It’s the end of an era for Downeast hoop Woodland, Calais losing pivotal players who helped bring nine titles to schools

One team came out with a win and another suffered through a loss, but for both the Woodland and Calais girls basketball teams, Saturday’s Classes C and D state championship games meant one thing – the end of an era in Washington County.

For the past four years, Woodland’s Julia Knights and Ashley Marble, and Katie Frost and Lanna Martin of Calais provided lots of memories for Downeast Athletic Conference and Eastern Maine tourney fans. Playing in rival towns about 10 miles apart, the four seniors scored more than 4,000 points between them, led their teams to a combined four state championships, five Eastern Maine titles, three Eastern Maine runner-up honors, and had a combined 42-4 record this season.

Knights and Marble went out with a 75-46 victory over Rangeley in the Class D state championship game, the Dragons’ second straight Class D title, but Knights felt a bit wistful knowing that her high school basketball career had ended.

“It’s a lot sadder this year,” she said after the win Saturday. “It feels good to win, but it’s the last time.”

Woodland, it turns out, is the first Class D girls team to claim two state crowns in a row since East Grand of Danforth did it in 1982 and 1983.

A member of those Viking teams? Rusti Hanington, now Rusti Knights, who is Julia’s mother.

Frost and Martin, who have started every game since they started their careers in the 1998-99 season and won Class C state titles in 1999 and 2001, closed out their careers with a loss to Dirigo.

“We talked a little bit [after the game],” Martin said Saturday night. “It’s hard. Basically we talked about how it was a great four years and you can’t take anything away from what we’ve done. We worked hard.”

Marble and Knights are the only two Dragons graduating. Calais will suffer more losses, including three-year starters Nanci Feck and Morgan Drew, part-time starter and key substitute Katie Welch, Katie Smith and Krystal Best.

Young WM teams could be back

Look for Rangeley, the Western Maine Class D champ that lost to Woodland, and Dirigo of Dixfield, which beat Calais for the Class C title, to at least make postseason runs next year.

The Lakers will lose two starters, but the Cougars are in a rare situation: they won’t lose a single player from this year’s team.

The returning starters for Dirigo are juniors Nicki Turbide, Alyssa Burns and 6-foot-1 star Lyndsay Clark, freshmen Sheena Weston and Alexa Kaubris. Coach Gavin Kane will also have 5-11 junior post players Natalie Keene and Samantha Averill.

Rangeley’s Kelly Grant and Cassie Frost are seniors, but 5-9 junior standout Sarah Drosdik and two freshman starters, 6-0 center Krysteen Romero and guard Sarah Schrader, will be back.

“Anybody that doesn’t think we’ll be back here next year doesn’t know the heart and the character of the kids that I have in my program because we’ll be back,” Lakers coach Heidi Deery said.

Lee soccer coach resigns

Chip Wiggins, who coached the Lee Academy girls soccer team to an Eastern Maine Class D championship and an 18-1 record last fall in his only season as the Panda skipper, has resigned to take a college coaching position in North Carolina.

Wiggins has known about his upcoming move for a few weeks but met with the Lee girls last Wednesday after they finished the basketball season with the Eastern Maine Class D runner-up title.

“They’re a great group, and they’re only losing three seniors,” Wiggins said. “I told them that they’ll have plenty of time to find a new coach.”

Wiggins is taking over the head coaching post at NCAA Division II Wingate (N.C.) University, where he will be in charge of both the men’s and women’s teams. The Bulldog men were the South Atlantic Conference winners in the fall 2001 season, while the women set a school record with 12 wins.

“I know the men’s coach down there really well and he was looking to someone to fill in for him next year,” said Wiggins, who is from South Carolina and played soccer at Charleston Southern College. “It’ll be a challenge but it’s what I want to do.”

Wiggins graduated from the University of Maine-Presque Isle last summer and is engaged to former Panda standout and UMPI basketball player Stephanie Thurlow.