Bowl is moved to spring

The Maine Soccer Coaches Senior Bowl game, postponed from last Sunday, may be rescheduled for sometime in June.

The game, which was originally set for Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, was postponed indefinitely after the weekend storm dumped about four inches of snow on MMA’s Ritchie Field.

By Sunday, Bowl organizer Mike Jeffrey said most of the snow was frozen and it would be too hard to clear the field.

“Safety-wise, there’s no way we would have put the kids on that,” he said. “It turned out to be a good move.”

“[On Saturday] we played the football game with our group, but there was three to four inches of snow on the field,” MMA athletic director Bill Mottola said. “We shoveled off the lines but there was no way you could play soccer.”

Jeffrey is trying to reschedule the game for June 21 at Brunswick High School. The change of venue would be to attract more seniors from Western Maine schools, who Jeffrey said tend not to attend the game because of the travel time involved.

“Hopefully we’ll get a better turnout if we try farther south,” he said.

The game, which has been held at MMA for the past three years, features Eastern Maine seniors against their Western Maine counterparts. Separate games for the boys and girls were scheduled, as well as a men’s collegseniors from Maine’s NAIA schools against seniors from all levels of state NCAA schools.

If the game is moved to June, Jeffrey said the collegiate game would probably not be played because the seniors will have graduated.

Georges Valley High School of Thomaston is considering a switch in conferences that would result in changing classifications as well.

The school board may decide next spring if the Buccaneers stay in the Mountain Valley Conference or move to the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.

The primary reason for considering a move is travel time, athletic director Ben Vail said.

Georges Valley’s closest away game is a 15-minute bus ride. The next-closest is one hour and 10 minutes away, and every other MVC school is at least a 1 1/2-hour ride.

“It’s difficult on the kids,” Vail said. “If we [made the move], it would mean an easier travel schedule.”

A move to the KVAC would dramatically cut travel time, but public interest in the switch has been minimal, Vail said. The school held a public forum to discuss the idea, but only 15 people turned out.

“We’re not sure if the community is that energized by the idea,” he said.

A conference switch would mean moving from Class C to Class B, which Vail said may be hard for a school with an enrollment of 300.

If the school board decides to switch conferences, the change would go into effect for the 1999-2000 school year.