Hampden’s behavior was not the norm

I’d like to start by saying how proud I am of the four teams from the Hampden area who recently participated in one of Eastern Maine’s most elite tournaments: The Great Harbor Shootout. This is an annual tournament that consisted of over 60 teams this year.

The four teams representing our area consisted of a junior high school boys team, two junior high girls teams, and a high school boys team. It’s also worth mentioning that we had a few players from surrounding areas to help us fill out our rosters in the junior high divisions. A big thank-you goes out to the boys who helped me out on the junior high team.

Our girls teams battled it out and both had strong appearances in the tourney finishing in the top six, and our junior high boys made it to the semifinals in the Eastern bracket.

As far as the high school boys, well, they were asked to leave the tournament on account of receiving two technical fouls, both by players. For this, I apologize to the Great Harbor staff, the opposing teams and the fans.

I have coached for 14 years, seven of those years in Southwest Harbor, one of the Great Harbor Tournament sites and seven of those in the Hampden area. I was disappointed and deeply saddened to hear that one of our teams had been removed from the tournament for player behavior. This happened with a nearly 20-point lead in the semifinals. I can assure you that this is not the behavior that is expected or accepted from out players; at least I hope it isn’t.

I sincerely hope that a lesson is learned by our players, fans and coaches that court conduct and sportsmanship are elements of the game that are essential to the big picture. Players should just play and let their hard work on the court do the talking. Again, my apologies.

Coach Bill Hodgdon

Hampden

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