Paige Cote makes a shot during her days with the University of New Haven Chargers.
Photo: Clarus Multimedia
By Gail Burnett
Paige Cote, a Springvale native who has excelled at every level of basketball play, from preschool days through graduate school, is about to take a long shot, even for her: She leaves at the end of this month for Ireland, where she will play for the professional Liffey Celtics.
Cote, 23, has a one-year contract with the Irish Super League team based in Dublin. She will be one of only two non-Irish players; the other is her good friend and former teammate at the University of New Hampshire, Brooke Kane.
“That’s going to help so much,” she predicted.
Cote has never been to Ireland, though her father Tom Cote, a former Sanford mayor, is part Irish. “It’s enough that when I get over there, I can say I’m a little bit Irish,” she said.
Basketball would seem a natural choice for Cote, who reached her current height of 6 feet 2 inches by her freshman year of high school. But it’s her competitive spirit and love of the game that keeps her playing.
“It’s just being able to have that competitive side,” she said. “I always had that, even as a little kid, and this is a good outlet for it.”
She joined her first team at age 4 and then played at St. Thomas School – with her father as coach – and at Sanford Middle School and High School while also joining the AAU Maine Firecrackers travel team.
After graduating in 2020, Cote majored in business management and accounting at UNH, where she played for the Wildcats despite limitations imposed by the Covid pandemic. She played center or power forward for all her four years at the school and then had a bonus year to help make up for that first curtailed season. She also played for the University of New Haven Chargers last year while earning her MBA. Like many standout players in Division 1 and 2 schools, Cote had an agent who sought opportunities for her. That’s how she connected with the Liffey Celtics.
Playing in Europe is just the latest door that basketball has opened for Cote. “There are so many opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise,” she said. That included traveling around the eastern U.S. for the Wildcats and competing against Caitlin Clark, considered one of the finest female athletes in the country, while playing the University of Iowa.
Despite all the excitement and anticipation of her first pro team, Cote isn’t sure she would want to follow Clark’s lead and join the WNBA if she had the chance. “I really want to enjoy basketball for my own personal enjoyment,” she said, rather than as a high-pressure job.
While she waits for all the paperwork to clear for her visa, Cote is serving meals and drinks on the patio of Hobbs Harborside restaurant in Wells. She said her friends and her family – parents Tom and Pam Cote and sister Sophie – are already making plans to visit her in Ireland.
When her year is up, Cote could sign on for another year with the Liffey Celtics, or she could find another team in Europe. For now, she’s savoring her time in the sun.
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