BANGOR – One of the more ubiquitous sights of the Eastern Maine basketball tournament for the past nine years has been the Winslow coach Jim Poulin’s colorful plaid suitcoat draped behind his chair on the bench.

Poulin, who has multiple sclerosis, is hoping to bring his tourney coat back to the Auditorium next year.

“I’m going to try, God willing,” he said after Wednesday afternoon’s 43-32 Class B semifinal loss to Houlton. “I’d like to come back. A lot has to do with how my health is as we continue on with the school year and through the summer. I don’t want to make a decision yet.”

MS is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system and Poulin has been progressively getting worse. He has had trouble walking and standing, and used a wheelchair at times in the Auditorium. Meanwhile, his Black Raiders had one of their finest seasons in his tenure, winning the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championship and completing an undefeated regular season. Winslow finished with a 20-1 record.

Poulin said he is on medication, but he sees coaching as a huge form of relief.

“It’s a steady downhill grind, but I’m doing good,” he said. “I love these kids. In all honesty, they’re the wind beneath my wings. I need them. I had a choice between taking the medication that I’m on and my kids, I’d want that medication of having my kids. They’re a big inspiration to me.”

Happy birthday to you

When you’re a member of the Maine Principals’ Association basketball committee and a regular at the Eastern Maine basketball tournament, it’s difficult to keep secrets.

So it was with a sense of dread that Maine Central Institute athletic director Julie Treadwell woke up Wednesday morning and headed in to the Bangor Auditorium.

You see, Wednesday was Treadwell’s 40th birthday, and you didn’t have to go to the Auditorium to find that out.

“It’s impossible to keep it under wraps when you have friends like mine,” Treadwell said with a chuckle. “I walked into the Auditorium Friday night and three people wished me a happy birthday ahead of time.”

Her day really started when she found an old picture of herself sporting an ultra-curly hairstyle in the NEWS classified section along with a 40th birthday greeting from her youngest sister.

“[Winslow assistant coach] Tom Bertrand walked by and said she started the Cindy Blodgett hair style,” said Beth Staples, a broadcaster for Bangor radio station WZON and one of Treadwell’s “best” friends.

It continued as she reached the Auditorium and found a sign on the wall with the photo blown up and placed on it. There was also a birthday cake and a few other good-natured surprises.

“Let’s put it this way, my mother gave me a nice UMaine fleece and that’s the only nice gift I’ve gotten so far,” she said. “I’ve gotten dead flowers, a sign on the Auditorium wall, a package of adult undergarments in case I have any urinary problems… It’s been real nice that everyone’s trying to help me out in my time of need.”

Just in case anyone didn’t know, her fellow officials at the scorers’ table have helped spread the word.

“They just keep on flashing the 40 sign and telling anyone who walks by about my new age,” Treadwell said.

Nokomis girls support Dexter

Just what was the Class A Nokomis of Newport girls basketball team doing at a Class C quarterfinal Wednesday morning?

Why, supporting the Dexter girls, of course.

The two squads have a lot in common, as several Nokomis players live in Corinna, which is about halfway between Newport and Dexter. Several of the girls played on the same travel team when they were younger, coached by current Dexter skipper Margaret Veazie.

Also, the Dexter girls were affected by the Dec. 20 death of Nokomis back-up guard Mandi Foss, who was killed in a snowmobiling accident. Foss lived in Corinna and was also a top field hockey player for the Warriors, which is another way the Dexter girls knew her. Many of the Tigers play field hockey on Dexter’s Class C state championship team.

The Tigers made up what they call angel pins, which are two strands of ribbon, one silver and one purple, tied together with a small, shiny metal angel and a cross. The pins are attached to the Nokomis girls’ warm-up jackets.

“Everyone else was sending us flowers, and they wanted to do something different,” said Warrior forward Danielle Clark, who wandered down from the stands at halftime with teammates and fellow Corinna residents Sara Lowe and Michelle Murray.

Tiger T-shirts decoded

If you were sitting on the visitors’ side of the Bangor Auditorium during Wednesday morning’s Class C girls quarterfinal, you may have been wondering what the Dexter girls were trying to say with their warm-up T-shirts.

During non-starter introductions, the girls had their backs to the visitors. Each T-shirt had a word on the back, and the girls were out of order (part of it read “Us-forever-this-stop”).

The Tigers got straightened out for the national anthem. When they lined up in order, the T-shirts read “We-can-build-this-dream-together-Stand-in-stone-forever-Nothing’s-gonna-stop-us-now.”

The lines came from a song by the group Jefferson Starship. Senior guard Kristy Veazie said the team had been listening to “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” all season and decided to make it a theme for their tourney T-shirts. The shirts debuted in a prelim game against Washington Academy of East Machias.

Technically tough

Caribou senior guard Joel Griffeth paid a stiff penalty for getting slapped with a technical foul late in Wednesday’s semifinal round loss to Camden Hills.

Griffeth was called for the foul after slamming the ball to the floor out of frustration after a Caribou turnover with three minutes to play in a close game.

Due to a school rule, Griffeth was pulled out of the game and could not return. If Caribou had won, he would not have been allowed to play any more than three minutes in the Eastern Maine Class B championship game.

“It was a tough moment in an emotional, intense part of the game,” said Caribou coach Chris Casavant. “He got frustrated and let his emotions get away from him.”

Griffeth had 14 points and seven rebounds to that point.

“He’s our best player and the guy we want on the floor with the ball on his hands, so it certainly hurt us down the stretch,” said Casavant. “But those are the rules.”