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Ralph Mims of Brunswick High and Sarah Marshall of McAuley have been named the Gatorade Maine High School Basketball Players of the Year for boys and girls, respectively.
Mims and Marshall are finalists for the National Player of the Year award. One boy and one girl from each state and the District of Columbia receives a state honor.
Mims, a junior starter for the Eastern Maine runner-up Dragons, averaged 24.9 points, 10.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 3.5 steals per game. Mims was named the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Player of the Year.
“Ralph is truly an exceptional player,” Brunswick coach Todd Hanson said of his 6-foot-3 guard. “He is too big and too quick for people to defend.”
Marshall, who was the state Player of the Year as a junior last season, led the Lions of Portland to the Class A state championship, the team’s second in a row. The 5-8 guard averaged 18.7 points, 5.9 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 4.8 steals per game.
“Sarah is the best player on a team that has been very successful,” McAuley coach Liz Rickett said.
Sportsmanship banners awarded
Along with recent state champions in winter sports, several schools picked up banners for outstanding sportsmanship.
In Class A basketball, the Presque Isle boys and Mount Ararat of Topsham girls won the Eastern Maine awards. The Westbrook boys and Portland girls teams won the Western Maine banners.
The Mount View of Thorndike boys and Caribou girls took Eastern Maine Class B honors. In Western Maine, the Gorham boys and Greely of Cumberland Center girls received the awards.
In Class C, the Dexter boys and Hodgdon girls were the top Eastern Maine teams. The Hyde of Bath boys and Dirigo of Dixfield girls earned the Western Maine banners.
The Class D Jonesport-Beals boys and Fort Fairfield girls took Eastern Maine honors, while the Greater Portland Christian boys and Waynflete of Portland girls won the Western Maine banners.
Wrestling sportsmanship winners were Eastern Maine Oxford Hills of South Paris and Western Maine’s Deering of Portland in Class A, Winslow of Eastern Maine and Wells of Western Maine in Class B, and Bucksport of Eastern Maine and Western Maine’s Traip of Kittery in Class C.
MPA warns about ephedrine
The Maine Principals’ Association has posted a warning regarding dietary supplements containing ephedrine, which may have played a role in the recent heatstroke death of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler.
Gatorade Sports Science Institute director Bob Murray wrote that often athletes and the general public believe stimulants containing ephedrine will aid weight loss or provide an edge in performance. Ephedrine is a central nervous stimulant.
“Recent events have demonstrated that the stimulant effects of the drug are not without potential risk,” he said. “… Unfortunately, many athletes continue to use ephedrine.”
According to research commissioned by Gatorade, ephedrine raises heat production and body temperature and increases an athlete’s risk of developing a heat injury during exercise in warm weather. Other symptoms include dizziness, headache, gastrointestinal distress, irregular heartbeat, and heart palpitations. Those symptoms can lead to heart attack, stroke, seizures, psychosis and even death.
These side effects can vary among individuals and occasions and don’t always depend on how much is consumed, according to Gatorade’s research. Researchers also found that combining caffeine (from coffee, Guarana, mate, or Kola nut) with ephedrine-containing products (such as those mentioned earlier) greatly increases the risks.
Supplements containing ephedrine are banned by the NFL, NCAA and International Olympic Committee.
The MPA’s Web site can be viewed at www.mpa.cc. Click on “Late-Breaking News” for more information about ephedrine research.
Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600, or jbloch@bangordailynews.net
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