Berry likes progress Bulldogs making toward gold ball

In the process of applying for coaching and teaching positions about two years ago, Jon Berry sought to discover the history of the Machias girls basketball program. He soon found out that the Bulldog girls had never been to a state championship game.

Berry’s reaction to that bit of news might be a bit surprising considering where he had previously coached – Berry had served as an assistant coach to Chandler Woodcock at Mt. Blue of Farmington during the Cougars’ 1999 and 2000 Class A state championship seasons.

“I loved that [Machias had never been to a state game]. I just loved it,” Berry said after a game Monday in Woodland. “The biggest thrill of my life as far as basketball goes has been bringing home that first-ever gold ball to a school. And I saw the effect that it can have on kids that you really care about. These are incredible kids at Machias and they remind me in some ways of the kids we had at Mt. Blue.”

Berry is eager to bring that kind of success to Machias. The Bulldogs are 2-12 after Monday’s 59-38 loss to the two-time defending Class D state champion Dragons, but Berry, in his second year with Machias, knows he has a lot to build with for the coming seasons.

Berry has been working with the local youth programs and had just three seniors on the varsity team. Berry had two freshmen in the starting lineup. The Bulldogs went to a team camp at Husson College in Bangor last year and the girls are excited about going back this year, he said.

“We have a two-win season going right now and I’m looking toward the future,” Berry said. “Last year, it was, ‘Coach, what is a screen?’ ‘I don’t know what this is,’ ‘I don’t know what that is.’ It was like a big basketball camp and we didn’t win a game. But this program has come light years in two seasons. Look for Machias in the near future. Mark my words.”

Berry moved Down East two years ago. He had taken over the Mt. Blue program after Woodcock left, but moved on from that job after a year. While coaching the Cougars, he had been living in Norridgewock and teaching in Madison, so the idea of living, teaching, and coaching in the same town was appealing. Machias happened to have a math teaching position and girls varsity job open at the same time, which was the perfect combination to him.

“I’m very happy here. The math and the basketball are good, the people are great,” he said. “I love the community. It’s very similar [to central Maine] except there’s more water here.”

An appropriate last name

Sally Hoops is a busy Woodland High sophomore, what with varsity volleyball, band, and schoolwork good enough to land her on the school honor roll. And with a last name like Hoops, it stands to reason she also plays basketball.

Hoops is a member of the Dragons’ junior varsity team, and she gets all kinds of reactions to her last name.

“People say, ‘Wow, you’re last name is Hoops and you play basketball, that’s pretty cool,'” she said. “When people see my last name [during volleyball season], they say, ‘Wow, you’re last name is Hoops and you play volleyball? That’s pretty weird.'”

With all of her activities, Hoops isn’t sure she has time for, well, hoops anymore.

“I don’t know if I’m going to play or not next year,” she said. “It’s not really my thing, I guess. I like volleyball a lot better and school takes up a lot of my time.”