Another year of memories

Basketballs. Basketballs and more basketballs. The Class B, C and D Eastern Maine tournaments have come and gone.

We have heard a countless number of versions of the national anthem, “Smoke on the Water” and “Louie, Louie.”

We have heard the basketball bounce on the auditorium floor at least tens of thousands of times.

We’ve heard the referees’ whistles an almost equal number of times. There are many infractions in high school basketball.

We’ve heard a shrill, loud woman, sitting directly behind us for three games, whose sole purpose in life was to torment the referees.

“You’re helping them, ref,” was one of her battle cries. “Wake up, you’re missing a good game,” was another.

And when it became obvious her team wasn’t going to be able to make a comeback, she went to work on the opposing team’s star player. A grown women screaming at a kid.

We heard that.

We also saw things. Colors. Thousands of colors.

We saw Camden Hills’ red and Hermon’s blue and gold. We saw Winslow’s black and Foxcroft’s maroon. There was Dexter’s red and Woodland’s purple. We saw Jonesport-Beals’ royal blue and more maroon from George Stevens and Caribou. Colors. There was Stearns’ blue, Calvary Chapel’s green and Bangor Christian’s red, white and blue. Browns, yellows, reds, maroons, greens, purples, royal blues and blacks.

And always, always, there was the orange of the ball.

We saw signs. A personal favorite referred to the Dexter girls team’s 6-foot forward, Ashley Foster. It read, “Foster, Australian for fear.”

We saw Dexter’s Travis Patterson at his explosive best, jump shots raining down just like you read about.

We saw John Saucier, all 6-foot-11 of him, come alive in the Class B quarters and almost carry his Orono team to an upset of top-seeded Camden Hills.

How about George Stevens’ Nick Henry coming off a screen, or Erskine Academy’s Matt Donar coming to a stop in the lane and then lunging through the trees for a basket?

Did you see East Grand’s Darius Parker go coast-to-coast for a layup?

How about Winslow’s Micah Grant who finds a way to score?

We did. We saw them all. We saw Bryan Grew of Central Aroostook hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer in the quarters, and then we saw him hit another at the end of the first quarter in the semifinals.

We saw Bangor Christian’s Josh Madden from 3-point land and driving to the hoop. We saw his buddy, Greg Patterson, a 6-4 point guard in Class D, run the break. And we saw their teammate David Chrisos playing in the auditorium one year after a car crash that left him hospitalized in critical condition.

We saw Foxcroft Academy’s Danny White pull up for three, and we saw his teammate Brandon Hall, a unique combination of size and athleticism. Unfortunately, we didn’t see him in the semifinals where he might have made a difference for his team. Hall received two technical fouls in the quarterfinals for grabbing the rim, and a third for arguing the second technical.

We also saw two players standing under the basket when Hall grabbed the rim. But that’s another story for another day.

We saw all of that and more. We saw old friends we usually only get to see once a year. We made new friends and we heard the MDI band play “Jesus Christ, Superstar.”

And now it’s over. And the week that went by in a blur is gone. And we have to wait … uh, until Friday for the Class A tournament to start.

I can’t wait.

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