Big East ‘A’ slices ‘B’ games to 1

Triple headers at the Bangor Auditorium, fewer cross-classification games between Classes A and B teams, squads playing each other three times instead of two … welcome to next year’s version of the Big East Conference for boys and girls basketball.

It’s all part of scheduling changes discussed at a recent meeting of athletic directors and expected to be ratified at a meeting next week, Big East director Paul Soucy said Monday. All of those changes will go into effect next year.

The Big East Classes A and B schools will play each other just once next year instead of four times as they did this year. The ADs decided that the games weren’t competitive enough as Class B teams won roughly one-third of the games.

“It was mutually agreed by the As and Bs [schools] that the majority of games weren’t close,” Soucy said.

(There were some exceptions: the Class B Bucksport boys and MDI girls both won games against Class A opponents).

Each Class A and B school will now have one crossover game on its schedule.

With the loss of those games, five of the Big East Class A schools – Bangor, Brewer, John Bapst of Bangor, Hampden and Nokomis of Newport – decided to play each other three times, once at home, once away and once at a neutral site.

That site will be the Auditorium, where officials found seven dates in which six teams will play three games a night. Big East ADs are hoping the tripleheaders give athletes experience on the Auditorium floor and will generate fan interest.

“We think it’s going to be exciting for the fans,” Soucy said. “You’ll have three games in one night, in the same place. … The downside is that teams play 15 games against five opponents, so there isn’t a real variety of teams in the conference”.

And fans will have to pay just one admission for the entire evening.

The schools will split the costs of the renting the Auditorium.

Presque Isle and Old Town, which are also Big East Class A schools, will continue to play Class A opponents twice a season but will not participate in the triple-headers. Presque Isle had travel concerns, and Old Town wanted to maintain its two-game rivalry with neighboring Orono, a Class B school. Old Town will play Fort Kent next year to fill in some of the schedule gaps.

The Class B schools that are losing Class A games from their schedules will add more Class B opponents and at least one Class C opponent (some Class B schools already play a Class C team).

Early spring may aid teams

It’s still a bit too cold and wet for baseball and softball pitchers and catchers to practice outside, but this spring it looks like high school teams will be able to get on to their fields at a more reasonable date than last year.

Warmer temperatures and lower snowfall amounts this winter have meant faster melting and less snow overall, which means fields will likely be ready to go when the season officially opens April 12.

Eight pitchers and catchers for both sports were allowed to begin practice Monday. All players can report for practice March 25.

The news might be the best down in Farmington, where anything would be an improvement over last spring’s snow situation.

“[The fields] are not totally clear,” athletic director Bonnie Levesque said Monday. “But it’s a lot better than it was last year.”

Mt. Blue was one of several schools that had at least two feet of snow on its fields into mid-April 2001, and the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A schools went from a 16-game to a 12-game schedule. The Cougars weren’t on their fields until mid-May, and even then the baseball team had to shovel off right field because it is shaded.

Levesque is optimistic that the Mt. Blue teams will be able to get outside next week, although the area is expected to receive some snow Wednesday night.

There’s a bit more snow up in the northern part of the state, of course, but even Aroostook County has seen less of it overall. Presque Isle athletic director David Heald said that school’s fields are still encased in a winter frost, but with less snow on the ground, the ground will likely be playable early.

PI has a home game against Nokomis of Newport scheduled for April 20, which Heald isn’t sure will go off. He’s hoping the teams will be on their fields in time for April vacation (April 14-20).

“It certainly seems like we could have an early spring, but this time of year you never know,” he said.