State-meet berth reason to cheer for Smith, Coyotes

AUGUSTA – Sarah Smith was still beaming while being interviewed at the conclusion of Saturday’s Eastern Maine Class A regional cheering championship.

Old Town’s rookie head cheerleading coach was in the midst of an interview just minutes after celebrating her team’s first trip to the state finals in four years when she stopped in mid-sentence, looked away, and erupted in wild applause yet again.

Her former coach and team had just been announced as the new regional champions and her reaction made it quite apparent she was still very much a fan of her alma mater.

Then again, even if Smith wasn’t a Brewer High School graduate, she still would have had plenty of reason to cheer for the Witches.

If not for an unexpected emotional boost from Brewer coach Kristie Reed, Old Town’s state finals drought might still be ongoing.

“Last week [at the Big East meet] we were really, really down and it was probably the hardest coaching experience I’ve had,” Smith explained. “I went into the coaches’ meeting crying, and as I was walking out, [Reed] handed me a note that said ‘When you feel like you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on’ so I brought that to my team and it really helped us regroup.”

Although she could rightly claim that she had a hand in getting two teams to states this year, Reed downplayed her contribution.

“My first year coaching, Sarah was a senior on my team, so I just wanted to try to help her feel better,” Reed said.

The Coyotes, who finished fourth with 118.9 points last week, improved by four points a week later. Doesn’t seem like that big a jump? Don’t tell that to Smith.

“We’ve had a lot of struggles this year,” Smith said. “We started off the season with half our girls being ineligible [athletic code violations] and we’ve had two girls get injured who are wearing air casts right now.”

Smith said her affected team members were also told the week of the first championship competition (PVCs) that they would have to miss the meet as part of their athletic suspensions, but then reinstated after it was determined their suspensions were for three basketball games, not the competitions that come later in the season.

“We thought we weren’t going to be able to do PVC’s, so we were basically just warming up the routine, not really performing it to that point,” said Smith.

It wasn’t that long ago that Old Town High School was virtually synonymous with cheerleading.

From 1987 through 2002, Old Town won two state championships, three Eastern Maine regional titles, three Penobscot Valley Conference crowns, and three Big East titles.

That was five years, three coaches, and even a mascot name change ago.

Since then, titles have been as scarce as freshwater springs in the desert for the Coyotes.

“They are coming from such a history of not knowing what it’s like to make it, coming in sixth, let alone fifth in regionals is amazing to them,” said Smith.

State cheerleading field set

With all four state championship cheerleading teams coming out of Eastern Maine last year, Western Maine teams like Biddeford, Mountain Valley of Rumford and Dirigo of Dixfield are looking to break through.

Those three teams won Western Maine regional titles in Classes A, B and C, respectively, Saturday at the Augusta Civic Center.

They’ll join the Eastern Maine teams Saturday, Feb. 10, at the Bangor Auditorium for the state championships. The competition for Classes C and B starts at 10 a.m. and the A and D competition will start at 3 p.m.

The Tigers’ score of 154.6 was the top score in the state Saturday, although Eastern Maine champion Brewer was close with a 154.2.

The other Western Maine Class A teams that qualified for states are Marshwood of South Berwick (150.7), Scarborough (144.1), Gorham (127.8), Windham (125.5) and Thornton Academy of Saco (122.9).

The rest of the WM Class B representatives are Oak Hill of Sabattus (141.4), Poland (137.7), Wells (137.5), Lake Region of Naples (126.4) and Lisbon (124.9).

The WM Class C field also includes Traip of Kittery (113.1), Monmouth (110.8), Saint Dominic of Auburn (106.9), Jay (104.0) and Old Orchard Beach (100.0).

There was no separate Western Maine Class D competition because Eastern Maine and Western Maine were combined in that classification.