WA will return to tourney Young Raider girls earn experience

BANGOR – One of the most significant moments of Wednesday morning’s Eastern Maine Class C quarterfinal came at the end of the game, when Washington Academy girls coach Frank Johnson emptied his bench and got everyone into the game.

The No. 4 Raiders of East Machias would go on to lose to No. 5 Central of Corinth 67-46, but getting tournament experience for the very young team could be key for next year.

WA is graduating only one player, 5-foot-9 forward Lauren Govoni, and the rest of the starting lineup is made up of sophomores Erika Govoni, Mary Mawhinney, and Sara Rushforth and freshman Ashley Tilton. Junior Sara Livingstone, sophomore Meghan, Huffman and freshman Megan Look also saw significant playing time.

“They’re a good bunch,” Johnson said. “They love to play, they’re in the gym, and I think there’s good things coming.”

The Raiders, who finished their season at 12-7, including a 10-game winning streak in the middle of the season, gained a No. 4 seed by virtue of regular-season wins over teams like No. 1 Calais and No. 8 Narraguagus of Harrington.

“We were fourth, but legitimately we probably weren’t the fourth-best team,” he said. “We earned it and the Heal Points were good to us. But next year I think we’ll be a legitimate top four. We should be as good as anybody, I think.”

Different kind of band

Fans at the Central-Washington Academy game got a different sort of experience from the Central High band.

Instead of bringing a full pep band, the Red Devils had a group of electric instruments, a drummer – and two singers.

Electronic instruments are nothing new to the tournament, but singers are pretty rare.

“We couldn’t get as many members of the pep band to come out this week because of vacation, so we put these yahoos together,” band director Kirk Taylor joked.

Nicole Labbe and Cheir Randall belted out versions of hits from the 1970s and ’80s. Labbe and basketball player Kristina Gallagher performed the National Anthem as a duet.

The music selection wasn’t very modern – the Central students were performing songs like “Proud Mary” and “Sweet Home Alabama.”

“It’s more of our taste,” Taylor said with a smile, “and it’s easy.”

Lowell Oyster, a substitute teacher, works with the electronic musicians.

“We get together once a week after school to practice,” said Oyster. “They get a performance every now and then at the middle school.”

Quarterfinal attendance up

Attendance was up nearly 10 percent through the completion of quarterfinal-round play at this year’s Eastern Maine B, C and D tournament.

Through Wednesday morning’s final Class C girls session, 20,878 fans had passed through the Bangor Auditorium ticket windows compared to 19,176 for the same period in 2003 – a difference of 1,702.

“I think the weather’s been good, we’ve had some pretty good matchups, and we’ve got some schools in the tournament that always draw well,” said tournament director Bill Fletcher.

An exact comparison can’t be made, because this year marks the first time the Eastern Maine tournament has featured two boys games or two girls games per quarterfinal and semifinal session, rather than sessions with alternating girls and boys games that were the norm in previous years.

But through Wednesday morning, four of the 12 sessions this year topped 2,000 in attendance, compared to one 2,000-plus session during the same period a year ago.

“All four [of the 2,000-plus sessions this year] were for boys games,” Fletcher said. “But the girls’ sessions have done well, too, up around 1,600 or 1,700.”

Fletcher said he has heard few complaints about the increase in ticket prices this year. Adult tickets are $7 per session compared to $5 last year, while youth tickets are now $4 compared to $3 last year.

Fletcher also reported a record number of all-tournament passes being sold this year despite the cost of those tickets, which enable the holder to get into all of the B, C and D games games, being increased from $70 to $95 for the full tournament.

More than 60 of those passes have been sold this year, compared to the previous high of 50 last year, he said.