I read with interest the “Sounding Off” article that appeared on Feb. 3. I have been following the University of Maine women’s basketball team for many years and to this day have tried to figure out what goals they are trying to set for themselves.

I have also tried to figure out what goals coach Joanne Palombo-McCallie is setting for herself. It is a well-known fact that the university has been a stepping stone for coaches and I believe Palombo fits that category.

Palombo has had real success at Maine and Cindy Blodgett is responsible for a big part of it. I have followed Blodgett since she was a freshman at Lawrence and she is the best ever to play for the Maine basketball team.

I was elated when Blodgett decided to play for Maine but now as I look back I have second thoughts. Blodgett has stated more than once she would like to play in a national championship game, but the way I see it, for her to attain that goal she would have to transfer to another college. There is no doubt Blodgett could start for any college team in the country.

Maine has a talented team and proved it by making it to the NCAA tournament last year, but to win a national championship it will need more than one Blodgett.

Palombo’s ability to recruit top-notch players is suspect and I believe she is filling her girls with false hope if she is telling them that they can win a national championship.

So, I say to Cindy Blodgett, if your goal is to play in a national championship game, then transfer now while you still have time. We will miss you but at least you will have a chance to accomplish your goal.

– Richard Foss, Orrington

Why do some Maine schools and colleges find it necessary to feminize team mascots which are already gender-neutral?

I’m referring to ridiculous nicknames that we’ll soon see at the high school basketball tourneys such as Tigerettes, Royalettes, Vikettes, Lady Bears, Lady Warriors, Lady Devils, Lady Hawks… You get the idea.

There’s no need to add “lady” to these nicknames as none of them imply a certain sex.

A warrior is still a warrior whether they’re male or female (as long as they’re good fighters). Who can tell if a royal is male or female, and who can get close enough to a hawk to tell its sex anyway?

And Vikettes? I’m not even going to try to explain that one.

If you really want to be grammatically correct, Lady Bears should be She-Bears, Tigers should be Tigresses, and Devils She-Devils.

But no one wants to be grammatically correct anymore. People would rather strive to be “politically correct.”

Then there are those that are more oxymorons than nicknames: Lady Knights, Lady Braves, Lady Monks.

When was the last time you saw, read, or heard about a Lady Monk? There’s no such thing. Ditto for Lady Braves (Pocahontas doesn’t qualify).

And Lady Knights? Besides Joan of Arc, there haven’t been too many lady knights through the ages. Damsels in distress or ladies-in-waiting, those I could buy.

Someone once said the best way to illustrate absurdity is by being absurd. With that in mind…

Imagine if the following changes were made to be most politically and grammatically correct:

The Stearns Minutemen would be Minutewomen (or Minutepeople); Bangor’s Rams would become Ewes; the Pirates, Red Riots, Hornets, Patriots would be Pirettes, Red Riettes, Hornettes, and Patriettes; Belfast’s Lions would be Lionesses; and Brewer’s boys teams would have to be referred to as Warlocks.

Fortunately, sanity still prevails at most of these schools.

– Andrew Neff

The Portland Sea Dogs have been successful in their first two years as a minor league baseball team in Maine.

With the sale of more than 400,000 tickets last year, the Sea Dogs were sold out many times.

It would seem that an easy trap to fall into would be to do nothing now, to assume that everything has been done to make the Class AA franchise as successful as it can be.

Well, the team hasn’t been thinking that way. It’s not sitting on its laurels.

Last week, the Sea Dogs, with President and General Manager Charles Eshbach and team publicist Mike Gillogly heading a group including players and other team personnel, went on a weeklong trip around Maine and New Hampshire.

From Presque Isle to Portsmouth, they visited with schoolchildren and businessmen, including a stop in the pediatrics wing of Eastern Maine Medical Center.

They made these stops because they’ve found that 25 percent of the people who attended their games came from more than 50 miles away.

The Sea Dogs have sold more than 225,000 tickets so far this year, but Eshbach and Gillogly say that even the games which sold out often did not do so until within a few days of the game.

In the past, the Sea Dogs have had specials such as Brewer Day, where Mayor Donna Thornton and a couple of busloads of fans journeyed to Hadlock Field for a game and to be recognized. Gillogly expects the Sea Dogs will be doing more of that this year.

When a team’s roster is determined almost at the whim of its parent club, in this case, the Florida Marlins, so that the team has almost no idea which players will be available on a week-to-week basis, then it must find other ways of attracting and keeping fans.

It appears the Sea Dogs’ management is not allowing a stone to remain unturned as it seeks to build on its successes.

Their hope is that their enthusiasm will remain contagious.

Is there a lesson in all this? Of course.

But it’s not only for the Sea Dogs; it could be a model for the incoming Bangor team in the Northeast Baseball League.

Everything the Bangor team can learn the easy way will be time saved to do other projects which will help the team. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel.

– Dave Barber

Readers may submit “Sounding Off” comments to the Bangor Daily News’ Sports Desk at P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, Maine, 04402-1329. Our fax number is (207) 990-8092. All comments will be edited for accuracy, clarity, content and taste.