Bangor’s top sweeper is always on her toes

When the Bangor girls soccer team takes the field for its quarterfinal game with Cony of Augusta Saturday at 1 p.m., some people will be keeping their fingers crossed that one player, in particular, does not get hurt.

That would be 17-year-old senior co-captain Emily Bragg, Bangor’s sweeper.

The finger-crossers don’t want anything to happen to the sweeper because, if something happens to the sweeper, something happens to Cinderella.

This Saturday, on her home field, it is soccer moves Emily Bragg will concentrate on. She’s the last line of defense before the goalie. She must be on her toes. It is her responsibility to get that ball and turn it downfield to waiting teammates.

Two weeks from Saturday, on Nov. 5 at 7 p.m., Emily Bragg will be on her toes again – on her home stage at Peakes Auditorium in the Bangor Youth Ballet production of Cinderella. Instead of being the last line of defense, she will be in the lead, as Cinderella.

Emily Bragg began ballet at age 5. She started soccer in the city’s youth program, and progressed up through the junior high and JV ranks before making varisty last year. She loves the sport. And, she loves ballet.

That part of her life, she hopes, will continue after graduation. The BHS honor student is looking for a college where she will be able to combine a study of language with dance.

But, for the moment, Emily Bragg’s mind is elsewhere. It is sorting through daily responsibilities she obviously relishes, whether it is classwork, homework, soccer practices or games, ballet lessons or rehearsals.

She took time out at the Thomas School of Dance Thursday evening to reflect on the two activities which mean so much to her, and which she says have so much in common.

“You have to work hard in both,” she said. “You have to be in condition for both. Soccer can be rough, because if someone is in the way, you have to be able to make the moves to get around them.”

Ballet requires strength as well, and being able to make the correct moves at the right time. In athletics or dance, she said, “you are always working, trying to improve.”

A key to success, in both, is body strength. Working on one helps keep her fit for the other.

You can see the strength in the graceful lines of her legs; so agile they can zap a ball downfield in soccer shoes, or whip up over her head in toe shoes. In soccer and ballet, the players must support each other, Emily explained. In each, you are working to accomplish something for yourself and others. And, in each, you are working to entertain others.

Several members of the Thomas troupe participate in fall sports as well, but there is a bit more pressure on Emily, who has no understudy for Cinderella. She doesn’t want to get hurt, either, because she doesn’t want to miss playing, or dancing.

Bangor has something to prove this year, she said of her team. When she was a freshman on the JV team, the Rams finished 15th. She was still a JV her sophomore year when No. 8 Bangor was upset, 2-1, by No. 9 Cony in the preliminary round. Last year, she was a starter when the Rams lost, 1-0, to Hampden Academy in the quarterfinal. Her classmates who played varsity as sophomores, she said, are most eager to get by Cony this time, and she is determined to help.

“I think we are going far,” she said. “We have a very good team. We’re better than last year.”

Coach Jeff Ingalls said Bragg and co-captain Brooks Deering are quiet leaders. The ballerina, he said, “is better than good, she is one of the most wonderful personalities I’ve ever coached. She’s saved us so many times. She’s a real student of the game.”

As she is a student of the dance. On Nov. 5, the Bangor Youth Ballet will feature the Rams’ soccer sweeper portraying the young maid who received her name for sweeping cinders from the fireplace. Emily is looking forward to the performance, she said, “because when you dance a part, you get to do the acting, too.”

But, first, comes Saturday, when the ballerina will tie on her soccer shoes and work to sweep Cony out of the tournament.