Bangor takes Class A swim crown Experienced boys team captures fourth straight state championship

CAPE ELIZABETH – Four years ago a class of freshmen started blowing the older swimmers out of the water when Mike Reid was a senior captain for coach Phil Emery’s Bangor Rams.

Reid is now Emery’s assistant coach, and those swimmers – now seniors – are still blowing teams out of the water.

“They were stealing our thunder and they were so much better than all of us,” Reid said. “They’re men now. You look at them, and they’re all grown up, physically and mentally. A lot of things have changed, but they’re still the same guys I’ve always liked.”

All of that growing up culminated Saturday when Bangor, powered by seniors Tae Chung and twin brothers Jim Soucie and Dan Soucie, held off a strong Cheverus of Portland team for its fourth straight Class A state swim championship.

The senior class has never lost a team contest, from dual meets in the regular season to invitational meets to Penobscot Valley Conference title meets to state championships.

“I don’t know how we can go four years without losing a single meet,” said Dan Soucie, who won the 100 backstroke Saturday. “It’s excellent.”

And according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, the Rams are one of the winningest teams in the nation. This title is Bangor’s 20th, which ties the school with Omaha Westside in Nebraska for 10th on the list of all-time state championships, based on 1999-2000 numbers.

Omaha Westside won 20 from 1968 to 1991.

“That’s impressive,” Dan Soucie said. “And all but one of them was [coached by] Emery.”

In eight years, the Rams have lost one dual meet (to Class B Old Town), one PVC title meet (again, to the Indians) and came in third at the 1997 state championships.

Eight state titles since 1993. Thirteen since 1986.

Those teams may have lost a dual meet here and there. Not these seniors.

Chung and the Soucies may have been the main scorers at states, but the Rams rely on swimmers such as Adam Grant, Sean Lagrange, Kevin Lewis, Bernie McDonald and Pat Knaide to do most of their work in practice and dual meets.

Co-captain Knaide probably has earned more glory as a two-way starter and captain on the Bangor football team than as a member of the unbeaten swimming team. Still, he’s in awe of what the Rams have accomplished.

“It’s crazy,” he said. “To not know the feeling of losing is not something many people will go through. It’s just crazy, winning all these meets. You can’t even comprehend it.”

Maybe Saturday’s meet wouldn’t have been as close if everything had played out in Bangor’s favor over the years.

After the 1999 championship, distance star Jason Thomas headed to Mercersburg Academy, a prep program in Pennsylvania. Last year, Alex Small left the team for personal reasons. This winter, Scott Loukes and Tom Poirier decided not to come out for the team. They had been key members of the team.

All of that gave Emery the feeling that things were becoming “unglued” at the start of the season. When Emery took his victory lap – a length of the pool entirely underwater – Saturday, it was a release of season-long tension.

Team manager Casey Spaulding said she noticed that Emery was nervous before the meet started. Later in the evening, when injured swimmer Henry Evans told Emery he was going to wrap plastic on the cast around his ankle so he could jump into the pool after the meet, Spaulding saw something that worried her.

“Coach said, ‘We have to win it first.’ He had this look on his face, and he got up walked away so I knew that he was nervous.”

Before the evening session, Emery told his seniors to take care of the last piece of business. They listened.

“That nucleus is just so reliable,” Emery said. “There’s no mental work that you have to do. They’ve been great leaders. They like to race, they like to swim.”

The Rams are surrounded by winners: Reid was a member of three state championship teams. Diving coach Bobbi Stoyall, who was in retirement when Emery called to see if she would coach the Bangor divers, was with Old Town when the Indians won 14 Class B boys state titles and six girls titles.

The one constant has been Emery. He swam on the 1964 state championship team coached by Phil Lucas and won his first title as a coach in 1971.

Saturday’s win puts Emery one title behind legendary Portland coach Harold Crimmins. Is a tie possible at next year’s state meet?

“I’m going to enjoy this one first,” Emery said with a laugh.