Valley High set to dedicate new Melcher Field Softball facility will open Saturday

Megan Melcher was a freshman at Valley High in Bingham when her father Michael died in 1999. Megan, her brother Michael and mother Susan decided to set up the Michael Melcher Memorial Field Fund in hopes of creating a softball field for the school in time for Megan’s senior year.

The field wasn’t ready in time for Megan, who will be a sophomore at Husson College this fall, but she’ll get a chance to play on it Friday night when the Melchers and SAD 13 hold a dedication ceremony and an alumni game to unveil the new field.

“That’s why we chose to have an alumni game,” Susan Melcher said.

The dedication ceremony will be Friday at 5:30 p.m., followed by the first game to be played on the new field. The Valley varsity team will take on a group of alumni at 6 p.m. The rain date will be Saturday at 9:30 a.m.

The Melcher family and SAD 13, which includes West Forks, Caratunk, Moscow and Bingham, have invited the public to attend the ceremony and game.

Susan Melcher said the family decided to build a softball field because previous Valley softball teams never had a field of their own.

“They had to use the fields owned by the town,” she said. “My brother-in-law Dan was the softball coach at one time so that’s why decided to go with this.”

The family raised about $14,000 from donations made after Michael Melcher’s death and the deaths of other family members. Susan Melcher said she thinks there is about $6,000 left – mostly because so much of the labor and construction materials were donated by local companies.

“The loam, the gravel, the rock … there were a lot of donations from all over town,” she said.

A soccer field is also in the works.

Student-athletes get scholarships

Ten Maine high school student-athletes have been named the recipients of $500 scholarships from the Maine Sports Hall of Fame.

The student-athletes will be honored at the Maine Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony June 8 at the Bangor Motor Inn Conference Center.

The criteria for selection include academics, athletic participation and performance, and leadership.

The award winners are Deering of Portland’s Janelle Beaudry, Nokomis of Newport’s David Buzanoski, Daniel Campbell of Greenville, Edward Little of Auburn’s Anna Eisenstein, Andrea Giddings of South Portland, Hampden’s Oriana Farley, Crystal Martin of Calais, Morse of Bath’s Blaine Trafton, Cheverus of Portland’s Andrew Ward, and Neal Waters of Hall-Dale High in Farmingdale.

For more information on the ceremony contact Gary Stevens, the chair of the Hall of Fame’s scholarship committee, at 642-9080.

Mainers to attend Jr. Nationals

Several Maine student-athletes are registered to participate in the USA Junior Nationals Sports Festival, which will be held in July in Columbus, Ohio.

Those who have registered for the event as of May 23 include Katie Bergeron of Old Town, Calais High’s Garrett Dickerson, Chris Tait of South Portland, and Traip of Kittery’s Jason Johnson.

Lubec High’s Leann Pike, a Downeast Athletic Conference basketball all-star, is raising funds to defray the cost of the trip. Send any donations to SAD 19-Lubec Consolidated School, Leann Pike Fund, c/o Betty Case, 44 South Street, Lubec, ME 04652.

NFHS makes swim rules changes

The National Federation of State High School Associations’ swimming and diving rules committee recently announced several rules changes and revisions.

Focusing on minimizing risk, the committee clarified Rule 8, stating swimmers shall step into the water feet-first for any event that starts in the water, such as the backstroke.

Rule 4-3-1c was revised to delete the requirement of sounding a device over the lane of the lead swimmer when he or she is near the end of a race. The revisions still require a sounding device but do not specify where it should be sounded.

In other changes, Rule 6-3-3 allows automatic relay judging equipment to be used during meets to decrease the chance of human error. Also, the point value for seven dives was changed to more closely reflect USA Diving’s degree of difficulty.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.