York seeks spot with Div. 1 team CAHS star to attend Liberty University

Andrew York, a senior guard who led Central Aroostook of Mars Hill to back-to-back Class D boys basketball state championships in 2005 and 2006, will attempt to walk on to the basketball team at Division I Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., next fall.

“I talked to the coaches, and they asked for information and a highlight tape so I sent it to them,” said the 6-foot-2 York, a third-team Bangor Daily News All-Maine honoree in 2006. “They told me they were excited about what they saw on it. They had already signed two guards so they didn’t have any [scholarship money] for me, but they said I could walk on.”

York, who plans to study physics or math with an eye toward eventually pursuing a master’s degree in engineering, also considered a pair of Division II programs, Pfeiffer University in North Carolina and Colorado Christian, before opting for Liberty.

“Liberty was interested in me, and I know I’d be kicking myself later on if I didn’t try Division I,” said York, who attended a summer basketball camp at Liberty after his junior year.

York averaged 20.8 points and 5.3 rebounds last winter in helping Central Aroostook become the first Eastern Maine Class D boys’ team to win back-to-back state championships since Jonesport-Beals won five gold balls in a row between 1970 and 1974.

He will try to earn a berth on a Liberty team that finished 7-23 overall, 3-13 in the Big South Conference. That conference also includes Birmingham-Southern, North Carolina-Ashville, Winthrop, High Point, Coastal Carolina, Virginia Military Institute, Radford and Virginia Military Institute.

Last year’s 15-player Liberty roster included six freshmen, six sophomores and three juniors.

There is a pipeline of sorts between Maine and Liberty. Liberty head coach Randy Dunton is a Hermon native and graduate of Bangor Christian High School, and former Bangor High standout and current Brewer coach Mark Reed played collegiately at Liberty.

York, who finalized his plans to attend Liberty a week ago said he soon will receive a copy of the Flames’ offseason workout regimen so he can abide by that this summer. He said he plans to run, lift and shoot several hundred shots a day to prepare for the start of official workouts next fall.

For Potvin, a flashback

When Hampden Academy junior Eliot Potvin looked across then net during Monday’s state schoolboy tennis singles final, he saw a bit of himself in his opponent, Mount Ararat of Topsham freshman Mike Hill.

Like Hill, Potvin also reached the final as a freshman, losing to Bangor High’s Bryan Brown in a three-set match.

“I remember two years ago I had a lot different style,” said Potvin, who won his second straight state title with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Hill. “I was more of a defensive player and he kind of came out like that in the beginning of our match, which was just like me.”

Potvin, who is regionally and nationally ranked in the U.S. Tennis Association’s 18-and-under division, hasn’t lost a high school match since the 2004 final, and he sees considerable potential in Hill to replace him atop the Maine schoolboy tennis world. Potvin will bypass the state’s interscholastic tennis competition next year to focus on individual training at a Boston-area tennis center in preparation for a Division I college future.

“[Hill] definitely has the weapons to develop a more aggressive game, which is what I’ve done the last two years,” Potvin said. “He’s got a good serve and a hard forehand also, and I think it’s just a matter of gaining experience and strength.”

Potvin and Hill had not met on the tennis court until Monday, but they may play for a second time within a week if Hampden Academy and Mount Ararat each wins its Eastern Maine Class A team quarterfinal scheduled for Thursday.

Hampden (12-0) is ranked second in the region and will face No. 7 Brewer (6-6), while No. 3 Mount Ararat (10-1) will host No. 6 Erskine Academy of South China (7-4). If the two higher seeds win, Hampden would host Mount Ararat on Friday or Saturday.

Pettis leaves Mount View post

Citing health and family reasons, Jim Pettis won’t return as the boys basketball coach at Mount View next season after guiding the Mustangs to the Eastern Maine Class B tournament in each of his two years at the Thorndike school.

“I was sick about half of last year with the flu-like stuff that was going around, so much so that I actually dreaded going to basketball practice,” said Pettis. “That’s never been the case with me. I’ve been either playing or coaching since I was 12 years old.”

Pettis said the need for more family time was predicated on two reasons, wanting the chance to spend more time with his aging parents who live in Rhode Island, and the result of a visit with his wife to the Grand Canyon during April vacation.

“The Grand Canyon is someplace they say everybody should go, and after we went there we talked about it and realized that if we had more than one vacation a year we could do more things like that,” said Pettis, citing the time conflicts between basketball and Thanksgiving, Christmas and February vacations.

Pettis came to Mount View after a two-year stint at Messalonskee of Oakland.

He guided the Mustangs to a 23-17 overall record. In 2005 Mount View went 10-8 during the regular season and defeated Maranacook of Readfield in a triple-overtime preliminary-round game before losing to Foxcroft Academy in the quarterfinals.

Last winter, the Mustangs came on strong at the end of the season to finish with an 11-7 record. Mount View then defeated Rockland in a preliminary-round game before being ousted by Ellsworth in the regional quarterfinals.

“I know I’m going to miss it,” said Pettis of coaching. I can’t imagine a harder-working team than I’ve had at Mount View the last two years.”