Big East/PVC ‘A’ schools ask to gain admission to KVAC

Representatives of five Big East Conference/Penobscot Valley Conference Class A schools met with officials from the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference this week to formally apply for admission to the KVAC beginning with the 2005-06 school year.

Big East president Paul Soucy and athletic directors from Bangor, Brewer, Old Town and Nokomis of Newport high schools and Hampden Academy made presentations during the KVAC’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting in Augusta.

“The exchange of information and the questions that resulted from it were very positive,” said Soucy.

The request to join the KVAC was prompted in part by John Bapst of Bangor’s pending move from Class A to Class B after the 2004-05 school year, which will leave just five Eastern Maine Class A schools that are not members of the KVAC.

Without a move to the KVAC, the remaining Big East/PVC Class A schools would face serious scheduling challenges, particularly when it relates to Heal Point-based sports such as basketball, baseball, softball and soccer.

The two conferences are completing the first year of a two-year collaboration in basketball, with each Big East school having five games each year against KVAC opponents. Under this arrangement, the Big East schools play a full Class A schedule, though each school does have to play three foes within its conference three times each to fill out the 18-game schedule.

No action was taken by the KVAC after the presentations.

“It became pretty evident that this was not a decision 25 [athletic directors] from the KVAC were going to be able to make right after the Big East people left the meeting,” said Mount Ararat High School athletic director Colin Roy, president of the KVAC. “We haven’t got all the angles figured out yet.”

Roy said a KVAC committee has been charged with gathering information from the conference’s individual sports chairs on such topics as how each sport is now run within the conference, how the sport would be run with the addition of five Big East/PVC schools, and how each sport’s schedule would change with the addition of those schools.

Roy hopes the information-gathering process will be concluded by the end of next week so the committee could meet during February school vacation in order to develop recommendations for the next full KVAC meeting scheduled for Wednesday, March 3.

It is possible a vote could be taken at that meeting, Roy said, or it might be taken later in the spring. Once that vote is taken, Big East/PVC officials then would consider whether to accept or decline the result of the vote.

“Because of the geography, it’s not an easy decision to make,” said Roy. “We’re all in favor of trying to find a way to help,” he said. “The question is, how?”

Big East, KVAC B title games set

The Big East Conference has scheduled its Class B basketball championship games for Tuesday at the Bangor Auditorium.

The girls game, scheduled for 5:30 p.m., will have undefeated Presque Isle facing either Caribou or Hermon, according to Soucy. That game will be followed at 7 p.m. by the boys game between top-seeded Foxcroft Academy and Ellsworth.

The Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B basketball championship games are scheduled for tonight at Colby College’s Wadsworth Gymnasium in Waterville. Camden Hills of Rockport and Erskine Academy of South China will play in the boys game at 6:30 p.m. The girls’ title game pits Maranacook of Readfield against Belfast. That game is set for an 8:30 p.m. tipoff.

The KVAC Class A championship games will be held Saturday, Feb. 21, at Edward Little High School in Auburn, with the boys’ game at 1 p.m. and the girls game to follow at 3 p.m.

Bradford, Gaudet reach 1,000

Two standout players from the only remaining undefeated teams in Class D boys basketball reached 1,000 career points within 48 hours of each other. On Tuesday night, senior guard Kyle Bradford of Calvary Chapel Christian in Orrington scored his 1,000th point during a 74-42 victory over Greenville at the Old Town-Orono YMCA.

Bradford becomes the second Saber to reach the milestone this season, joining senior guard Josh Madden, who topped 1,000 points last month, also in a game against Greenville.

Calvary Chapel, the only undefeated team left in the Eastern Maine schoolboy ranks, is set to play Elan of Poland today in its regular-season finale.

Mark Gaudet of Valley High of Bingham reached his milestone Thursday night as the six-time defending state champion Cavaliers defeated Piscataquis of Guilford 66-50 to cap off a 17-0 regular season.

The win extended Valley’s overall winning streak to 43 games, though that streak was jeopardized last Saturday when the Cavaliers entered the fourth quarter of its game at North Yarmouth Academy trailing by 18 points. But Gaudet, a senior point guard, erupted for 23 of his 44 points in the final period as the Cavaliers rallied for a 70-68 victory.

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045 or at eclark@bangordailynews.net.