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Brewer team special

My son, a young basketball player, joined a travel team this year. They played in local invitational tournaments, ending the season with several trophies.

I would like to publicly honor the coaching staff for leading our boys through a fantastic season. Coach Mark Farley, assistant coaches Dick Kelley and Bill Bissell, I applaud you for volunteering your time and thank you for being dedicated to the team. You held true to that concept and it was apparent during each tournament, with all of our boys playing in each game of every competition. You are exceptional; your hard work and commitment did not go unnoticed.

I highly recommend that other coaches look to you for guidance, as it is obvious they don’t understand the definition of “team,” or the rules of basketball. I have not been able to find, in any rulebook, where it states that a “team” has two parts, consisting of players and benchwarmers. Nor have I found evidence of regulations to the best players engaging in the entire game while others only play the last minute and a half of the game, and only if you lead by at least 20 points. I must have bought the wrong reference guides on my last trip to Borders.

Our trophies are not that of the much-coveted first place, but they are indeed rewards of a higher ranking. They are the decoration of true champions. They represent a team of players, earned because they all worked together, as equals, each a valuable member with an important role to perform.

Not one of them ever complained about the bench being cold when it was their turn to sit down. To the Brewer All-Star basketball team and coaches, I salute you!

Bonnie Woodhead

Brewer

MPA should consider girls, boys sessions

Any player or coach who participated in the Eastern Maine basketball tournament will tell you that it is the highlight of the season; it is what players and teams work so hard for during the offseason, preseason and regular season – a chance to play at the Bangor Auditorium in February. Thanks to the Maine Principals’ Association for making this tournament what it is. It’s a great event that has been run professionally and efficiently for years by this organization.

This year, the MPA made an adjustment in their scheduling for the Class A state games where they had the girls play earlier in the afternoon and the boys at night so they could accommodate the crowds. This was a great idea that was fair for the players, coaches and fans. I applaud the MPA for their willingness to continue to find ways to improve the tournament.

With that in mind, I would like to suggest that the MPA consider another change to help make the tournament fair for all the boys and girls teams.

On Thursday, March 12, the Eastern Maine Class A semifinals were held. This is the only session where Eastern Maine fans can see two girls games, back to back, in the A-B-C-D tournament. The same was true for the boys the following night. On Saturday, March 14, the Eastern Maine Class A championships were played. It wouldn’t have been fair to have girls/boys semifinals on Thursday and Friday because the teams that play on Thursday would have a day to prepare for the opponent and a day to rest, where the Friday teams would not have the luxury of preparation or rest. Obviously, the girls get the day of rest and preparation while the boys don’t, but at least it was fair – the two boys teams both played on Friday and then had to play again the next night – no one has an advantage.

This is where I have some concerns with the B-C-D tournament. There are many examples where all is not fair when it comes to scheduling. Here are a couple:

Example 1: The second-ranked Central girls played No. 7 Stearns in the quarterfinals in the afternoon session. The No. 2 Stearns boys play the team I coach, No. 7 PCHS, immediately afterward. The Stearns fans, because they were there to cheer on their “visiting” girls team, is sitting on the media side of the auditorium, while the Central girls have their fans on the bench side of the auditorium. The Stearns fans stay in their seats for the second game, even though their boys are ranked higher and are the “home” team.

Some would say that there is no advantage or disadvantage here – I will tell you there is an advantage and we were the ones who benefited from it. Ask Penquis coach Tony Hamlin -his team was ranked No. 1 and yet his fans sat on the visitors side of the auditorium in the quarterfinals and semifinals because of the girls/boys setup. This was not unique – it also happened in the Class D tournament and has been a common occurrence in previous tournaments. If the girls and boys sessions were separate, this situation would not arise.

Example 2: Semifinals of the Class C boys and girls bracket. The No. 2 Central girls play No. 3 Calais at 2:05 p.m. My team, the PCHS boys, play No. 3 GSA immediately after. Calais wins and has plenty of time to watch Dexter and Hodgdon play at 7:05 p.m. We lost the game, but had we won, I would have had (and GSA did) a big advantage over the Dexter/Penquis boys who were playing at 8:35 p.m. I was home in my living room watching Tony Hamlin and Peter Murray’s kids play their hearts out. Peter told me he didn’t get home until after midnight. You can’t tell me that GSA didn’t have an advantage over Dexter the next night or that the Calais girls didn’t have time to rest for the game with Dexter. This would not happen if the boys and girls sessions were separate.

It would seem to me that a true girls basketball fan would enjoy watching a full bracket of girls basketball; that is to say that they could go to four sessions and watch the complete set of quarterfinals and the same for the semifinals. The same logic is true for the boys. This would also eliminate the fairness issues I have pointed out.

This is not a novel idea – take a look at the Western Maine tournament and you will see that their sessions are set up with the boys and girls playing separately. On Monday, Feb. 17, if you were at the Augusta Civic Center you would’ve seen two Class D girls games in the morning, followed by the four Class D quarterfinals for the boys – all in a row. The next day you would have seen two more Class D girls games, followed by the Class C quarterfinals for the boys. On Wednesday, Feb. 19, you would’ve watched the two Class D boys semifinals in the morning, two Class B girls semi-finals in the afternoon and the Class C boys semifinals at night.

I know that the MPA is not in existence to make money, but I do know that they use the revenue generated from the tournament to sponsor many other activities that produce no money and are costly to run. There are many sessions where a school has both their boys and girls teams playing and a fan from that area has the opportunity to watch two games for the price of one. Split the girls and boys up and the MPA will make more money to support all the terrific activities that they sponsor.

There may be people who believe that the girls will suffer in attendance, but I doubt it. The quality of girls basketball in Maine has improved immensely since the first MPA sponsored tournament in 1975. I firmly believe the girls will hold their own.

The Eastern Maine tournament is a great event and is so because of the efforts of the MPA. I hope the MPA takes a serious look at making the tournament even better by looking at the Western Maine tournament and realizing that it is fair and exciting for boys and girls basketball fans.

Jamie Russell

Piscataquis High boys basketball coach

Guilford

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