Winter hoop game pits Rams, Witches, packs Brewer High

At 5:20 on a Friday evening at Brewer High School, parking spaces were at a premium for a 7:30 game. After a slow, long wait the traffic finally cleared enough to find one at the back end of the school.

A quick glance around revealed maybe two or three more legal parking spaces. But on a night like this, people will push parking to the limit.

It is Bangor-Brewer boys basketball. It is February and the game means a lot. And unlike recent years, Brewer has proved it can play with Bangor by beating the Rams at Red Barry Gymnasium in Bangor, and by playing them close in a Rams win at the Bangor Auditorium.

It has been a long time since there has been this type of atmosphere at a Brewer game. As the Bangor junior varsity team shoots around, the crowd continues to push its way into the gym.

The last time Bangor coach Roger Reed recalls anything like this happening was back in the 1992-93 season when the Rams traveled to Old Town. Bleachers were placed on the stage at MacKenzie Gymnasium for that one.

“When they came to our place, we had bleachers set up behind the scorer’s table,” Reed remembers.

Friday night, there were no bleachers on the stage. It’s unlikely the fire marshal would have allowed that to happen. Brewer athletic director Dennis Kiah said that 850 tickets would be sold at the door. Between that, the school band and various other people already in the facility, Kiah figured they would hit the maximum capacity of 900.

Don Corey greeted people as they entered the gym with an offer of 50-50 raffle tickets that eventually would make someone $197 richer.

Corey said you would have to go 10 to 12 years back to find an atmosphere similar to Friday night’s game.

At 6 p.m. the JV game got under way. Fifteen minutes later the front doors were locked.

Kiah jokes that he looked outside to make sure no one was there when he put up the sign.

“I figured it was safer that way,” he laughed.

As the JVs run the floor, fans are asked to squeeze closer together to make more room. One section of the gym will have to be cleared to make room for the band.

In a corner of the gym, Brewer junior guard Andy Frost sneaks a peak at the JV game. Frost transferred to Brewer from Calais this school year when his father became the school’s principal.

He said that there was great atmosphere at Calais games and he was looking forward to playing Friday night’s game.

The JV game ends and the varsity teams take the floor. The Brewer band is blasting away. The crowd is roaring. Cheers roll back and forth across the floor. The students send messages to their opponents in their cheers. They receive a response. Back and forth it goes.

The players are introduced and the crowd noise is so loud it’s impossible to hear their names.

Finally, after more than a two-hour wait for many of the fans, the game gets under way.

Brewer jumps out to a quick lead. But Bangor comes back and takes charge. The Rams play tough defense. Brewer has a size advantage inside, but the Rams force the Witches’ big guys farther and farther away from the basket. And on the occasions the Witches manage to get the ball inside, several Rams challenge the shots.

Nothing comes easy for the Witches, and, as the crowd roars, Bangor’s Wesley Day and Jordan Heath begin to find the range. Bangor opens up a lead, it grows, and the Witches can’t come back.

As the crowd files out, Kiah and his crew begin to clean up. Players slowly make their way out of the locker rooms to their friends, family and girlfriends who await them on the gym floor.

Outside the Bangor locker room Day is beaming. The Rams have beaten not only a tough opponent but their main rival. Day talks about the atmosphere. Players dream about such moments. The crowd. The electricity. He says he has never seen anything like it or played in anything like it.

And then it is done. The cold slaps you in the face as you step outside and brings you back to a harsh reality.

There just aren’t enough nights like this. And then you slip, slide your way through the slush and ice back to your car.

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