Mike Verrill’s status as the Maranacook of Readfield softball coach is up in the air right now.

Verrill, who has coached a sport at Maranacook since 1980 and the softball team for the past five seasons, is hoping to start wintering in Florida with his wife this winter. Their youngest daughter, Morgan Verrill, just wrapped up her senior year and final season at Maranacook and is heading to Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fla.

The trouble is, their house in Manchester hasn’t sold yet.

Either way, Verrill is considering an early spring return to Maine this year to coach the Black Bears. His assistant, Ken Martin, would get the team started and the two would coach the girls again.

“I’m kind of thinking about doing that,” he said. “It’s kind of up in the air. I’d like to come back if we can work it out logistically, but if we can’t, then I won’t.”

Regardless of when his house sells, Verrill has committed to coaching cross country at Maranacook this fall.

Verrill definitely won’t return to his post as president of the Maine High School Softball Coaches Association, which he helped start in 1999.

The coaches association has been behind a number of changes in the past three years, including starting a senior all-star game for softball players, giving out a Miss Maine Softball comparable to the Mr. Baseball award, introducing the optic yellow ball that is now used in Maine high school games, and gaining a Maine Principals Association softball committee separate from the baseball committee.

“I’ve had a lot of help, from [Penquis coach] Dick Martin, Kelly [Cookson] in Brewer, and [Messalonskee coach] Terry Parlin,” he said.

Massabesic of Waterboro coach Dave Billings will take over the president position, Verrill added.

Black Bears all for skirts

Shorts are all the rage for softball teams from the professionals to our local high school players. Shorts are cool, comfortable, and give softball a separate identity from its long-pantsed cousin baseball.

The Maranacook of Readfield softball team has taken short pants a few steps further – for the past three years the Black Bears have actually worn skirts.

The girls wear compression shorts and sliding pads under their skirts to avoid scrapes when sliding to make plays, but Maranacook coach Mike Verrill said the girls feel the skirts give them more freedom of motion.

“They love it,” he said. “They say it’s the most comfortable uniform they’ve ever had for softball because there’s nothing to bind their legs. … And they look pretty sharp.”

Maranacook is probably the only Maine high school softball team wearing skirts, but the Bears have taken trips to Florida and played two teams that also wore skirts.

Verrill orders the skirts from Dynamic Sports, a Canadian company that specializes in field hockey and cricket equipment.

The idea for the skirts originated after the Black Bears won the 1999 Class B state title. The girls got together a few nights after the game and watched the movie “A League of Their Own,” which is about a women’s professional baseball league during World War II. In the movie, the players wore a uniform with a skirt.

Some of the Maranacook girls play field hockey, which has a skirt as part of the uniform. They figured, why not softball, too?

Verrill approved, with one condition.

“I told them, if you’re gonna wear ’em, you’re gonna wear ’em,” Verrill said. “If it gets cold, you’re still gonna wear ’em. There’s no wearing pants one day and skirts the next.”

After the season ended this year Verrill asked the Bears if they wanted to go to shorts for next season. No way, his players answered.

“I’ve got 10 incoming freshmen next year and they’re already telling me what size they wear, hoping we’re going to wear the skirts. I tell them, don’t worry, we’re going to do skirts. It’s kind of tradition now.”

Bennis a Face in the Crowd

High school softball fans may have seen Sarah Bennis pitch Greely of Cumberland Center to the Class B state championship June 17 at Coffin Field in Brewer.

Now, Bennis can be seen in Sports Illustrated. She appeared in the June 24 edition in the Faces in the Crowd section.

Bennis is going to play at the University of Maine next year, Greely athletic director Jack Hardy said.

According to the magazine, Bennis pitched three consecutive perfect games to close the regular season, had a 0.24 earned run average this year, and set school records in career wins (49) and strikeouts (365).

Phantom drill pays off

Most baseball and softball teams take infield practice just before games start. The Winslow softball team does it, too, but with a twist: they don’t use a ball.

The Black Raiders go through all the motions, but pretend to throw a ball. It’s called phantom infield.

Winslow coach Scott Corey picked up the drill from former Black Raider boys basketball coach Mike Thurston, who used it while coaching junior varsity baseball.

The Winslow softball squad used the drill first before playing Maranacook of Readfield, which was undefeated at the time. Winslow won that game, and also did the drill before facing Ellsworth in the playoffs. The Raiders took that one, too.

“Our goal was to keep going with phantom infield until we reached a point where we weren’t an underdog in the playoffs,” Corey said after Winslow was knocked out of the playoffs by Bucksport in the Southeast Division semifinals earlier this month.

The drill gets the team mentally prepared, Corey believes.

“The coach I learned the most from in high school told me high school athletics were 75 percent mental and 25 percent ability and I really believe that,” he said. “Mentally, if you’re ready, you can do anything.”

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.