Penquis boys forfeit season-opening win

The Penquis of Milo boys basketball team has had to forfeit its season-opening 70-56 victory over Penobscot Valley of Howland because the Patriots inadvertently used an ineligible player.

Russell Berry, a senior center for the Patriots, attended Penquis during the 2005-06 school year and lived with one of his parents locally.

He subsequently moved to the Madison area to live with his other parent. He attended Madison High this fall and played for that school’s football team.

Berry then opted to move back to the Milo area after the first quarter of the school year, and once he did he rejoined the Penquis basketball team for which he played last winter.

Berry started for the Patriots against Penobscot Valley on Dec. 9, scoring a game-high 25 points, before the transfer papers had been completed by officials at both Madison and Penquis, making him ineligible for that game.

“Once we found out what the situation was, then we had to sit him until we got all the sign-offs from the principals,” said Penquis coach and athletic administrator Tony Hamlin. “That was done before the Schenck game on Tuesday, but I wanted to be sure that we had faxed the papers in [to the Maine Principals’ Association], so we held him out just to make sure he had been cleared.”

Penquis lost to Schenck 48-36 without Berry, but Berry was back in the lineup Thursday night and scored 15 points as the Patriots outlasted Orono 64-62 in overtime.

York new Indians baseball coach

Rick York, an all-state catcher during his playing days at Skowhegan Area High School, is returning to his alma mater next spring as the Indians’ varsity baseball coach.

York replaces veteran coach Steve Mayo, who stepped down after leading Skowhegan to a 14-5 record and a berth in the Eastern Maine Class A championship game last spring.

“Steve has made the program what it is now,” said York, “and we’re going to take it from here and see what we can do with it.”

York, a 1989 Skowhegan graduate, was a four-year varsity player at Skowhegan, earning All-Maine honors as a senior and All-Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference accolades as a junior and senior.

The lefthanded-hitting York went on to play at the University of Southern Maine. He was part of the Huskies’ NCAA Div. III national championship team in 1991 and as a senior two years later served as team captain and was named first-team All-New England and honorable mention Div. III All-American.

After graduation, York then coached for a year at USM under head coach Ed Flaherty, and he also served as an assistant coach at Thomas College in Waterville for a year.

York moved back to Skowhegan three years ago and coached baseball on the youth level while also serving as an assistant football coach at the high school.

“It was always a dream of mine to come back and coach at Skowhegan,” said York. “Once I moved back to town, I got back into coaching at the lower levels and it reminded me that this was something I wanted to do.”