Eastern Maine high school softball teams from Classes B, C and D that appreciate the ambiance and amenities during Eastern Maine finals at Brewer High’s Coffin Field will definitely get that experience again this year.

Although Brewer athletic director Dennis Kiah told the Maine Principals’ Association last year that school wouldn’t serve as the host for any more softball regional finals, he relented later in the year.

Brewer won’t host the Eastern Maine Class A final – that game, which will take place June 13, will be held at Cony High in Augusta – but Coffin Field will be the site for the B, C and D regional finals.

Kiah told the MPA’s softball committee, of which he is a member and served as chairman last year, that Brewer would no longer host regional softball games. That came on the heels of the MPA’s decision to move the EM Class A baseball and softball championship games from Bangor and Brewer, respectively, to Augusta because of driving distances for the schools involved.

The baseball matchup was Oxford Hills of South Paris against Edward Little of Auburn. The softball game featured Cony against Messalonskee of Oakland.

The decision to move the sites was announced one day before the games were played last June.

Kiah told the committee during a meeting last June that the last-minute change meant Brewer lost one-third of its games – Coffin was to host the Class A regional and state games – and so the school’s boosters lost money on concessions.

And, he added at the meeting, the MPA would have to find another site.

But after hearing from the Eastern Maine B, C, and D schools, Kiah has decided to host the games.

“Basically what happened was we felt that after talking with people from the Eastern schools over the summer that they really looked forward to coming here,” Kiah said. “It’s a nice atmosphere for them and we felt it was really for the kids.”

Teams told him they enjoy playing at Coffin, Kiah said, because of the music played during warmups and between innings, and the announcer who reads the players’ names as they come up to bat.

Coffin Field also has a big scoreboard and lights for night games.

Not many fields in the state have that combination of amenities.

“The B-C-Ds really look forward to that,” Kiah said.

Kiah went to the MPA in the fall and told officials there he had reconsidered – as long as he could be assured that game sites wouldn’t be changed at the last minute again.

“After thinking about it for a long time, I put my head between my legs and asked for forgiveness,” he said with a smile. “I just wanted to make sure that if, say, Caribou and Presque Isle were playing in an Eastern Maine championship, that it wouldn’t happen again.”

The Eastern Maine softball finals for Classes B, C, and D will be held at Coffin on June 13-14. Brewer will also host state finals for Classes B and D on June 17.

The Classes A and C state finals will be June 17 at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish.

Quimby headed for MMA

Brewer senior standout Katie Quimby will play basketball and softball for Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.

Quimby said she’s “very excited” to play for a basketball program that made it to the NCAA Div. III tournament this year with a 23-6 record.

Coach Craig Dagan’s Mariners lost to the University of Southern Maine in the first round of the tournament. USM advanced all the way to the national final.

Quimby said she knows in which aspect of the game she needs to improve.

“[Dagan] told me to work on defense,” said the basketball guard and softball second baseman. “I’ve known it all along anyway.”

Although the MMA basketball roster is loaded with standout players from Maine high schools, Quimby hadn’t met any of them until her visits to Castine.

“I’ve gone and visited quite a few times, so I know all the girls now,” she said.

Bouchard has Eagles clicking

Messalonskee softball coach Leo Bouchard might be new to the head varsity position, but he knows all about the teams that the defending Class A state champion Eagles of Oakland will face this year in the restructured Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.

The addition of Bangor, Brewer, Hampden, Nokomis of Newport, and Old Town will make for a tough league, he said.

“They’re darn good teams,” he said. “You can’t look past anybody.”

Bouchard was the Williams Junior High of Oakland coach last season, but before that he served for five years as the varsity assistant, first under current Winslow coach Terry Parlin and then under Deb Cormier, who was Parlin’s longtime assistant.

When Cormier moved to California soon after the 2005 high school season ended, Bouchard applied for the Messalonskee job.

It may turn out to be a smart move as the Eagles have most of their players back, including ace pitcher Amanda Barker.

He also has a good group of freshmen in the program this year. They played on Bouchard’s junior high team that went from a .500 season in 2004 to a league championship in 2005.

“I’m very proud to say that 13 of the 16 girls I carried [on the junior high team] came out for softball,” he said.

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