While Mainers were braving the cold of subzero wind chills, Hampden’s Jeff Bouchard spent Tuesday afternoon celebrating Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl win – in Tampa.

Bouchard, who will turn 18 in two weeks, is spending his high school senior year at a Florida school that specializes in tennis and golf training.

Bouchard attends Saddlebrook Preparatory School in Wesley Chapel, Fla., which is approximately 20 minutes north of Tampa.

The school was long known as a tennis training ground. Nine years ago it opened the Arnold Palmer Golf Academy.

Bouchard said climate was part of his decision to head south.

“I’m spending my entire senior year here. I knew that as far as golf was concerned, the North wasn’t the best place to get better because of the weather. Even the summer season only lasts about three months,” he said.

His normal routine is to attend classes from 7:30 a.m. to noon. He said students spend their afternoons working on their golf game. He plays 18 holes of golf on Mondays and Fridays while the remainder of the week is spent at the driving range or working on chipping, putting, and other aspects of the game.

Bouchard also spends time working out in the fitness center where he runs and lifts weights. A sports psychologist works with the students on the mental aspect of the game.

“Coming down here I knew that I’d get the mental preparation as well as physical preparation for golf,” Bouchard said.

He lives in a suite with five other students. They have all the comforts of home and, despite the intensely competitive nature of the school, he said the students get along.

“We live together. We spend the day together. So we’ve become pretty good friends. On the course we have our game faces on, but we stay pretty good friends,” Bouchard said.

Bouchard has won the Paul Bunyan Amateur Junior Golf Tournament and was part of a Maine junior team that won the New England Junior Invitational at Agawam Hunt Club in Rumford, R.I., in August.

He plans to return to Maine this summer and play in the Maine Amateur, the Greater Bangor Open, and the Paul Bunyan Amateur.

He will attend Methodist College in Fayetteville, N.C., next fall. He hopes to play on the golf team and will enter its PGA’s Golf Professional Training Program.

“I’d like to someday run a golf course. Someplace warm, I hope,” he added with a laugh.

Parenteau nominated for award

The honors and awards continue to roll in for Belfast running back Jeff Parenteau. The senior has been named a Red Zone Player of the Year.

Parenteau was one of 450 football players selected nationally and the only player from Maine picked as a finalist for the award. The field will be whittled to down to a final 50 players early in February. Old Spice sponsors the program and will purchase a full-page ad in USA Today to announce the 50 winners.

Players are nominated by their coaches. Nominations are based upon a player’s accomplishments in the “red zone” [inside the opponent’s 20-yard line], extra effort, leadership, statistics, and honors and achievements.

“I really don’t know much about it,” Parenteau said. “I’m honored.”

Parenteau carried the ball 225 times during the 2002 football season, picking up 1,768 yards and scoring 25 touchdowns. During his three years as a starter for the Lions, Parenteau rushed for more than 5,000 yards and 70 touchdowns.

Parenteau was one of three finalists for the Fitzpatrick Trophy. The trophy is awarded annually to Maine’s top high school senior football player.

Portland running back Carl Frye received the award on Jan. 16.

Don Perryman can be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or dperryman@bangordailynews.net