Woodland moving back to Class D next season

BANGOR – Although the Woodland girls basketball team didn’t advance out of the semifinals, coach Arnie Clark was pleased with the way the season turned out, considering the two freshmen in the starting lineup playing against a more seasoned Calais squad.

“It’s a whole new ball team from what we had last year,” he said after his team’s 53-31 loss to Calais in a Friday semifinal at the Bangor Auditorium. “No one would have thought we’d be playing in the semifinals in Eastern Maine Class C.”

And next year, the Dragons won’t be. They’re dropping down to Class D, where the Woodland girls have had a lot of success in the past.

According to the enrollment figures in the Class C tourney program, Woodland High has an enrollment of 198, down from 241 last year. The enrollment cutoff for Class C is 230-399.

Their 15-5 Class C record, combined with the return of all five starters and the loss of only two seniors, Kayla Kochendoerfer and Nicole St. Pierre, makes the Dragons an automatic favorite to advance to the Class D tourney in 2005-06.

The one drawback?

“We’ll have to deal with Lee,” Clark said.

The Pandas beat the Dragons twice in the regular season, but Woodland beat Lee in the 2003 Eastern Maine Class D final for the Dragons’ third straight regional crown.