It took Nancy Snowdeal all of last summer and part of this fall, but she’s glad she came to the decision to resign after three seasons as the Bangor High varsity softball coach.

Snowdeal submitted her resignation to Bangor officials, including athletic director Steve Vanidestine, in October.

She enjoyed coaching the Rams, but ran into some problems with parents who got involved about playing time for a small group of players.

“All parents want is to do the best for their kids, and I respect that,” she said. “The way they went about it is what I don’t respect. … There were issues with some of the people in the community who don’t seem to be participating for the right reasons.”

The conflicts affected Snowdeal during the 2005 season, and she took the summer break to figure out if she wanted to return.

Once she got back to her job as a guidance counselor at Brewer Middle School, she made up her mind to resign from the Bangor softball job.

“When I was back with people who supported me, I realized that Bangor wasn’t the place for me,” said Snowdeal, who coaches cheerleading at the middle school. “I didn’t enjoy it and I realized that I’m not the person to get the program to the next level. There’s a difference in philosophy, and it’s not from the school.”

Snowdeal coached the Rams to a 33-15 regular-season record. Bangor made it to the Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinals in 2003 and 2004, but fell to Lawrence of Fairfield in the preliminary round last season.

Both Snowdeal and Vanidestine said they parted on good terms. Snowdeal, who played softball at John Bapst of Bangor and went on to play at the University of Maine, would consider coaching softball again.

“It would have to be a place where people have the right perspective on high school sports,” she said.

Snowdeal was hired in 2003 after four years as the head coach at Hermon. She was named the Penobscot Valley Conference Class B Coach of the Year in 1999.

Meanwhile, the Rams already have a new coach in place. Don Stanhope, a teacher and coach at Cohen Middle School in Bangor, was recently hired to take over the position.

Stanhope has already gotten started with the program, Vanidestine said.

“I had an outstanding interview and I felt that was the way to go,” said Vanidestine, who recommended Stanhope to the Bangor School Department. “The people at [Cohen] were very high on him. … He’s already excited to get started.”

Snowdeal also endorsed Stanhope’s hiring. She’s known him for at least five years while he was teaching and coaching at Brewer Middle School.

“He’ll do an excellent job,” she said.

Stanhope also previously worked with the Brewer varsity softball team.

Warriors make statement

The Nokomis of Newport girls basketball team’s 40-36 win over Mt. Blue of Farmington was all about big plays, big defense, and quite literally, big players.

And that added up to a point-worthy victory over the Cougars.

“It definitely was,” said junior Teresa Cooper, a starting guard. “I don’t think we realized it until we started playing.”

The key task for the Warriors was shutting down 6-foot-4 junior Christina Mosher, who was an All-Maine honorable mention and is one of the top centers in Maine.

Nokomis junior Tatum Welch, who is just 5-11, guarded Mosher, holding her to 11 points. Mosher did grab 12 rebounds.

“Tatum had to keep her off the low post,” Cooper said. “We had to make sure we didn’t foul too much because we didn’t want our big players on the bench.”

The other key matchup in the Warriors’ man-to-man defense, Cooper said, was senior guard Rozlyn Peterson on junior guard Bonnie Silkman. She finished with six points.

“Defense pulled us through,” Cooper said.

The Warriors had a 28-21 lead at the end of the third quarter, but the Cougars were able to rally.

Nokomis sophomore point guard Kelley Paradis hit a basket to give Nokomis a two-point lead with two minutes remaining, and senior forward Ashley Bragdon’s short jumper with two seconds left gave Nokomis a four-point cushion.

Bragdon led the Warriors with 12 points, while Paradis had 11 and Peterson followed with eight.

Mt. Blue and Nokomis were both tournament teams last year. The Cougars fell to Messalonskee of Oakland in the quarterfinals, while Nokomis knocked off Bangor in the quarterfinals but fell to Skowhegan in the semis.

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