In terms of distance, Jay Kemble’s 14-mile move isn’t anything drastic, but in terms of time, it’s fairly significant.

Kemble resigned as Old Town High School’s varsity baseball coach to take the same job with John Bapst in Bangor.

Kemble, a teacher of seventh and eighth-grade social studies and language at Doughty (Fifth Street) Middle School in Bangor, figures his new job will save him at least 40 minutes a day in travel time, and time is important now that he and wife Karen have a new addition to their family.

New daughter Anna Sophia joined the family Wednesday. The Kembles also have a son, Peter, who is 28 months old.

“I started thinking about it in late July. I just took the John Bapst job because it’s much more convenient and allows me to stay in coaching,” said Kemble. “I live in Bangor and Bapst plays its games at Husson [College] so this is a good fit, although I feel bad about leaving Old Town because I really enjoyed it there and they have good people there.”

Kemble came back to coach Old Town, which he last coached in 1988-89, and led the Indians to the Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinals this year. He also coached Orono in 1998 and was an assistant coach at the University of Maine and Cornell University.

The switch also means Kemble will not return to be the head coach of Orono’s American Legion baseball team.

“It’s always been my philosophy that you should do a program your own players are in,” Kemble explained. “I did that once before with Old Town’s kids during the spring and Brewer’s Legion team during the summer in the 80’s. I want to work with the players, as much as I can, who are in the program from start to finish.”

Kemble got to know Bapst senior-to-be Tyler Jellison during this summer’s Legion season as he led Orono to a state tournament appearance. Next spring, he’ll get to know the Crusaders outfielder even better.

Don’t rule out Kemble staying in Legion ball, perhaps with Bangor, a team he was an assistant coach for from 1998 through 2000.

Pounding the turf

The unseasonably dry conditions which have kept Maine’s lawns and fields pretty parched this summer may have been good for saving people the trouble of mowing, but it may also be taking a toll on athletes this fall.

Aroostook County coaches and athletes are already noticing some undesirable side-effects from the Pine Tree State’s hot summer as they head into their second week of regular season play.

“I think right now, we’ve got more injuries than I remember,” said Fort Fairfield head boys soccer coach Dan Ayoob. “My assistant coach, Jeannette Peters, is also our trainer and she’s probably taping five or six kids’ ankles.

“We have another player who’s had a lot of slips and falls and on this hard stuff, it bangs you up quite a bit. Shin splints are something we have to worry about too, so I have them running backwards some and doing hills to get their ankle and leg strength up.”

Washburn girls soccer coach Leland Caron concurs.

“I tape four girls a game and I’ve never had to do that before,” said Caron. “One girl has shin splints big-time. The major change for us on this field is how hard it is. I’ve noticed there seems to be an increase in some injuries.”

Washburn boys soccer coach Larry Worcester isn’t having the same trouble, injury-wise, but he has noticed other effects.

“The thing I’ve noticed is where the ground’s so hard, the ball is really bouncing high off the ground,” Worcester explained. ” It’s easy for kids to misjudge the bounces and it’ll go right over their heads.”

That’s exactly what happened in Saturday’s girls soccer game between the Beavers and the Tigers in Washburn.

“We scored a goal with the ball bouncing over the goalie’s head and they scored the same kind of goal, so it probably should have been 3-3 instead of 4-4,” said Fort Fairfield girls coach Jay Edgecomb.

So what’s the solution?

“I’ve been telling them to try and get to it before it bounces and play the big bounces so it doesn’t go over them,” Worcester said.

“We try to keep the passes a little shorter,” said Tigers player Eric Tornquist.

And the injuries?

“You have to do a lot of icing and stretching and you really have to impress that on the kids,” said Ayoob. “My son Doug is one of the guys with shin splints and I told him if he didn’t ice them, I couldn’t see playing him in the condition he was in.”

Goooaaaallllllll!!!

The Downeast Round Robin soccer tournament will offer Washington County area high school teams and officials a chance to get in some preseason scrimmage time in this weekend.

Machias High and Washington Academy will host boys and girls teams, respectively on Saturday. Games will be 25 minutes long and there is no charge to participating teams. Further questions should be directed to Bob Sinford at 255-3411 or Jud McBrine at 255-8301.