Wanted at UMFK: basketball players

If there are any high school senior girls planning to attend college next fall and are interested in playing basketball in the northern Maine area, Ed Marshall has just what you’re looking for.

“If they want to play, we’ve got room,” said the coach of the currently disbanded, but not discontinued, women’s basketball program at the University of Maine-Fort Kent.

Despite a solid 3-3 record, UMFK had to forego the remainder of the season when serious injuries and illnesses reduced its seven-member squad to four.

“We just ran out of bodies,” Marshall said this week. “We had seven players from the start and, in our last game the second weekend in December against the University of Maine-Presque Isle, we had three go down with major injuries.”

One of the three was All-District and All-State junior Benita Martin, who reinjured a ligament and would have put her out of action for an unspecified period of time.

“We lost another (player) to a knee injury that would require 4-5 weeks to heal,” Marshall said, “and a third player needed surgery which she was trying to put off as long as possible. It got to the point we just weren’t able to continue.”

UMFK was doing well enough so that, before actually canceling games, Marshall went around campus trying to recruit, but found no takers.

Marshall does expect, with two seniors who have not played out their eligibility, plus the juniors who want to continue playing, UMFK women’s basketball will start up again next fall.

“You know,” he said, “with the seven we had, it was actually one of the best teams I’ve coached. I think, if we had been able to continue, we would have done well.

“We had lost only one player to graduation.,” the coach added. “We would have been competitive. We beat the University of Maine-Machias, Lyndon (Vt.) State and Johnson (Vt.) State, and lost to the University of Maine-Presque Isle by just a couple of points. We had the same old problem of not being able to sustain a long game with teams like Husson and St. Joseph’s, but we were in there.”

Seniors Lynn McBreairty, a point guard from St. Francis, Boothbay center Sue Maddocks, and forward Betsy Mitchell from Shead of Eastport are very disappointed not to be playing this se two of them will be back.

McBreairty and Maddocks each joined the team second semester of their freshman year, and since this year’s schedule was canceled before the semester was complete, each retains another year of eligibility. Marshall expects those two, plus Martin and forward Patty O’Leary of St. Francis, to suit up for UMFK next fall.

“We just need a few more women who really want to play basketball,” he said. “All is not lost yet, even with the budget problem. We’ll be working hard to get more people interested in playing basketball.”