Rickett resigns at McAuley; Smith new Lions hoop boss

Danielle Salvaggio never won a state championship when she played for the McAuley of Portland girls basketball team.

But she has fond memories of the “Cinderella” ride, as she puts it, the Lions made in 2000, when she was known as Danielle Jendrasko and started at point guard for coach Liz Rickett.

What made the season so incredible was that Rickett had turned around a team that went 1-17 in 1999 to a 2000 squad that had an 8-10 regular-season finish and gained the program’s first Western Maine crown despite holding the No 10 seed for the tournament.

“It was just such an improbable run,” said Salvaggio, who is now a spokeswoman and director of admissions at McAuley. “We weren’t even supposed to be there so it was all so great. For me, she has just done so much for the program and the school. Her commitment to the players on the court is great but off the court it’s even better.”

That commitment propelled McAuley into the upper level of Maine schoolgirl basketball. It’s also the reason Rickett has decided to step down, Salvaggio said.

The school recently announced Rickett’s resignation after eight years to focus on family and her work as a sales manager at UnumProvident in Portland. Rickett coached McAuley to five Western Maine Class A titles and back-to-back state championships in 2002 and 2003.

Four-year junior varsity and assistant coach Will Smith will take over the program.

Rickett, who started as McAuley’s JV coach, won five of the six WM finals in which the Lions played during her tenure. They were knocked out of this year’s tourney in the quarterfinals.

Rickett’s record as head coach was 132-38, including a 21-5 mark in the postseason.

The McAuley position is the first varsity coaching job for Smith, who led the JV squad to a 70-2 record including three undefeated seasons in his tenure. A four-year player at Bowdoin College, he has coached at the youth and AAU levels and served as a freshman boys basketball coach at Brunswick High.

Smith has also been Rickett’s assistant the past four years.

Future of field hockey

Five members of the Class A state champion Skowhegan field hockey team and five members of the Class B state champion Belfast squad will head to Virginia Beach, Va., later this month to participate in the National Futures Championship, an event put on by USA Field Hockey’s Futures program.

Skowhegan, which has won five straight Class A titles, will send Zara Saydjari, Mallory Shute and Courtney Veinotte as members of the U19 (ages 19-and-under) Bangor team.

Kylie Damon and Melissa Hancock, also of Skowhegan, will be on the U16 Portland team.

Skowhegan Middle School student Megan Hancock will play for U14 USA North.

Belfast team members Kallie Aldus, Liz Anderson, Britt Cummings, Jamie Flagg and Miss Maine Field Hockey Kelsey Jackson will all play for the Bangor team.

Other high school players on the Bangor team are Falmouth’s Eileen Brandes, Messalonskee of Oakland’s Ciara Corbett and Bethany Ridley, and Greely of Cumberland Center’s Maryette Stuart.

The rest of the U16 Portland team is made up of Gardiner’s Hailey Chadbourne, Leavitt of Turner’s Courtney Erskine and Christina Hawkes and Mackenzie Ross of Greely.

Kayleigh Ballantyne and Hannah Prince, both of Gorham Middle School, are members of the U14 USA East squad.

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