Lobster Bowl squads about ready to get practice under way

Preparations for the 15th annual Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic will strike a familial tone when the East and West teams gather at Colby College in Waterville next week to practice for the July 23 contest in Biddeford.

Three members of the East coaching staff will have sons playing on the East squad: Belfast co-coach Butch Arthers and son Nick; Foxcroft Academy coach Paul Withee and son Josh, and former Gardiner coach Rob Munzing and son Nate.

For the Arthers and Withees, it will represent one final chance to experience the coach-player relationship on the gridiron after leading their teams to state championships last fall, Belfast in Class B and Foxcroft Academy in Class C.

For the Munzings, it will represent the first chance to experience the coach-player relationship on the high school level, as Rob Munzing stepped down as Gardiner’s coach just before Nate joined the Tigers.

The Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl annually features the top recently graduated football players in the state, divided into East and West squads. The West holds a 12-2 lead in the rivalry, but the East posted a 55-8 victory in last year’s game, the most lopsided result in the series.

Thirty schools are represented on the East roster, with nine schools having more than one player on the team.

Bangor (P.J. Dowe, Trevor Lagrange and Mike Prentiss), Belfast (Arthers, Paul Herman and Ronnie Morse), Brunswick (Devin Shepard, Chris Hamilton and Phil Warren) Gardiner (Munzing, Mike Capen and Kris Ramsey) and Winslow (Chris Desrosiers, Ben McPherson and Derek Runnells) each has three players on the squad.

Foxcroft Academy (Withee and Lincoln Robinson), Mt. Blue of Farmington (Nate Bolduc and Cal Miller), Skowhegan (Nate Goff and Jared Walker) and Lewiston (Steve Cobb and Nick Lajoie) placed two players each on the team.

Other area players on the East team include Brad Kearns of Brewer, Josh Johnson of Bucksport, Jason Cross of Hampden Academy, Anthony Alvarez of John Bapst of Bangor, Ryan Bennett of Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield, Tyler Gardner of Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln, Ryan Levesque of Orono, Jimmy Feero of Old Town, Trevor Davis of Rockland and Derek DiFrederico of Stearns of Millinocket.

Dick Leavitt of Brunswick is the East head coach.

This year’s Lobster Bowl will start at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 23, from Waterhouse Field in Biddeford.

Penquis League hoop playoffs set

The Penquis League boys summer basketball champion will be crowned this week, with playoffs running over two evenings, according to Piscataquis of Guilford coach Jamie Russell.

The first round will be held Wednesday at Penquis Valley High in Milo. Three games are on the docket, beginning at 5 p.m. with No. 4 Penquis against No. 5 Dexter. That game is followed at 6:30 by No. 2 Piscataquis against No. 3 Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln and at 8 p.m. by the Dexter/Penquis winner against No. 1 Schenck of East Millinocket.

There is a $1 admission fee.

The championship game between the winners of Wednesday’s second and third contests will be played at 6 p.m. Thursday at a site yet to be determined.

The Penquis summer league employs a unique point system for determining its seedings. Each regular-season game is four 10-minute quarters, with running time until the last minute and players then shooting a 1-and-1 on each foul during that final minute to simulate late-game pressure. That pressure is increased by the fact that a team earns two points for winning a quarter and one point if a quarter ends in a tie.

The regular season also featured doubleheaders, with junior varsity games preceding varsity contests.

“We have the junior varsity game for the younger players, and then the varsity game after that, and that way we can use both games as teaching situations and not have to mix the players into the same game,” said Russell.

Schenck earned the top seed for the playoffs by finishing with 40 points, followed by Piscataquis (34), Mattanawcook (30), Penquis (26) and Dexter (24).