Gold ball was the only goal for Rams’ Nickerson

When it comes to individual awards, the great athletes – especially the ones whose teams never win “the big one” – always seem to say the same thing late in their careers, be they pros, collegians, or high schoolers.

It goes something like this: “While it was nice to be recognized for my individual talents, I’d trade all these awards for one (World Series, Super Bowl, national championship) ring.”

If your name is Buddy Nickerson and you just finished a very successful season as the starting tailback for Bangor High School’s varsity football team, just substitute “state championship” for World Series-Super Bowl-national championship and “gold ball” for ring, and you’re just like them.

Unlike those athletes who piled up individual honors in their careers without ever winning “the big one,” Nickerson is in a unique position to buttress that statement.

“I don’t think any of us has ever cared about the individual stuff, we just want a gold ball,” said the 5-foot, 10-inch, 185-pound tailback in a recent interview.

Nickerson won “the big one” after helping his Rams come away with a 20-14 victory in Saturday’s Class A state championship game.

And despite the fact that he finished as the leading rusher in Class A football this season with 1,507 yards and 19 touchdowns on 270 carries in 12 games, Nickerson will not have a chance to win the award presented annually to “the outstanding [senior] player in Maine football.”

That’s because Nickerson, despite receiving his coach’s nomination for the 31st James J. Fitpzpatrick Trophy, was not among the 10 semifinalists nominated by a review panel of former college and high school football coaches, school administrators, and media representatives.

“We have no hard feelings about the fact he’s not on the list this year, and we think the players who are on that list are very deserving and anyone who gets it should be very proud,” said Bangor coach Mark Hackett. “I talked to Buddy about it and he’s fine. We’re fine, we just move on. We got the award that we wanted.”

The 10 semifinalists are Brewer’s Chris Cote, Messalonskee of Oakland’s Jeffrey Cutler, Evign Dodge from Noble in South Berwick, Portland’s Josh Doughty, Scarborough’s Jeffrey Fasulo, Pat Lever from Mountain Valley in Rumford, Mt. Blue of Farmington’s Cole Parlin, Trevor Powers from Cheverus of Portland, Winthrop’s Lee St. Hilaire, and Stefan Scarks from Thornton Academy in Saco.

Three finalists will be chosen from a vote of media representatives and school officials and their names will be announced Sunday, Dec. 23. The winner will be named Sunday, Jan. 20 at the annual banquet in Portland.

Award criteria include sportsmanship, character, leadership, teamwork plus on-field and academic achievement.

Hackett said it was a difficult choice for him to make in choosing his nominee among his four captains: Nickerson, Chris Bombardier, Ben Guerette, and Derrick Shain.

“I think that really showed the kind of team we were this year,” Hackett said. “The reason we picked Buddy over them was that he had the statistics to warrant that, although he only played one way, so maybe we were part of why he wasn’t a finalist for the award.”

Hackett may feel bad about Nickerson, who wears an insulin pump on his waist when not playing football, not getting a chance to play both ways, but Nickerson isn’t complaining.

“Buddy had a great big smile on his face,” Hackett said. “I said ‘Buddy are you happy? I’m sorry you’re not one of the 10,’ and he said ‘Coach, I don’t even care. I got the one I wanted,’ so it sounds to me like he’s not about to trade.”