As a freshman at Narraguagus High in Harrington, Shelby Howe played volleyball for the Knights. Her sister Brittany is a scholarship volleyball player at the University of Maine. But when Narraguagus offered a girls soccer team for the first time, she jumped sports.

“Playing volleyball I just kind of felt like I didn’t do enough,” Howe said Saturday. “I like the fast pace of soccer.”

Howe and fellow seniors Linny Barbee and Leann Skeate started with the girls soccer squad in 2000 and have stuck with it. The girls have seen the Knights make dramatic improvement each year even though they were upset Saturday in the Eastern Maine Class C quarterfinals.

Narraguagus was 10-3 this year and had earned the No. 2 seed for the playoffs this year.

The Knights finished the 2000 season, their first as a team, with a 5-6-1 regular-season record and ranked 10th in Eastern Maine Class C. Last year they went 9-2-1 and were No. 3 in Southeastern Class C.

Although some of the girls played soccer in middle school, others were into cross country or volleyball. So starting up a team was a learning experience for the entire squad as well as coach Marie Smith.

“She’s awesome,” Barbee said. “She had never coached soccer, she didn’t know anything about soccer, and we kind of talked her into it. The next thing I knew she was the coach.”

The idea of a team started in 1999 when two girls played on the boys team. The school received notification from the Maine Principals’ Association that girls were not to play on boys soccer teams. The MPA later reversed itself, but Narraguagus had already started to put a team together.

Griffin sets second school record

Jonesport-Beals volleyball player Katie Griffin continued a stellar senior season when she recently broke a school record for service aces in a season.

Griffin has racked up 73 aces for the season, which bests the previous record of 72 set a few days earlier by teammate Kendra Look. Vondell Johnson had held the record since the late 1980s, longtime coach Diane Clark said.

Griffin, an outside hitter, broke the school record for kills in a season earlier this year. She currently has 132 kills, 17 digs, nine assists and 40 blocks. Her service percentage is 83 and her receiving percentage is 81.

The Royalettes, ranked No. 2 with an 11-3 record, were to take on No. 7 Bucksport (8-6) in a quarterfinal match Monday.

Blanc overcomes early setback

The leading scorer for the Foxcroft boys soccer team this season missed the team’s first three games – and still managed to put in 18 goals for the Ponies.

Manuel Blanc, an exchange student from Barcelona, Spain, played in 11 regular-season games and one playoff game. That’s about 1.5 goals per game.

Blanc said he had some trouble with his student visa and by the time he arrived in Dover-Foxcroft for his second year at the school, he had missed all of the preseason and the Ponies’ first three games.

“I could feel it. I was kind of tired,” Blanc said of his first game back. “I couldn’t play the [whole] game but I did better than I thought.”

When Blanc got to school, he found that most of the previous year’s team had graduated and the Ponies were working on chemistry with the new players. But that worked itself out.

“If I scored 18 goals, it was because we were a team,” he said. “We were working together and that’s all. I just play offense. If I score a goal it was because they gave me the ball and if they give me the ball [they’re] doing a good job.”

Blanc is living with the family of fellow Foxcroft student Seth Gabbarro. The two have become close pals.

“He’s my brother,” Blanc said.

Mustangs interview for girls post

Officials at Mount View High in Thorndike are close to hiring a new girls basketball coach, athletic director Ryan Dearborn said Monday.

“We had quite a few [applicants],” he said. “We’re sorting them out.”

The new coach will not need to be approved by a school board, Dearborn said.

The Mustangs are looking for a new coach because Shara McDonald left to teach health at Erskine Academy of South China. She will also coach freshman basketball at the school.

“The Erskine curriculum just fits in more with my beliefs,” McDonald said. “There wasn’t a problem or anything like that [at Mount View].”

McDonald coached the Mustangs for one season after taking over for longtime coach Charlie Wing.

Mount View went 8-11 last year, including a preliminary loss to Belfast in the Class B playoffs.

Street & Smith’s honors Marshall

Sarah Marshall of McAuley High was named an east honorable mention high school All-American by Street & Smith’s in the magazine’s college basketball preview.

Marshall, a 5-foot-7 senior guard, has verbally committed to play for Boston College next year.

Last year Marshall was the Maine Gatorade Player of the Year and a first-team All-Maine honoree.

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