Travers Evans, the University of Maine men’s soccer coach, said his incoming nine-member class is the “strongest class we’ve brought in, from top to bottom, since I’ve been here.”

The group includes two transfers, two Englishmen, and former Ellsworth High School star Jensen Rich.

“I’m really excited. A lot of these guys have played at a high level. There’s a lot of athleticism in the class and a lot of them come from winning traditions,” said Evans, who will begin his fifth season at the helm in the fall.

“Every one of these kids is going to push for playing time. They’ll be in the mix right away. Sometimes, you’ll feel a player may need a year or some time [to compete for playing time]. None of these kids are like that. It’ll just be a matter of them adjusting to the level of play,” Evans added.

Evans and assistant M.J. Ball particularly addressed need for goal scorers. Maine averaged just 1.12 goals per game during their 5-8-3 campaign last fall (2-5-2 in America East) and leading scorer Justin Stockford (5 goals, 2 assists) is graduating.

Transfer Jimmy Hernandez, a two-time All-American at Dean Junior College (Mass.), set records for goals in a season (22) and in a career (43); Dimiti Anastasiou scored 46 goals the last two seasons at Bacon Academy (Conn.); University of Hartford transfer Jameson Gonzalez was his team’s leading scorer in high school in Cranston, R.I.; Rich had 48 goals and 27 assists in his career and was one of just three Mainers chosen All-New England; and English midfielders Andrew Price and Tom Goldie are attack-oriented players who can both score and generate opportunities with their ability to distribute the ball.

LaSalle Academy (R.I.) teammates Ryan Kelley and Kyle Pacheco helped their school win four consecutive state championships. Kelley is a midfielder and Pacheco can play up front or in the midfield.

Martin John of Ottawa, Ontario, is a solid defensive midfielder who helped his Ottawa Fury club team limit opponents to 13 goals in 20 games.

In addition, Maine will be bolstered by the return of Ellsworth’s Cooper Friend, who was limited to just three games last year due to a badly sprained ankle. Friend was on the America East All-Rookie team in 2002 and on the All-AE first team in 2003.

UM’s Jeff Cole Scrimmage today

The University of Maine football team will continue its spring practices today with the first annual Jeff Cole Scrimmage.

Coach Jack Cosgrove’s Black Bears will play an intrasquad scrimmage beginning at 4:30 p.m. on Morse Field at Alfond Stadium in Orono.

UMaine has decided to honor the Cole’s memory by naming its annual spring scrimmage in his honor.

Cole, a member of the Bears’ coaching staff for six seasons, died of cancer (transitional cell carcinoma) last October at age 30. The native of Avon, N.Y., was an inspiration to UMaine players and fellow coaches, both in the way he lived his life and how he dealt with the cancer that he battled for 31/2 years.

This year, scheduling issues forced UMaine to conduct the scrimmage this weekend. In the future, the Jeff Cole Scrimmage (which was previously known as the Blue-White scrimmage) will be held on the final Saturday of the Bears’ spring season.

Saturday’s scrimmage will again give Cosgrove and his staff a chance to further evaluate the squad.

“On Saturday we are going to do as much scrimmaging as we can,” Cosgrove said. “Some positions are banged up, so we have to be smart with what we can give guys because we don’t want to have any set-backs for the fall. As you get towards the close of spring you like to stay as healthy as you can.”

The players will have a final opportunity to impress the coaches on April 30 during the final scrimmage.

“Hopefully we have gotten enough reps at this point to be able to evaluate guys and the next step is to work toward finalizing the depth chart,” Cosgrove said.