Dexter girls kept chipping away in title quest

BANGOR – When Dexter girls basketball coach Jody Grant wanted to give his Tigers some inspiration this season, he used a few examples from professional and college sports.

Although Grant was likely met with blank stares at the mention of the Jack Del Rio, head coach of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars – the Dexter girls had no idea who Del Rio was at first – Grant was trying to draw an analogy for Dexter’s season.

“Jack Del Rio had a big piece of wood in the locker room and a big axe [in 2003],” Grant said after his team’s 45-38 victory in the EM Class C title game. “I told the kids about that. I said, they just kept chipping away, chipping away. Rutgers football had ‘just keep chopping wood.’ That was their big thing for last year. I brought that up before the tournament because that was going to be our approach.”

Rutgers went 11-2 and won its first bowl game. Dexter won its fifth straight EM Class C title.

“We just had to keep things on an even keel and chip away,” Grant said.

Things didn’t work out for the Jaguars, who went 5-11 and had a player injure himself with the axe while taking a hack at the wood.