The Bangor High girls basketball team won so many sportsmanship awards this winter that at least two of the Rams’ senior captains can’t exactly remember which banner is which. Is the black one from the conference or is it the blue one? And where did that red one come from, anyway?

The Rams won a triumvirate of honors from the Maine Principals’ Association, the Big East Conference and the IAABO Approved Basketball Officials. In fact, the Bangor girls won all the sportsmanship awards for which they were eligible.

Sportsmanship banners certainly aren’t as coveted as pieces of felt that teams win for state championships but they are a testament to the attitude and manners displayed by the Bangor girls basketball team this past season.

Neither Erica Prudente nor Samantha Warner can think of anything specific coach Tom Tennett’s Rams did to stand out from the rest of the teams, but a good attitude throughout the season may have helped.

“We’re all really positive,” said Warner, a Big East scholar-athlete honoree. “We’re never negative towards other teams or officials. We just understand that things are going to happen the way they do and there’s nothing we can do about it. Acting up about it or getting out of control isn’t going to solve anything.”

The MPA award goes to the top team in Eastern Maine Class A. The Big East banner considers teams from the eight-squad conference. The IAABO award is judged by Eastern Maine officials.

This is the second year in a row the Rams have won the Big East award.

Another factor for this year’s team may have been the six seniors (Warner, Prudente, Alison Smith, Jlynn Frazier, Terra Curtis and Melissa Achorn) who were all captains and experienced in the ups and downs of the typical basketball season (Bangor went 16-3).

Even after tough games, like the Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal loss to Messalonskee of Oakland, Warner and Prudente said the team tried to display good sportsmanship.

“We weren’t expecting it so we didn’t know how to react, but we weren’t negative,” Warner said. “We knew that it was our fault, so we didn’t try to blame other people.”

And, Prudente added, the younger players picked up a few sportsmanship lessons from that defeat.

“For the six seniors, it was hardest for us, and the freshmen knew the impact it had on us. That’s where their sportsmanship and their attitude stepped up, because we needed them then a lot,” said Prudente, who was a Big East spirit award winner. “Myself, I couldn’t handle the situation and if I didn’t have the rest of the team and my friends and our attitude, I don’t think we would have gotten through it the way we did.”

Other MPA sportsmanship winners are as follows: Class A – Caribou boys (east), Thornton Academy of Saco boys and Edward Little of Auburn girls (west). Class B – Erskine of South China boys and Mount View of Thorndike girls (east), Greely of Cumberland Center boys and York girls (west). Class C – Piscataquis of Guilford boys and Washington Academy of East Machias girls (east), Boothbay boys and Jay girls and (west). Class D – Greenville boys and Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook girls (east), Buckfield boys and Rangeley girls (west).