John Bapst, Bangor Christian face changes as season begins

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Not only do the Bangor Christian and John Bapst high schools share an address -they’re both located on Broadway in Bangor – but both girls basketball teams have undergone some big changes as they head into 2005-06 season.

The Patriots have a new coach in Jim Coleman, while the Crusaders have moved from Class A to Class B.

Coleman, a Veazie resident who works as a business broker, knows he has a big job on his hands. The Patriots were 3-15 last year.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “It’s a program that’s been way down, but I think we can build it back up.”

To that end, Coleman is starting three freshmen – Morgan Chasse, Kelly Robinson and Hope Johnson – in addition to seniors Jen Hutchins, who transferred from Brewer, and Kelly Miller, who transferred from John Bapst.

Junior Adrienne Ricci and senior Brooke Hale will come off the bench.

The Patriots will play strong Class C squad Central of Corinth – Bangor Christian lost to the Red Devils 46-18 in Friday’s season-opener – and defending Class D state champ Lee Academy. Despite Bangor Christian’s youth, Coleman said he feels the Pats will be in most the games on their schedule.

“I think we’ll be competitive,” he said.

Coleman, who takes over for Dan Frazell, has coached AAU teams in Maine and coached high school programs in Georgia before moving here a few years ago.

He’s also excited the program will have a junior varsity team for the first time in several seasons. The JV-varsity assistant coach is Charlene (Martin) Chasse, who was a standout athlete at Central High in Corinth.

At John Bapst, the Crusaders welcome the change in classification. Enrollment at the school is around 460, which puts it squarely in Class B where the enrollment range is 400-724 students.

Not that they couldn’t compete in Class A – Bapst went 8-11 and lost in a preliminary game last season to Messalonskee of Oakland, which made it to the Eastern Maine Class A semifinals.

“I think this is the best thing for our student-athletes,” said coach Mike Webb, who runs The Pizza Oven in Bangor. “We had been playing schools that at least double or triple our enrollment. … It’s better for the kids and I think it puts us on a more even playing field.”

The Crusaders have four starters back. Point guard Ashley Freeman and shooting guard Chere Wickstrom make up the Bapst backcourt. Taylor Greenlaw and Lauren Nichols start at the forward positions and Hilary Leferriere, who started last year as a freshman, is back at center.

With all the starters back and the relative success in Class A last year, Webb said the Crusaders are under a bit of pressure.

“All the outsiders say, you’re going from A to B so you ought to be able to win,” he said. “I think we’ll be competitive. But there are a lot of good Class B teams. It’s going to be a tough season.”

Case in point: John Bapst started the season with a 51-31 loss to Presque Isle, which went 17-2 last year.

“We opened with probably the best team in Class B as far as I’m concerned,” Webb said.

Basketball will be a juggling act for Webb this winter. Along with games, practices and scouting for Bapst, his daughter Kayla is a freshman starter for the Hampden Academy varsity.

“[Tuesday] night I’ll be at Bangor High School,” he said, referring to Hampden’s game against the Rams at Red Barry Gym.

MPA to look at swim scoring

More swimmers and divers may have a chance to score points for their teams at the state championships, but not until next year at the earliest.

The Maine Principals’ Association’s swimming and diving committee will discuss expanding scoring to 16 places from 12 at its next meeting on Jan. 11.

Janet Kaplan, the MPA staff liaison to the swimming and diving committee, said the issue was to have been addressed at an Oct. 3 meeting, but was tabled until January.

State meets alternate between Bowdoin College’s Greason Pool and the University of Maine’s Wallace Pool, which both have eight lanes. Scoring for the state championship meets is based on two heats of each event. There are six swimmers per heat.

This year the Class A state meets will be held at UMaine and the Class B meets will be at Bowdoin.

The scoring increase likely wouldn’t affect regular-season dual meets or conference championships, because most of those meets are held in the smaller six-lane pools.

Anything the committee decides wouldn’t go into effect until next year – Kaplan said she’s already ordered ribbons and medals for the Feb. 20-21 state meets based on 12 places per event.

UMaine’s Abbott to be honored

Walt Abbott, longtime University of Maine professor and former Black Bears football coach, has been named the recipient of the Distinguished Service award by the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.

A teacher and coach at UMaine since 1960, Abbott will be honored Dec. 18 in Orlando, Fla., at a meeting of the National Conference of High School Directors of Athletics.

The conference is conducted jointly by the NIAAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations.

The Distinguished Service award is presented annually to recognize length of service, special accomplishments and contributions to interscholastic athletics. Abbott is one of 14 individuals nationwide to receive the award. He was nominated by the Maine Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.

Abbott is associate professor of kinesiology and physical education in UMaine’s College of Education and Human Development. He coached the UMaine football team from 1966 to 1975.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.