Al Martin returns for dose of tourney fever

BANGOR – Back when his daughters were among the star players at Calais High School, Al Martin was a regular at the Eastern Maine Class C tournament.

Now that Lanna Martin and Crystal Martin have moved on to college and beyond, and Al Martin and his wife Mona moved to Texarkana, Ark., the former Calais residents haven’t been able to get back.

Until Friday, that is.

Al and Mona Martin, who both grew up in St. Francis and attended high school in Fort Kent, were home visiting family this week. Mona Martin had to return to Arkansas for work, but Al Martin attended Friday’s semifinal between No. 6 Fort Kent and No. 2 Dexter with his brother, Richard “Pete” Martin, who lives in St. John and works for the Maine Forest Service.

In a stroke of seating luck, both the Fort Kent fans and Calais fans who were gathering to watch the second semifinal of the afternoon were sitting on the same side of the Auditorium.

“It’s unbelievable, phenomenal to be back,” Al Martin said during halftime of the Fort Kent game. “I get shivers, being back here.”

Martin worked at the Domtar Industries pulp mill in Woodland when the family was in Maine. He is now a human resources manager at Domtar’s facility in Ashdown, Ark.

Lanna Martin, a 2002 Calais graduate who played basketball at Saint Anselm’s College in Manchester, N.H., is living in New Hampshire and working for BAE Systems, a British company that specializes in defense and aerospace systems. Al Martin said the former Miss Maine Basketball winner and tourney MVP is in a leadership program and waiting for an assignment and is also thinking about getting a master’s degree.

Al Martin couldn’t stay to watch Calais in the semifinals. He was heading to Farmington to watch Crystal Martin, now a senior on the Husson College women’s basketball team, play a North Atlantic Conference tournament game against UMF.

Draper’s fans celebrate his roots

Camden Hills guard Paul Draper spent more time on defense than offense in Wednesday night’s Eastern Maine Class B semifinal against Ellsworth, but the few times he shot the ball the Windjammer fans started their Draper chant.

The Camden Hills students yell, “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oy, oy, oy” whenever Draper scores.

Draper, a 5-foot-10 senior guard, was born in the U.S. but has dual citizenship with Australia. He was born in Salt Lake City.

His parents, Suzanne and Robert Draper, both Sydney natives, were Utah at the time because Robert Draper was a director of photography on the movie “Halloween 5.” The Drapers now live in Camden.

The “Aussie” chant became popular at the 2000 Olympics, Suzanne Draper said, and is at other sporting events as a show of Australian pride.

The Camden Hills fans did the chant during the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B championship game against Maranacook of Readfield last week when a spectator who happened to be from Australia, sitting on the Maranacook side, responded in kind. The Windjammer crowd then chanted, “He’s Australian.”

It’s a matter of national pride for Paul Draper.

“[The chant] is just something my friends started doing,” he said. “I just try to stick with my roots.”

Draper had seven points in Wednesday’s 64-58 win over No. 2 Ellsworth – he was responsible for helping to guard Eagles standout Corey DeWitt – but poured in a team-high 23 points in the No. 3 Windjammers’ 84-59 quarterfinal win over No. 11 Winslow.