The Maine Principals’ Association is poised to move the Western Maine Class A and B boys and girls basketball quarterfinals from the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland to the Portland Exposition Building beginning next February.

“It’s about 99.9 percent certain,” said MPA executive director Dick Durost.

The Western A and B tournaments were held together at the CCCC during February vacation week for the first time last winter, but crowds for the quarterfinal-sessions averaged less than 1,000, Durost said.

That’s far from capacity in the 7,000-seat civic center, and that lack of tournament atmosphere left coaches and officials from several Western A and B schools to request that the quarterfinals be moved to a more intimate basketball setting such as the Expo, which seats approximately 3,000 fans.

Durost said the MPA then surveyed Western A and B schools about the possibility of moving the quarterfinals away from the civic center, and such a shift was supported by a 2-to-1 ratio.

“This is being done based on the requests of member schools,” Durost said.

The move isn’t official yet, Durost said, because details are being worked out to accommodate other events scheduled at the Expo, namely a popular camping show.

The camping show is expected to be moved up a week beginning next year to make room for the basketball quarterfinals starting on the first weekend of February vacation, and that change requires moving the Southern Maine Activities Association indoor track championships to the University of Southern Maine in Gorham.

Those moves are all expected to take place, Durost said, but the MPA will not make a formal announcement about the tournament changes until all the contracts have been signed.

The Western A and B semifinals and finals will remain at the Cumberland County Civic Center, as will already-scheduled state championship games for the next four years, the length of the existing contracts between the MPA and its primary tournament sites, the CCCC, the Augusta Civic Center and the Bangor Auditorium.

The Western A and B quarterfinals also are expected to remain at the Expo at least through the four-year duration of those contracts, Durost said.

Durost credited the cooperation of CCCC director Steve Crane in enabling the MPA to move the Western A and B regional quarterfinals.

Class A Portland High School plays its home games at the Expo – which hosted boys tournament games prior to the construction of the Cumberland County Civic Center and hosted girls tourney games into the 1980s – but Durost said the Bulldogs’ familiarity with the site wasn’t a hindrance to moving the regional quarterfinals to that location.

There is precedent in Eastern Maine, he said, as Class B John Bapst of Bangor plays its home games at the Bangor Auditorium, home to the Eastern B, C and D tournaments.

No changes are planned for the Eastern Maine tournaments, Durost added.

Basketball officials sought

Autumn is less than a week old, but basketball season is not far away.

And with that reality comes the call for new officials, as classes for prospective basketball referees are under way.

Classes are now being held on Sundays beginning at 5 p.m. – with the exception of Columbus Day weekend – through mid-November at the Bangor YMCA. People interested in joining the ranks of high school officials are invited to attend the classes, which prepare participants for a written rules test and a floor test to measure proficiency in on-the-court officiating mechanics.

“There is a need,” said IAABO Board 111 interpreter Peter Webb, also Maine’s commissioner of basketball. “We can always use officials.”

Webb noted that the Millinocket-Lincoln-Howland and Penquis regions are areas within the Board 111 coverage area that are particularly lacking in officials.

Becoming an official allows participants with a basketball background to maintain a direct connection to the sport, as well as provide a source of supplemental income, Webb said.

Registrations for the officiating classes are being accepted through Oct. 15, and more information is available by contacting Webb at 296-2472 or by e-mail at pawsports@aol.com.

Webb added that if someone is interested in officiating a sport other than basketball, he or she should contact him and he will help them make a connection with the appropriate officiating representative.