UMaine ‘dome’ practice haven Snow keeps HS teams indoors

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With a light snow falling from gray skies Saturday at about 8 a.m., two men took snowblowers to Coffin Field, Brewer’s softball facility.

There’s now just a thin layer of snow left, but Brewer athletic director Dennis Kiah is still grateful the Witches’ home opener isn’t until April 25.

Hampden Academy’s baseball and softball fields both have about six inches of snow left. Athletic director David Shapiro said he won’t snowblow either field for fear of doing damage.

As for the baseball and softball games between Calais and Washington Academy scheduled for this Friday, they’ve been postponed.

All of which means very few Eastern Maine teams will open their baseball and softball schedules this week. The first countable games can be played Thursday but most teams won’t be able to start until next week.

The answer for some teams has been the Mahaney Dome on the University of Maine campus in Orono.

The dome, a 38,000-square-foot air-supported structure with an artificial grass surface called FieldTurf, hosted baseball and softball teams from several schools while others have notified the university they want to schedule time in the facility.

The Brewer and Presque Isle softball teams scrimmaged Saturday, while baseball teams from Brewer, Hampden, Old Town and Bucksport played 30-minute games in a round-robin format.

Betty Fadrigon, a university administrative assistant who does the scheduling for the dome, said other teams that have either already used or plan to use the dome include Orono, Hermon and Ashland. There may be or have been teams from other schools in the dome at the same time if that school arranged for the dome time invited a playing partner, she added.

The dome costs $150 per hour to rent, Fadrigon said.

The local schools appreciate having the option of indoor practices.

“The relationship we have with [UMaine] is great,” Shapiro said.

The dome’s artificial surface may be the only grass-like surface teams play on before their first games. Washington Academy softball coach Dan Welch said his Raiders had one day outside before last Thursday’s storm dumped around 10 inches of snow on WA’s field with at least four inches still on the ground.

“We had one day outside because before then it was too cold and windy,” Welch said. “The snow [on Thursday] knocked us right back down.”

The Calais-WA games have already been postponed. Both Raiders teams will open up April 18 instead.

Kiah said there’s about 10 inches of snow on Brewer’s baseball field, down from 16 at one point. Even though the softball field is almost totally clear, work remains.

“When the frost comes out it’ll get real muddy and we’ll have to put more Turface on top,” Kiah said.

Turface is the brand name for a material applied to dirt surfaces to absorb moisture.

The Brewer baseball team opens April 20 at home on Heddericq Field against Bangor. The Brewer softball team travels to Bangor that day but will host Erskine of South China in its home opener April 25.

The Brewer High tennis courts may be playable later this week, Kiah added. The snow was shoveled off the courts Monday morning.

Shapiro, too, has some time before Hampden hosts any games. Both baseball and softball teams are at home April 18 against Skowhegan.

The Broncos’ fields, which are located at the Weatherbee School across the road from Hampden Academy, have about six inches of snow on them.

Shapiro said he doesn’t want to have to snowblow either field, especially to Bordick Park, the baseball field. The softball field is located in a corner of the artificial-surface football and soccer field.

“The [baseball] field gets too gooey to do that,” he said.

Emery to return to Rams

Bangor High boys swimming coach Phil Emery, who capped off his 38th season with the program’s 22nd Class A state title, said he will stay with the Rams for at least one more year despite retiring from teaching.

“I’m not ready to give it up,” he said. “… I still have a lot of passion for coaching.”

Emery is in his final year of teaching earth science at Bangor High. Although he said he still enjoys teaching, Emery found doing both to be tiring.

“The two things got to be more than I can handle,” he said.

Emery said he decided the week after the state championship meet on Feb. 20 that he wanted to come back to coach. He had already announced he would retire from teaching.

A member of the both Maine Sports Hall of Fame and Maine Swimming Hall of Fame, Emery said he plans to take his return year-by-year after next season.

MCI spring track program grows

Although there’s some talk around Pittsfield that the numbers of Maine Central Institute students on the Huskies’ track and field team have pushed past the 100 mark, head coach Jason Allen said that’s not exactly true.

In fact, he has heard there are 190 students on the team.

“I can’t imagine what we’d do with 190 kids,” Allen said. “But we have had quite a bit of growth.”

It’s not 100, but 85 boys and girls represents a huge jump from 35 when Allen took over the program four years ago.

There were 10 girls on the team then and are about 40 on this year’s team.

The growth happened without any middle-school feeder system.

The fact track and field – with its distance and sprint runs, jumps and throws, has something for everyone – makes it attractive to a variety of kids, Allen said.

“It’s one of those things where it’s different from other sports,” he said.

The Huskies’ boys team gained two transfers from Nokomis of Newport who could help MCI score at states this year. Troy Murray was the Class B state champ in the 100-meter dash and fifth in the 200 while Benson Mensah-Bonsu was third in the 400 and fourth in the 200.

On the girls’ side, Jenna Lorentsen was second in the long jump while Amanda Asaro was sixth in the 1,500 and led off the fifth-place 4×800 relay which was anchored by her sister, Bianca Asaro.

Allen said he believes spring sports numbers at tryouts have gone up across the board at the school.

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