Bangor-Brewer rivalry halted again

As far as football coaches and officials in the Pine Tree Conference are concerned, eight isn’t enough.

But eight is all they can get as the PTC will switch to an eight-game schedule over a nine-week regular season this fall.

“I don’t remember having bye weeks here for a long time. It’s one of the most dreaded things for a football coach,” said Bangor athletic director Steve Vanidestine. “I just think any time you have a bye, it’s tough for the kids that week in terms of rhythm and routine, especially if you’re playing well.”

The scheduling change has had another negative impact. It effectively ends the renewal of Bangor’s 96-year-old football rivalry with Brewer this year.

“At least the way it’s set up right now, we won’t be able to play this year,” said Brewer athletic director Dennis Kiah. “It’s too bad, too, especially this year, because it would have been the 100th meeting between our teams.”

Ironically, the change from a nine- to eight-game schedule was made necessary by the departure of Brewer, which dropped to Class B and the LTC after two winless seasons in the PTC.

Brewer’s move out of the conference left it with nine teams and only eight conference opponents per PTC team.

The Maine Principals’ Association football committee recommended in January that Southern Maine Activities Association members Lewiston and Edward Little switch affiliation from the SMAA to the PTC to fix the problem, but both schools balked, and the MPA classification committee rejected the recommendation, preferring instead to encourage both leagues to schedule crossover games.

But the SMAA had already drawn up and distributed its 1999 schedule and officials were unwilling to do it all over again. So with an uneven number of teams, PTC officials had no choice but to draw up a schedule with bye weeks, and Lawrence AD Brad Bishop’s proposed schedule was adopted.

“Obviously everybody would rather play nine games, especially the kids. It’s tough going two weeks in a row without playing a game,” said Bangor coach Gabby Price. “And it’s generally a little easier to find a [exhibition] game that first week than it is later on, but hopefully we can find an opponent and turn it into a positive.”

Vanidestine said he is currently talking with a few schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut looking for extra games about the possibility of playing an exhibition game in some type of home-and-away series the next two years.

Bangor was originally scheduled to have a bye week in week one of the regular season, and then play eight straight games. But in order to allow Lawrence and Waterville to meet in their traditional, end-of-the season clash, Bangor agreed to modify the schedule and switch its bye week to week nine.

The Rams hoped to play Brewer in a preseason scrimmage or exhibition like they’ve done the last few years, but Bangor was already committed to a scrimmage with Gardiner and exhibition against Mt. Blue – both fellow PTC teams.

“From a scheduling standpoint, we couldn’t drop Mt. Blue,” said Vanidestine. “If we did, it would leave them without an exhibition game, and we feel we have an obligation to our conference first.”

Brewer and Bangor school officials are hopeful their crosstown rivalry can be renewed, either on an exhibition basis in 2000 or as a regular-season game if Brewer’s enrollment puts the Witches back in the “A” ranks in two years.

There is some good news for PTC football coaches and fans, however. The MPA recently wrapped up an agreement with the University of Maine to host the Class A state championship game Nov. 20 at Alfond Stadium, an artificial turf field.

“That’s a thrill for Eastern Maine fans,” said Price. “As far as playing on turf, I don’t know if it would be a disadvantage or not, but I’d give my right hand to be able to find out.”

MPA officials had tossed around the idea of holding all three state championship games at UMaine, but abandoned the idea after realizing there would be a Maine hockey game at Alfond Arena the same day, creating traffic and other logistical problems.