Advice from UM coach aids MDI star Barker Ankle brace for Bracey limits extent of injury

BANGOR – After MDI senior Bracey Barker sprained her left ankle in a practice session Monday, coach Burt Barker thought back to some advice he got from University of Maine women’s coach Sharon Versyp.

Versyp had told Burt Barker, who is Bracey’s father, that all the Black Bears wear Active Ankle braces, which provide support for the ankle joint.

“If [Bracey] hadn’t had that on she wouldn’t have been playing right now,” Burt Barker said after Wednesday’s Eastern Maine Class B semifinal win. “It’s a pretty bad sprain, actually. I was quite worried.”

Of course, Versyp has some interest in Bracey Barker’s health as the 6-foot-1 point guard is headed to UMaine next year on a scholarship.

Burt Barker said Bracey injured the ankle when she came down on a teammate’s foot in practice.

Bracey Barker scored 15 points and had 16 rebounds in Wednesday’s 59-34 win over Rockland.

“She played all right but it wasn’t her usual,” Burt Barker said. “I didn’t think so, anyway.”

Gott heading to MMA

The Maine Maritime Academy women’s basketball program has been building over the past few years and has attracted some of the top young talent in Maine.

Another in-state standout has decided to play for the Mariners of Castine.

MDI guard Shelley Gott, who has been a part of two Class B state championship teams and is a key to the Trojans’ current run to the state game, said Wednesday she will play for MMA next year.

Gott joins former Maine high school standouts like Woodland High’s Julia Knights, Madawaska’s Meghan Marshall, former Bangor players Erinne Magee and Amanda Johnson, Meghann Burnett, who played at Nokomis of Newport, and Central High grad Crystal Parker.

“I’ve been there a few times and I met a lot of them,” Gott said. “Craig [Dagan], the coach, he was my main reason. I never thought about going there until he recruited me. And I have friends who go there, too.”

Magical music moment

So much for a battle of the bands.

When the top-seeded Woodland girls played Downeast Athletic Conference friendly foe Shead of Eastport Thursday afternoon, the schools’ two bands opted to collaborate and treat the fans to a cooperative rendition of the National Anthem.

Shead’s six-member band walked across the Bangor Auditorium, set up in front of the much larger Woodland band, and both joined up to play the Anthem together.

The quickly arranged joint session came off without a hitch and fans rewarded the bands with applause.

Henry Noonan, who has been music teacher and band director at Woodland for 19 years, said the collaboration came about on Saturday.

“In the quarterfinal games, the Shead girls played in the game just prior to our boys game and I got thinking it would be nice, since they have a small band, if we could play together,” said Noonan, who also happened to be Shead’s band director for 11 years prior to coming to Woodland. “The music was the same arrangement and very similar, plus they have some talented musicians, and it worked out very well.”

Noonan said it was the first collaborative tournament effort like this between the two programs that he knew of, but the supportive relationship doesn’t end there.

“It’s funny. In the quarterfinal game, Shead’s guitar amp blew so we let them use ours.,” Noonan said. “We help each other out whenever we can. It’s certainly not a cutthroat thing.”

Shead band director Heron Weston missed Thursday’s game, won by Woodland, because his wife was due to have a baby. A parent took over the band for him.

If there wasn’t already enough to talk about, one member of Woodland’s band became dizzy during halftime and medical personnel were summoned to help her.

“She got really lightheaded and almost fainted, but she’s better now,” Noonan said. “They thought it might be some medication she was taking. They handled everything pretty quickly.”