Kim Corbitt’s basketball career at the University of Maine ended abruptly in March when she suffered a shoulder injury during the first half of the Black Bears’ America East tournament first-round game against Boston University.

While the sting of that unceremonious exit lingered a bit for the America East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, she quickly found a way to stay involved in the game she loves so much.

Corbitt, who graduated Saturday with a B.S. in biological engineering, was at a crossroads. The 2005 female winner of the Dean Smith Award, given to UMaine’s top senior student-athlete, knew she wanted to pursue her education.

“Graduate school’s always been very important to me and I was thinking: What am I going to do? Am I going to be in business or engineering, or am I going to coach?” she said.

When Sharon Versyp announced her resignation April 8 to take the head coaching job at Indiana, UMaine athletic director Patrick Nero challenged seniors Corbitt and Missy Traversi to step forward.

“Because everyone knew that coaching was something I was interested in, they kind of said, ‘Kim, you’re in charge,'” Corbitt said with a laugh.

Corbitt and Traversi, who has been weighing an offer to play professionally in Sweden, quickly accepted the challenge.

“Our seniors have been awesome,” said junior Ashley Underwood of Benton. “They’ve been putting us through some workouts and we’ve still been lifting with our strength and conditioning coach, Will [Biberstein].”

Corbitt’s experience conducting individual drills with team members and keeping the squad organized made her realize basketball was a priority.

“With the coaching change, I kind of really had to step up and fill a large leadership role,” Corbitt said. “Coaching them then, it really made me realize that I was going to take an opportunity, if I got it, and get into coaching.”

Last Friday, UMaine announced Ann McInerney as its new women’s basketball coach. Part of the negotiations with the former Merrimack College coach included giving Corbitt serious consideration for a position on the staff.

“I’m really looking forward to hopefully having the privilege of having Kim Corbitt on our staff here at Maine,” McInerney said, eliciting a cheer from team members.

Corbitt must go through the formal application process to be approved for the job.

She still hopes to attend graduate school but is focusing on helping UMaine make the transition to a new coaching staff. Corbitt is confident McInerney is a good fit for UMaine.

“She’s a great woman; she’s a competitor,” Corbitt said. “She wants to win and she’s won everyplace she’s been at. I think she’ll do a great job here.

“I think the program will continue to be successful.”

Black Bears stay on track

The UMaine baseball team won its fifth straight America East series last weekend, taking two of three at Stony Brook.

Coach Paul Kostacopoulos’ 27-13 Bears bounced back with a doubleheader sweep Sunday after being shut out in Saturday’s series opener. Four UMaine pitchers combined to allow two runs in 16 innings.

“We played probably our best all-around baseball Sunday we’ve played all year as far as pitching, defense, clutch hitting, intensity, hustle, the whole nine yards,” Kostacopoulos said.

“We turned a couple really pretty double plays and we got the two-out hits in our big innings with men on base, which we just have not been getting.”

The 4-0 shutout Saturday by Seawolves freshman Brian Murtagh marked the first time UMaine had been held scoreless since a 1-0, nine-inning loss to Albany on April 27, 2002.

UMaine, which is tied for second place with Vermont and one-half game behind Northeastern (10-4), is close to wrapping up one of four America East postseason berths.

With six games left, the Bears are 10-5 in league play, three games ahead of fifth-place Albany (7-8) and Stony Brook (7-8). Since UMaine owns the tiebreaker against both, any combination of three UMaine victories or three losses by both of those teams would put UMaine in the playoffs for the fifth straight season.