Brothers are opponents on field Orono player Brandon Terrill has edge over Bapst coach Barry Terrill

Friday night’s football game between John Bapst of Bangor and Orono was more than a battle between two improved teams trying to make up for several sub-par seasons. It was an LTC Class C civil war as Bapst’s coach is an Orono graduate and the older brother of a two-way starter for Orono.

Thanks to Orono’s 28-18 victory, younger brother Brandon has the bragging rights. The win made the Red Riots 2-0 and extended Bapst’s 12-game losing streak.

“It was fun. I’ve been giving him some good-hearted ribbing, but I can’t really get too bad because we have to play again,” said Brandon, a senior starter at center and defensive tackle.

Brandon has come a long way since his youthful days in the Terrill family backyard, where Barry routinely beat him up as they played tackle football.

“I remember he used to mark off a 10-yard area and make me go full contact with him with no pads,” Brandon recalled. “He was in high school and I was still in fifth and sixth grade.”

Barry chuckled at the memory.

“Yeah, I would certainly credit any toughness he has now to all the beatings I gave,” he joked.

Friday’s game was a bit anticlimactic for the Terrills only because neither brother really saw much of the other.

“It was actually kind of strange. We certainly didn’t see each other before the game and I missed him in the postgame reception line,” said Barry Terrill, a 22-year-old coach in his first varsity season. “We didn’t even see each other until the next day.”

The only time Barry noted a conflict between family and team came when he was out scouting Orono.

“I watched them week one against Old Town and about the second quarter, I found myself rooting for him and Orono, so I kind of had to fight that because here I am a scout for another team,” said Barry, a former Riots two-way tackle. “It’s funny because it wasn’t really a problem at our game.”

The five-year age gap meant the Terrill brothers never got a chance to play organized ball together. They have, however, both been on the same high school team.

“I was a manager as a seventh grader for the 1996 undefeated team that won the championship and Barry was a starter,” Brandon explained. “It was a lot of fun being close with the players and stuff. My brother let me sit in the back of the bus with all the guys.”

Now Barry’s little brother isn’t so little. In fact, when they get together for a little backyard ball nowadays, the 6-foot-2, 240-pound Barry has to rely on guile and finesse rather than the brute strength he used to have because Brandon now stands about 6-3 and weighs 260 pounds.

From handcuffs to hall passes

Thanks to a couple of coinciding, near-midlife career changes, Skowhegan High has a new athletic director.

Longtime state of Maine probation-parole officer Terry Michaud is going from ex-cons to students as he replaces Jon Christopher, who resigned the Indians’ A.D. post after five years on the job to take a breather and teach instead.

The 29-year-old Christopher, whose wife Kristy had the couple’s first child, Marcus Scott, 14 weeks ago, decided he needed to free up a some extra time and go from administrator to teacher.

“There’s obviously some things you like about it, but the constant drain on your time and the things that you have to keep dealing with over and over get to you,” Christopher explained. “I get so much more time away from school now. Last week was my first Labor Day weekend off in six years.”

Christopher, who has a structural engineering degree from the University of Maine, is now teaching high school trigonometry and algebra for the first time.

Michaud, who majored in criminal justice at the University of Southern Maine, has been Skowhegan’s outdoor and indoor track and field coach for the last 10 and eight years, respectively. He also coaches cross country.

The Lawrence High School alumnus has been a parole officer for the last 201/2 years.

“This was kind of a midlife career change, but it’s a nice one and the timing just seemed to work out pretty well,” Michaud said. “I wasn’t looking to do this initially, but I love it so far.”

Andrew Neff’s High School Report is published each Wednesday. He can be reached at 990-8205 or aneff@bangordailynews.net.