Bangor vs. Brewer isn’t the state’s only rivalry

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Forgive us in the media, all you folks who don’t happen to live either in Bangor or Brewer today.

We tend to get carried away with this Bangor-Brewer schoolboy basketball rivalry.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a great rivalry. If you don’t believe me, just tune in to Channel 5 at 2:30 this afternoon. I guarantee the Brewer High gym will be flying higher and making more noise than a C-5 transport.

Basketball the way it used to be, that’s the way we bill this game around here. Basketball the way your dad remembers it. Humid. Sweaty. Life or death.

In this corner: Bangor, undefeated this season, haughty in its 12-0 perfection and physical talent.

And in this corner: Brewer, 10-4, itching to pull the upset even as the Witches wonder how to make up for a decided height disadvantage.

Factor in almost a century of bad blood on both sides and we’ve got something unique here.

Brewer High junior guard Jacob Carr has seen this before, only someplace else.

“I transferred here from Calais before my sophomore year,” Carr said, prior to the start of a Brewer practice as the big game approached. “The big rival we had in Calais was Woodland. We blew ’em out back then, but it was still a big rivalry. People got really fired up for it.”

Carr never dreamed back then he’d be here, today, wearing orange and black, playing on TV in the regular season. He went on to relate how he and his buddies in Calais, having completed their Class C season, would watch the Class A teams in the tournament on TV.

“To us, it was like watching a college game, that’s the difference in the level we thought it was,” said Carr, who could have been speaking for thousands of kids in small towns across Maine.

That was awhile ago, though. The move to Brewer and his playing for the Class A Witches have provided Carr with a certain perspective. Yes, he’s thrilled to be a part of this. But the difference in the game isn’t quite as pronounced as he once thought.

“There are more head games at this level, that’s the biggest thing. Not head games in a bad sense. There’s just more thinking. Down there, the coaches will get on your case, but if you’re scoring that’s all that really matters. Here, you’ve got to think all the time,” said Carr, one of 10 Witches Coach Mark Savage plays regularly.

Carr is a veteran of one Bangor-Brewer game. He scored two points, working hard if futilely amid Bangor’s easy 62-41 win in Bangor back in December. He’s catching on to the head games.

“He’s adjusted well,” said Savage. “He’s learning what it takes to play at this level.”

Savage also knows something about the mindset outside this rivalry’s borders. In the 1970s, he played his high school ball for Phil Faulkner at Katahdin High in Sherman Station.

“I remember we used to watch the Class A games on TV, too,” said Savage. “I can remember watching Brewer with (Scott) Stymiest and (Phil) Adams and being in awe of them.”

With the advantage of age and experience, including coaching in Brewer for eight years, Savage’s basketball world has expanded. The differences aren’t as pronounced. Katahdin had a big rivalry, too, he points out.

“Central Aroostook. That was always a monster game for us,” he said with a laugh.

What we here in River City forget is there are really Bangor-Brewer games played all over the state, every weekend.

These are rivalries forged in shared geography, every bit as important to the participants, every bit as heated as this one.

Presque Isle vs. Caribou is a rivalry most true fans should experience at least once… Or Dexter and Foxcroft Academy… Or Lawrence and Waterville… Or Washington Academy and Machias… Or Rockland and Camden-Rockport…Or Calais and Woodland.

The only reason those rivalries aren’t as hyped is those schools, by chance, aren’t located in a media center.

The irony of the media making such a huge deal out of this game is the Brewer players know, to have a chance at winning, they must put the rivalry out of their mind.

“We’ve got to treat this game like any other game,” assessed junior point guard Jason Leighton. “We can’t get caught up in all the hype.”

Such detachment, of course, is impossible. We, in the media, see to that.

“Bangor-Brewer… It doesn’t get any better than this,” said Savage, feeding the hype with a wink.

Better? No. But it’s just as good… all over Maine.