WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – The University of Maine women’s basketball team has enjoyed a rapid resurgence under the leadership of head coach Sharon Versyp the last three seasons.

With an America East regular-season title and a 21-game winning streak to her credit, she is likely to become a sought-after coach in the near future.

Versyp is in the third year of a five-year UMaine contract that pays her approximately $75,000 per year. UMaine interim athletic director Paul Bubb said her agreement calls for her status to be reviewed this year.

With Patrick Nero scheduled to take over as the AD in mid-April, it is likely any contract talks with Versyp would wait until later in the spring.

“I think Maine is very fortunate that we have her right now. We want to keep her as long as we can,” Bubb said. “She’s built the program up now where, if both parties agree to reasonable terms, she can be very successful over the next several years and even increase her value.”

However, Bubb believes if UMaine continues to improve, Versyp is going to be a hot commodity.

“Sharon Versyp, in her career, will end up coaching at one of the major programs in this country, there’s not a doubt in my mind,” Bubb said. “She has the X’s and O’s down; she has the personality; she’s able to identify talent and recruit. There’s going to be a lot of people that will have an interest in her.”

AE tourney in Orono unlikely

The UMaine women’s basketball team has re-established itself this season as an America East power, but that isn’t likely to help the Black Bears in their quest to host the conference tournament anytime soon.

For the last two seasons, the conference championship was played at the University of Hartford’s Chase Family Arena. While it’s a suitable site and the event well-run here, poor attendance this year likely will open the door for another school to win the bid.

America East athletic directors will meet in May to discuss future site possibilities, but UMaine interim AD Paul Bubb said scheduling conflicts with the America East basketball and Hockey East tournaments would make it impossible for UMaine to hold the event in Orono.

“That will present problems, as we know the schedules now, in future years,” said Bubb, who explained since the Hockey East quarterfinals were a week earlier this winter, UMaine could have held the basketball event at Alfond Arena.

Bubb said UMaine made an excellent bid for the 2003 tournament.

“Financially, it was a much stronger proposal than the other two bids that were submitted (by Hartford and Vermont),” he said.

Bubb said league ADs wanted to give Hartford a chance to improve upon its solid performance in putting on the 2002 event. They also discussed the more centralized location and pointed to the good media coverage the event received, although Bubb said media coverage in Maine is always extensive and that its fans would support the tournament.

“Our fans would buy a tournament [ticket] package and they would come to the games that Maine wasn’t in,” he said. “I’ve got to believe that our basketball fans are sophisticated enough and enjoy good basketball that they’d be at the other sessions.”

Binghamton and its new facility apparently is among the tournament site possibilities for the next year or two years, but any school can submit a bid.

UMaine’s only hope for hosting the America East tourney in the future would be building a basketball-only facility, using an existing building, or having the hockey and hoop schedules not conflict.

Graveline an avid fan

UMaine fans at the Chase Family Arena were certainly entertained by Paul Graveline, the uncle of Black Bear guard Missy Traversi.

The retired Boston resident was dressed in full UMaine regalia, from his white Black Bear T-shirt (for Saturday’s game he drew a red “BU” with a line through it), blue shorts and long blue spandex pants to his bright blue spray-painted hair.

“We really got involved with the fans, the parents, the other aunts and uncles,” Graveline said before Saturday’s final game. “It’s a big family now. The kids are so great.”

It’s a bit more tame than his last get-up, which was a Bear mascot uniform he wore to a regular-season game at Vermont, where he did some playful sparring with the home team’s Catamount mascot.

“I figured that suit was worth about two points, which was what we won by,” he said.

During tournament games he ran in front of the stands with signs, exhorting the Maine crowd, and posed for pictures with other fans.

Graveline has traveled to 22 games this season with his wife Kathy.

Guerrette goes behind t he scenes

Former UMaine guard Tracy Guerrette will probably head to medical school later this year, but in the meantime she’s picked up some valuable life experience as a volunteer assistant to Versyp.

Guerrette, a former Wisdom of St. Agatha standout and first-team All-Maine honoree who played four years for the Black Bears, joined the team in Hartford for the America East tourney.

Guerrette practices with the Bears, helps the coaching staff, travels with the team and works as a manager.

“I do whatever they need me to do,” she said with a smile.

Guerrette, who is still on scholarship, actually graduated in December but is finishing two science classes she needs for acceptance to medical school.

Guerrette spent the first semester working with coaches and administrators in the basketball office.

“I’ve got to have a coach’s perspective and see all the things that go on behind the scenes that I never even imagined,” she said. “They do so much for us.”

Guerrette said she plans to apply to the University of New England in Biddeford and Michigan State, where former Maine coach Joanne Palombo now heads up the women’s team, among other schools.