Perry’s Pottle on racewalking fast track, named All-American

Helen Pottle has been walking ever since, well, she’s been able to walk. But the sophomore from Perry and Shead High of Eastport has never walked faster than she has during the last year.

Pottle began racewalking just last spring, yet already has earned Nike All-America status based on her performance March 13 at the Nike Indoor Classic in Landover, Md. Pottle placed sixth in the girls one-mile racewalk in a time of 8 minutes, 0.58 seconds, with the top six finishers in this national-level meet earning the All-America designation.

And that wasn’t even her fastest time of the weekend. The next day, she placed seventh at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships in New York City with a personal-best time of 7:51.15.

“Watching her times and watching the way she walks, she’s getting better all the time,” said Dr. Tom Eastler of Farmington, Maine racewalking coordinator for U.S. Track and Field. “She’s got some talent.”

Success in distance events is not new to Pottle. She’s also the reigning state Class D schoolgirl cross country champion.

“I like running, but I also like racewalking because it’s a little different,” she said.

Pottle admits she’s still figuring out the nuances of racewalking, which requires the competitor to have at least one foot touching the ground at all times.

“When I’m running I breathe harder because I’m pushing myself more,” said the 15-year-old Pottle. “In racewalking, I’m still learning the technique.”

Pottle began racewalking at the urging of David Baldwin, a racewalker and coach from Harrington.

“He thought I should try it, so I did and I liked it,” she said.

As she did last year, Pottle will compete in both the one-mile racewalk and two-mile run during high school track season this spring. She doesn’t find switching from walking to running difficult.

“Once I started to learn how to walk, it wasn’t that hard to go from one to the other,” said Pottle, who trains for outdoor track on her own and attends meets with the Narraguagus of Harrington team.

Though the high school season is on the horizon, Pottle also is training to racewalk at the Penn Relays on April 24 in Philadelphia. After the high school season, there’s a summer of racewalk events highlighted by national-level competitions in North Carolina and Buffalo, N.Y., before she turns her attention back to running in a bid to defend her state cross country title next fall.

Hawkes eyes smooth sailing

Ron Hawkes welcomes the chance to be the varsity baseball coach at Camden Hills High in Rockport.

“My reason for coaching is that I have a passion for kids,” he said, “and it so happens that coaching is also a passion. They go hand in hand.”

A Bangor native who now lives with his family in Camden, Hawkes has been a visible part of the Midcoast sports community for many years. He is the owner-operator of Maine Sports Report, an Internet site that provides coverage and photography of sports throughout the region.

Hawkes also has been active on the coaching front. For the past three years he served as junior varsity baseball coach at Camden Hills, and he is the freshman girls basketball coach at Georges Valley High of Thomaston. He’s also coached softball and Senior Babe Ruth baseball.

“Coaching is just something I’ve always liked to do,” said Hawkes, who replaces Scott Benzie as the Camden Hills baseball coach. He hopes to reverse a one-year blip – the Windjammers were 5-11 last spring – in what has otherwise been a solid recent run on the diamond for the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference entry.

Camden Hills went a combined 21-11 during the 2001 and 2002 regular seasons, not long after the school won Eastern Maine Class B championships in both 1998 and 1999. And for baseball role models, this year’s team need look no further than the University of Maine, where senior righthander Mike MacDonald (Camden-Rockport Class of 2000) is the ace of the Black Bears’ pitching staff.

This year’s Camden Hills squad is led by another college prospect in senior catcher Tom Dennen, who co-captains the Windjammers with classmate Caleb Peats, a first baseman. Dennen and Peats are two of just four seniors on this year’s team, but that doesn’t mean a youthful roster represents lowered expectations.

“I think we’re going to be OK,” said Hawkes, whose club is scheduled to play its first preseason scrimmage April 9 at Bangor. “We’ve got some kids doing some different things this year, and the kids are having fun. That’s a big thing for us. I think we’ll be competitive with everybody. We’ll be a better team than we were last year.”