Weather jeopardizes baseball start Most KVAC Class A and B schools scheduled to open on April 18

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On April 6, 2006, Old Town and Hampden Academy played a preseason baseball game – outdoors.

One year and one day later, those same two teams played another preseason game, only this time it was a modified version played indoors.

Such were the dictates of Mother Nature and her heavy-handed dose of “poor man’s fertilizer,” a coating of early April snow more than a foot deep in some locations.

It is a layering that has jeopardized the scheduled start of the high school baseball season – which for most Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A and B schools is set for a week from Wednesday, or April 18.

It also has set back every team’s preseason preparation, because playing in a gymnasium – or in the larger Mahaney Dome at the University of Maine, where Old Town, Hampden, Brewer and Bucksport scrimmaged last Saturday – just isn’t the same as patrolling the wide expanses of the average baseball diamond.

“It was good, though,” said Old Town coach Dave Utterback, “from the standpoint that the pitchers got to pitch off a mound and throw 60 feet to a batter from another team standing in the batter’s box, and we were able to have a full infield.”

Utterback finds that one of the many areas where teams suffer by having limited or no preseason practice is in outfield development.

“When we start tryouts I apologize to the outfielders,” he said, “because you really can’t get a feel for tracking the ball when you’re working in the gym.”

Old Town was able to hold one outside practice to work with the outfielders before the most recent snowstorm blanketed the state.

So did Hampden Academy, although the weather in which the Broncos practiced that day was a sign of things to come.

“The snowflakes were coming down,” said Hampden baseball coach and athletic administrator David Shapiro. “It wasn’t looking good.”

Shapiro sees throwing the baseball as one of the biggest challenges facing teams when forced indoors for most or all of their preseason workouts.

“Arm strength is the biggest thing,” Shapiro said. “An 84-foot basketball court isn’t where you’re able to get your long tossing in, but we’re all in the same boat when it comes to that.

“We should be up to 65 or 70 pitches now, but we’re not there yet.”

The arm-strength issue can be of particular importance in developing pitching depth, which is one of the major preseason challenges facing Jeff Fahey, coach of defending Class A state champion Bangor.

“We know who our top three are going to be,” said Fahey, whose team held an indoor scrimmage with George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill last weekend, “and it would be nice to start developing some of the other guys, but that’s been delayed with the weather the way it’s been.”

Many area teams are hoping to travel south for preseason games this weekend, but the snow already on the ground as well as a dreary forecast for Thursday make that an uncertain proposition at best.

“For us this year, we’ve got a couple of question marks defensively that four or five preseason games would have solved,” said Fahey, whose team is scheduled to play two preseason games at Deering of Portland on Saturday, one at Deering High School and the second at Hadlock Field, home of the Portland Sea Dogs.

Old Town is slated to travel to Biddeford on Saturday for a round robin with Biddeford, Oak Hill of Sabattus and Portland, but that also may fall victim to the remnants of winter.

“Everybody’s in the same boat, though, so we’re not going to use it as an excuse,” said Utterback, whose team is scheduled to open at home against Lawrence of Fairfield on April 18.

Classification vote draws near

School classifications for the next two-year cycle of Maine interscholastic sports are set to go to the Maine Principals’ Association general membership for final approval on April 26 during that body’s annual spring conference at Rockport.

The MPA’s Interscholastic Management Committee endorsed the classification committee’s proposal for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years at a meeting in March.

Since then, the MPA has accepted feedback from member schools, including “ask up” letters by some requesting to be allowed to play up a class or more from the class designated by their enrollment as of April 1, 2006.

Just a few such requests had been received by the MPA as of the beginning of the week, according to MPA assistant executive director Jeff Sturgis.

Among those, Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference member Morse of Bath is eligible to move from Class A to Class B in a variety of sports, but wants to remain a Class A program in basketball, baseball, softball, cross country, field hockey, soccer, cheering, indoor track and outdoor track.

In addition, Portland-based private schools Cheverus and Catherine McAuley have asked up in all sports, as has been those schools’ normal practice. Kennebunk wants to remain a Class A program in swimming, and Westbrook wants to remain in Class A in indoor track.

One school that hadn’t sought to remain in Class A as of the beginning of the week is Gardiner, which means the Tigers are expected to shift to Class B as they are allowed based on enrollment.

Gardiner would join Erskine Academy of South China and Old Town as Class A schools moving to Class B in cheering, basketball, baseball, softball and soccer. Old Town also would shift to Class B in tennis and golf.

Among other shifts involving Eastern Maine schools, Central of Corinth will move from Class C to Class B in soccer, basketball, cheering, softball and baseball while Hodgdon will move from Class C to Class D, and Schenck of East Millinocket and Lee Academy would shift from Class D to Class C.

In Western Maine, four private schools, Gould Academy of Bethel, Hebron Academy, Kents Hill and Hyde School of Bath all would shift from Class D to Class C in those sports.