Fan Feedback

Valley’s secret success

Considering the usual excellence and thoroughness of its high school sports coverage, it is surprising that the NEWS has taken no notice of an extraordinary sports story that is playing out here in “the other Maine.” I am referring to the record being compiled by the Valley High School boys basketball team.

The Valley Cavaliers have captured the last three state Class D championships, going undefeated in each championship season. Earlier this year, Valley broke a 50-something-year-old record for consecutive wins – regular season and postseason tournament play included. “The Streak” has now been extended, and is still intact at this writing. Not included in the streak are holiday tournament wins over Classes C, B, and A opponents, along with a victory over a New Hampshire team whose school’s enrollment exceeds Valley’s 130 students by a factor of about 20 to 1.

The lion’s share of the credit for Valley’s success must go to its long-term coach, Dwight Littlefield. Now in his 24th season at the helm, Dwight is closing on the Maine record for most coaching wins. One of the true gentlemen of the game of basketball, Dwight long ago surpassed the record for “Most Wins Without a Courtside Tantrum.” For Dwight, teaching and character-building come first, as evidenced by the sprinkling of sportsmanship plaques in the school’s bulging trophy case, and by the successes in life of many of his former players.

What is the Valley secret? An anecdote may be instructive. A few years ago I was watching the Cavaliers play a home game in our area. The home team stayed with Valley, and tied the score with a buzzer-beater. Understandably elated, the home team erupted onto the court in jubilant (though premature) celebration, and spent a good part of the time out high-fiving. As this was going on, my wife said to me, “Look at Dwight.” There at the Valley bench, seemingly oblivious to the chaos all around, coach Littlefield was calmly instructing his team on how to play the overtime. In the overtime, Valley took charge and won by about a dozen.

David Dean

Sangerville

Valley deserves more

When have you ever seen a bunch of boys, good students, good athletes, showing good sportsmanship, a group of polite and likeable kids who go out on the court and give their all for 32 minutes, who have won three gold balls in as many years and are now in the process of breaking schoolboy basketball records by having won 75-plus games in a row and are a joy to watch? They are also from a small rural town in Maine with about 130 students in their school.

The people of Bingham are so proud of their kids up there [at Valley High School]. Where is the coverage that that kind of feat deserves? I’m sure if they lose a game, they’ll make front-page news big time and that will be a shame!

Pat Johnson

Parkman

Monitoring the Internet

Brace yourself readers. Here is a letter that actually agrees with John Holyoke.

Mr. Holyoke has contended that online message boards contain hateful and imbecilic thoughts from mouse potatoes who are too cowardly to attach their own names to their reactive and sometimes inarticulate opinions.

This sports web-site publisher knows exactly what John is talking about, and he’s right on the money. There are a number of free-for-all message boards with no rules and no accountability. As a result, anyone posing as any creature can hack in anything about anybody, and there are no consequences for such actions.

Letters to the editor and Fan Feedback not only have the authors’ names on them, but they’ve also been read and proofread by a professional who specializes in rules of libel and the English language before the letters go to print. Currently, most Internet (why that word is capitalized is beyond me!) message boards are set up for a reader’s words to go directly to publication, often without a sign-up process.

This is where it gets dangerous, and this is where web-site owners and/or publishers must take responsibility. Mr. Holyoke said it best: Anyone can easily post “lies and guesses that would land a journalist in court.” For this reason, publishers must do what they can to keep such unwanted and unneeded material off the web. It only makes their sites look unprofessional and undesirable. I have had to delete posts and ban users for libelous material, and, as I call it, “excessive stupidity.”

The purpose of these message boards is fan interaction and exchange of information. I’m all for lively banter and even ribbing opposing fans. However, personal attacks and misinformation would generally not be allowed by most media that have credible, responsible people running their respective shows. Maybe we need some more of those sensibilities among those running the cyberspace show.

Internet regulation will – and should – come sooner or later. In the meantime, when reading a message board, I must ask sports fans to please consider the sources.

Jim Baines

Publisher, MaineBeat.com

Note to readers: The NEWS asks that letters be kept brief and reserves the right to edit submissions for libel, taste, clarity, and to fit available space. Letters should include a signature, full name, address, and daytime phone number. Letters may be mailed to: P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402, or e-mailed: bdnsports@bangordailynews.net