds pass. Littleton went ahead 47-45 when Marcus Hampson made both foul shots after being fouled driving for a layup at 15 seconds. Down two, coach Walker signaled not to take a timeout. His son took the ball the length of the court, drew three defenders and then hit Sabina for the game tying layup that forced overtime. “Devin was right where he was supposed to be,” said coach Walker. “When someone drives to the basket, I want you opposite them. I don’t want you on the same block. Then your defender is right there. Always get opposite to the guy driving to the basket. Where did he go? Opposite and he got the layup.”
In OT, Putnam scored his only points on a corner trey at 2:30 to give the Engineers a three-point lead (50-47) and an eventual 51-48 championship win to complete the season at 22-0 – the only undefeated boys team in New Hampshire.
Putnam recalled his game-winning shot. Walker drove to the basket and drew Putnam’s defender. “You’ve got to know it’s coming when he has two or three defenders on him,” Putnam said. “I just try to give him a good angle because he’s got two people on him; help him out and catch the ball and shoot. It was like the exact same shot that I hit against Profile. No problem. No hesitation.”
Despite the injury, Ryan Walker played a great game. His teammates were concerned during the week that he might not be able to play or that if he did play, he wouldn’t be himself. “I was nervous because we hadn’t played without him all year,” Kimball said. “He’s our biggest contributor on the floor. I was a little worried and I was a little worried for him. I know he likes to drive and get into the paint. There are a lot of feet down there. I was a little worried that he would roll it again.”
It all worked out. “He played great,” Kimball added. “I thought he played one of his better games. He looked normal to me.” Walker led all scorers with 19 points and paced Woodsville in playoff scoring with 60 points in four games. Kingsbury and Sabina added eight points apiece, and Kimball had seven. Sam Reagey led Littleton with 16 points, while Connor Roy and Hampson chipped in with 10 each.
At the beginning of the season, there were certainly some question marks. But as the season unfolded, the Engineers started checking off boxes. “They were a team that accepted their roles and played them very well,” coach Walker said. “They were an easy group to coach. There was no fighting. They got along. They liked playing with each other.” As their record indicates, it proved to be a winning recipe.
Whaley can be reached at whaleym25@gmail.com
