With Lee Academy moving from Class D to Class C next year, it’s a logical question.

Can the Lee girls basketball team win another regional championship in the 2007-08 season?

The Pandas, who beat Hyde of Bath 65-45 Saturday for their second Class D title in three seasons, will return all of this year’s junior starters and their first substitute, who is also a junior.

In addition, many of the top teams in Eastern Maine Class C are graduating a significant number of starters. Dexter, the regional champ this year, will lose four.

“It’s a good time for us,” Lee coach Ron Weatherbee said. “We’re only losing one senior and so it is going to be a step up there to play that Class C schedule and Class C tournament, but it’ll be good for the kids. We’ll learn from it.”

The Pandas already have a tough schedule, part of which they’re locked into because of their affiliation with the Penobscot Valley Conference.

But Lee doesn’t take it easy in its out-of-conference schedule. The Pandas played 10 games in the PVC and eight games outside the conference. Both groups consisted of good – and in some cases great – teams.

Lee, which went 15-3 in the regular season, played Eastern Maine Class C runner-up Calais twice in the regular season. They lost two games to EM Class C Washington Academy of East Machias, which went undefeated in the regular season before being knocked out in the quarterfinals, and had two games against defending Class D state champ Woodland.

The Pandas had single nonconference games against Greenville, which qualified for the Western Maine Class D postseason but lost in a prelim, and Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook, which lost in the EM Class D quarterfinals.

Lee’s in-conference schedule consisted of games against EM Class C semifinalist Penobscot Valley of Howland, which accounted for the Pandas’ other regular-season loss, and EM Class D quarterfinalist Katahdin of Stacyville.

Schenck of East Millinocket (4-15), Bangor Christian (12-7) and Deer Isle-Stonington (7-12) all qualified for prelim games but didn’t make it to the quarterfinals.

The Pandas also played exhibition games against Stearns of Millinocket, Sumner of East Sullivan, both of which are in Class C, and Class D semifinalist Greater Houlton Christian Academy.

“Over the course of time playing all those teams really helped,” Weatherbee said.

Things will get even tougher next winter with the move to Class C.

Lee will drop Washington Academy, Southern Aroostook and Greenville and pick up games against neighboring Mattanawcook of Lincoln, which got to the Class B semis, and Houlton, which will be a favorite in Class C.

Weatherbee goes to bench early

Lee coach Weatherbee had a difficult call to make during Saturday’s Class D state final. It’s a question many coaches agonize over.

When you have a big lead, just when do you start to bring in substitutes?

“It’s a tough situation either way,” he said. “If you leave starters in and you’re plus too many [the score] goes from 25 to 40. By the same token, if you go the other way and bring in the reserves it can go from 25 to 15. Today for the state game, I wanted to get kids into it as early as we could.”

Weatherbee brought in a big group of backups with less than two minutes left in the third quarter, at which point the Pandas had a 53-24 lead over Hyde of Bath.

The bench players stayed in for long stretches, often with one regular starter in the game at the same time.

But the Phoenix started to whittle away at Lee’s lead, eventually cutting the difference to 15 points with two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

“It stayed at 23, 24, 25 and then all of a sudden, whoops, it’s down to 18 and 15,” Weatherbee said. “The kids handled it well. It did make it so we brought in most of the starters at the end of the game. But it was good for them too because it gave them a chance to be on the floor for the last time in Class D.”

In the end, all 12 Pandas played.

Akerley ‘fine’ after heart attack

Longtime Maine swimming official and meet director Kendall “Duffy” Akerley said he’s recovering well after suffering a mild heart attack Friday night while shoveling snow.

Akerley, a Bar Harbor resident who has been an official since 1966 and runs state championship meets for the Maine Principals’ Association, had two stents implanted Monday morning and is expects to be released sometime Tuesday.

“It was kind of a scary thought, but everything’s OK,” Akerley said Monday from his room at Eastern Maine Medical Center.

He was shoveling snow at his home in Bar Harbor about 9 p.m. Friday when he felt sick. Akerley went inside, took some aspirin and called for an ambulance.

He was taken to Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor and then transported to EMMC early Saturday morning.

Akerley said there was no damage to his heart.

“I have to exercise a little more, eat a little better, and I’ll be OK long-term,” he said.

New GSA softball coach

At least one area high school team will have a new softball coach when pitchers and catchers report March 19 for the first day of practice.

Doug Keith was hired to coach the George Stevens of Blue Hill softball team earlier this year.

Keith will replace John Greene, who decided to resign from coaching because of his already heavy schedule as assistant head of school, GSA athletic director Jim Murphy said.

Keith has coached younger girls at the middle-school level, Murphy said, has worked with older girls, although not in a varsity role.

“We think he’s going to be good,” Murphy added. “He’s very energetic, very enthusiastic. We’re happy to have him on board. We have a good group of girls coming back.”

Reed takes cue from Emery

About two weeks before Bangor boys basketball coach Roger Reed led the Rams to the Class A state title, he got an up-close look at another successful Bangor coach leading his team to a Class A state championship.

Reed and Rams athletic director Steve Vanidestine turned up at the Class A boys swimming and diving state meet Feb. 20 at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. The two watched Bangor’s Phil Emery coach his way to a 21st Class A crown.

“I just wanted to see this for myself,” said Reed, who himself has coached seven state hoop titles and had never been to a swim meet. “Phil Emery’s as good as they come. Nobody at Bangor will ever catch him.”

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.