Haley pushing Super Saturday football concept

The concept of Super Saturday is still viable, but don’t expect it to be implemented anytime soon.

A proposal by outgoing Maine Principals’ Association football committee chairman Mike Haley to hold all three state championship football games in one location on the same day is still alive.

“What the committee did this fall was vote to table the thing, so I think it’ll be revisited in the preseason meeting in August,” said Haley, who conducted a survey of all Maine varsity football coaches.

The survey’s results were encouraging.

“Well over half were in favor of the proposal, but they had some reservations,” Haley explained.

Haley, who is also the executive secretary of the Maine Football Coaches Association, came up with the idea to address concerns he had with the scheduling of state finals in late November.

“I feel we’re really pushing our luck, field-wise, playing that late,” he said. “My concern was that the weather or field not impact the game’s outcome. I felt a turf field would solve that and this could be a football bonanza with the fans and media.”

Haley’s idea is hampered by the fact Maine has only three artificial turf fields: the University of Maine’s Morse Field at Alfond Stadium in Orono, Maine Maritime Academy’s Ritchie Field in Castine, and Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland.

“MMA and Maine are pure luck because it depends if their teams are playing,” Haley said. “Fitzy is the most logical choice, but people have reservations about the proposal because they want to know if the game would switch from East to West every year, who would play first and last that day, and whether or not having all three the same day would detract from the attention on any one game.”

Haley feels the last concern is unfounded, and says the only way to address the others is to go ahead with the proposal.

“There’s so many ifs involved, I think the only way to find out if it will work is to do it,” Haley said.

Systematic shooters

It came down to the final shot, but Bill Hardwick of Boothbay and Dawn Ross from Gray-New Gloucester survived intense competition to win the McDonald’s East-West All-Star foul shooting championships Saturday.

In the boys contest, Central Region champ Hardwick duplicated his effort in the regional competition by nailing 48 of 50 attempts from the foul line to edge Caribou’s Joel Griffeth, who hit 47. Griffeth was the northern region champ. Southern champ Ian Bossie from Waynflete in Portland was third with 41 and eastern champ Barry Hesseltine of Belfast was fourth with 39.

The girls contest went the equivalent of double overtime as Southern region champ Ross hit 9 of 10 shots in back-to-back shootouts to finish ahead of central champ Sara Martin from Mount Abram in Strong. Martin went 9-for-10 in the first shootout and 8-for-10 in the second. East representative Lauren Withey from Camden Hills was eliminated in the first shootout with two misses. Withey competed despite being less than two weeks removed from knee surgery to repair a torn ligament.

Ross, Withey and Martin all made 42 of 50 shots before the shootout. Northern champ Hannah Socoby of Houlton hit 49 of 50 in the regional competition, but made 35 of 50 Saturday to finish fourth.

Racking up the wins

Several varsity basketball coaches were honored for reaching noteworthy totals in the career-win column this season in between games at the recent Maine McDonald’s East-West Senior All-Star games.

The big prizes were given out to Cony of Augusta girls coach Paul Vachon, Madison boys coach Tom Maines, and Winthrop girls coach Ray Convery, who were all presented with wooden rocking chairs adorned with a brass plate on the top commemorating the fact they’d reached the 300-win plateau.

Mount Abram of Salem coach Doug Lisherness was honored for eclipsing the 200-win career mark.

Honorees also included 100-win girls coaches Earl Anderson from Nokomis of Newport, Jim Poulin of Winslow, George Conant from Dirigo of Dixfield and Greely of Cumberland Center, and Yarmouth’s John Martin. The 100-win boys coaches honored were Ron Weatherbee from Mattanawcook Academy in Lincoln, Jerry Adams of Houlton, Mount Desert Island’s Wilton Jones, and Washburn’s Larry Worcester.

Andrew Neff’s High school report is published each Wednesday. He can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or aneff@bangordailynews.net.