Injuries hamper girls basketball teams

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Injuries have taken their toll on several girls basketball teams a few weeks into the season.

Andrea Blanchard and Lauren Withey of Camden Hills; Ashley Marble of Woodland; and Mount View of Thorndike’s Heather Carter are a few of the athletes whose ailments have sidelined them or have gotten them off to a slower-than-usual start.

Most recently, Woodland senior forward Marble injured her left (non-shooting) wrist in the fourth quarter of a game against East Grand Dec. 17 in Danforth.

Arnold Clark, coach of the defending Class D champion Dragons, said doctors are calling Marble’s injury a severe sprain but aren’t sure if Marble has a broken bone. That will be determined when the third-team All-Mainer sees her doctor sometime this week.

“The doctors said there are so many bones in the wrist that there could be a break and it just hasn’t shown up yet,” Clark said. “It could show up when it starts to heal.”

Marble has missed just one game so far, a Downeast Athletic Conference showdown against Calais – Clark said Marble was unable to even make a fist before the game – and it is unknown how much longer she will be sidelined. Upcoming games include contests against Washington Academy of East Machias and Lee Academy.

“A lot depends on how she feels,” Clark said.

Meanwhile, sophomore Lauren Troiani replaced Marble the lineup Friday, but Troiani herself is still recovering from a broken left foot she suffered this fall and is not yet at full speed, Clark added.

At Camden Hills, senior forward Withey could have a big decision to make when she sees the doctor in Jan. 2 about the torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. She was hurt in a preseason game against defending Western Maine Class B champion Gray-New Gloucester.

If her knee is strong enough, she will get a brace and try to finish out the season with the Windjammers. If her knee is too weak, she’ll have surgery immediately and start about six months of rehabilitation with the goal of being ready close to the start of the college season. (Withey doesn’t know where she’s going to school yet but is applying to several schools with Division I basketball programs).

“It was pretty painful but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would have been,” said Withey, who was a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference first-team and all-defensive team star last year. “There’s some possibility that I might have done some damage to it before and this was the final [result].”

Withey’s teammate Blanchard hurt her left ankle in the preseason and is working her way back (17 points against Mount View Saturday – her second game back – should go a long way to that end).

“It’s pretty much pain free,” said senior guard-forward Blanchard, who suffered from a deep bruise as well as damaged nerves and ligaments. “It’s definitely getting better.”

Mount View forward Carter is back playing basketball this winter after having ACL surgery on her left knee in the off-season. Carter, a junior who was a KVAC honorable mention last year, is wearing a brace on her leg.

“She had surgery and she has a little bit of patella tendinitis so she’s going to take it easy now,” Mount View coach Shara MacDonald said after Saturday’s game against Camden Hills. “She’s in a little bit of pain so the athletic trainer said to give her Christmas break to heal and we’ll go from there.”

Ellsworth swim program grows

In four years the Ellsworth swim team has grown from taking up a few seats on a row of a bleacher to taking up the entire bleacher. The Eagles have quadrupled in size, gained experience, and are racking up points at dual meets.

Coach Matt Montgomery took over the team four years ago and had an eight-swimmer roster; now he’s got 31 swimmers on the team.

It’s about time the Ellsworth High team took off. The city has long had a strong age-group program through the Down East Family YMCA, and now those swimmers are continuing in high school.

“What we’re starting to see, now that we have a high school program that is competing consistently, is our age-groupers on the Y team are continuing to swim when they get to high school,” Montgomery said. “Four or five years ago they would stop and pick up a new sport because swimming wasn’t a new option.”

The Eagles don’t have any big stars, but they do have a solid group of boys and girls. At a meet last week against Brewer sophomore Matt Jordan won the 100 back and the 200 individual medley and anchored the winning 400 free relay; freshman Jaques Tardie was second in the 100 free and the 50 free and anchored the winning 200 free relay.

Senior Marianne Greenhalgh took the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke (freshman Meagan Batson was second to Greenhalgh in both events). Jenn Hodgkins won the 50 free.

Montgomery does not teach at the school, so he’s relies on his student-athletes to talk up the team to potential swimmers.

“I ask my kids to talk about how much fun we have, how it’s different from sports like basketball and wrestling. That’s how we get more and more swimmers. It’s been a lot of the students bringing in more swimmers.”

The number of girls on the team from last year to this year has grown slightly, but the difference in experience is huge. Last year, Montgomery had a group of girls who swam the 50-yard freestyle (the shortest race in the high school meets). This year, he said, the girls are branching out into events like the 500 freestyle and the 100 backstroke, which means more points for the Eagles.

“Instead of just having a bunch of exhibitions in the 50 free and not swimming some of the other events at all, now at least we can put people in just about every single event, and even put two or three people in those events,” he said. “It makes a big difference.”

The increase in swimmers has made the Eagles into more of a team while maintaining a relaxed atmosphere.

“We’ve improved so much, it’s great to watch,” Jordan said. “We’re up there now and we’re starting to contend. … There’s not the team pressure like there is with [four-time defending Class A state champion] Bangor. This is all about getting personal bests.”

Foss’ memorial fund

Donations in honor of Mandi Foss, the Nokomis High field hockey and basketball player who died in a snowmobile accident last week, can be send to the Nokomis Sports Boosters in care of Mrs. Donna Cray, Nokomis Regional High, 266 Williams Road, Newport, Maine, 04953.