ME, NH, VT: Dre Wills Best Athlete in Northern New England

Kevin Thomas of the Portland Press Herald reported on the great effort put up by Maine’s Shaun Lawton and Till Gloger to almost pull the upset, but Dre Wills showed why he is the best player in three states by hitting six of eight shots and adding three steals, six rebounds and five assists to rally Vermont 68-54 this past season.

Sure, the residents of the three northeastern most states may be more focused on skiing than team sports, but Wills has a shot to rank as one of the top 100 players in America this year. As one of the top players in steals and shooting percentage in the country, he projects, according to Value Add Sports, as adding 6.27 points per game to the Catamounts—more than two points more than any other player and the 106th best total of the 4000+ players in the country.

The Best Returning Players will be updated here.

Tad Neely anchors the offensive line for New Hampshire to come in second in the three-state region, and William Pelletier put in 16 goals and 25 assists, including two goals with one assist in the tough luck 4-3 loss in the NCAA D3 quarterfinals at Amherst.

Maine’s top player is linebacker Christophe Mulumba Tshimanga, a former hockey player who appears to be quite a character in this video from the school.

Vermont also boasts high school basketball stars coming up in Saxtons River High School’s Tyrique Jones (going to Xavier in 2016) and Bruce Brown (sought after by every conference).

Here are the top 40 players, with the Value Add rankings for basketball and football players.

Rnk	Student-Athlete	School	Pos-State	Value Add	Sport	Sport Nat’l
1	Wills, Dre	Vermont Catamounts	PG-VT	6.27	Basketball	106
2	McNeely, Tad	New Hampshire Wildcats	Oline-NH	3.03	Football	403
3	Pelletier, William	Norwich University Cadets	F-VT	NA	Hockey	NA
4	O’Day, Ethan	Vermont Catamounts	C-VT	4.11	Basketball	416
5	Wright, Miles	Dartmouth Big Green	SF-NH	3.96	Basketball	465
6	Watson, Carly	Middlebury Panthers	D-VT	NA	Wom Hockey	NA
7	Shippee, Jacob	Dartmouth Big Green	Javelin-NH	NA	Track/Field	NA
8	Ward, Cam	Vermont Catamounts	PG-VT	3.82	Basketball	495
9	Whitehorn, Kaitlin	Dartmouth Big Green	Hjump-NH	NA	Track/Field	NA
10	Cross, Taylor	Norwich University Cadets	D-VT	NA	Wom Hockey	NA
11	McRoberts, Zach	Vermont Catamounts	SF-VT	3.8	Basketball	501
12	Anderson, Akil	New Hampshire Wildcats	LB-NH	2.79	Football	584
13	DeAndrade, Casey	New Hampshire Wildcats	Dback-NH	2.69	Football	687
14	Gill, Malik	Dartmouth Big Green	PG-NH	2.96	Basketball	759
15	Murphy, Brooke	New Hampshire Wildcats	F-NH	NA	Soccer	NA
16	Bell-Haynes, Trae	Vermont Catamounts	PG-VT	2.79	Basketball	836
17	Tshimanga, Ch. Mulumba	Maine Black Bears	LB-ME	2.45	Football	977
18	Leissner, Tanner	New Hampshire Wildcats	C-NH	2.48	Basketball	982
19	Steidel, Kurt	Vermont Catamounts	SF-VT	2.44	Basketball	999
20	Brown, Bruce	Saxtons River High School	SG-VT	NA	HS-Basket	NA
21	Smith, Jaleen	New Hampshire Wildcats	SG-NH	2.37	Basketball	1035
22	Johnson, Bruce	Maine Black Bears	Oline-ME	2.37	Football	1099
23	Jones, Tyrique	Saxtons River High School	PF-VT	NA	HS-Basket	NA
24	Hatton, Brandon	Vermont Catamounts	SG-VT	1.92	Basketball	1385
25	Bates, Trevor	Maine Black Bears	Dline-ME	2.12	Football	1524
26	Reed, Jordan	New Hampshire Wildcats-2017	PG-NH	1.7	Basketball	1562
27	Carpenter, Tommy	Dartmouth Big Green	SF-NH	1.29	Basketball	1927
28	Lawton, Shaun	Maine Black Bears	SF-ME	1.16	Basketball	2055
29	Speidel, Josh	Vermont Catamounts	PF-VT	1	Basketball	2445
30	Boudreaux, Evan	Dartmouth Big Green	PF-NH	1	Basketball	2490
31	Crescenzi, Kevin	Dartmouth Big Green	SG-NH	0.96	Basketball	2578
32	Ngwudo, Ikemefuna	Dartmouth Big Green	SF-NH	0.52	Basketball	2999
33	Boehm, Connor	Dartmouth Big Green	PF-NH	0.51	Basketball	3016
34	McDonnell, Brandon	Dartmouth Big Green	PF-NH	0.3	Basketball	3186
35	Harrison, Cole	Dartmouth Big Green	PF-NH	0.25	Basketball	3232
36	Camara, Iba	New Hampshire Wildcats	C-NH	0.24	Basketball	3251
37	Armstrong, Jacoby	New Hampshire Wildcats	PF-NH	0.22	Basketball	3267
38	Mackey, Ethan	Maine Black Bears	PF-ME	0.12	Basketball	3424
39	DeAndrade, Casey	New Hampshire Wildcats	Dback-NH	1.2	Football	3924
40	Milano, Matt	Middlebury Panthers	QB-VT	0.98	Football	4621
40	Minno, Matthew	Middlebury Panthers	Rec-VT	0.3	Football	5466