A youthful Fort Fairfield boys basketball team barely missed getting a taste of postseason action last winter, falling 0.5365 Heal Points short of earning the final preliminary-round berth in Eastern Maine Class D.

Next winter a more experienced Tigers’ team will seek to break through that threshold with a new head coach.

Todd Alley, Fort Fairfield’s boys junior varsity coach for the last five years, recently was promoted to the varsity post to replace Bobby Russell, who resigned earlier this spring after four seasons.

Alley will return all but one player from last year’s squad next winter.

“There are definitely a lot of athletes coming back,” said Alley. “The big thing for us will be making a commitment to defense and rebounding, because we don’t really have anyone on the roster over 6-1.”

Fort Fairfield’s roster for the 2007-08 season likely will include five seniors, four juniors and one sophomore, many of whom saw significant playing time a year ago.

“There’s a lot of good experience there,” said Alley.

The Tigers finished 5-13 during the 2006-07 campaign, good for 17th place in the heavily populated Eastern Maine Class D ranks and narrowly behind No. 16 Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook, which captured the final preliminary berth.

Alley believes last year’s narrow miss will serve as motivation for the returning players, who not only would like to break through and return to postseason play but ultimately make the trip south to the Bangor Auditorium during February vacation for the first time since 1998.

“They missed by such a small amount last year so there should that much more focus going into next season,” said Alley, whose wife Kerrie coaches girls varsity soccer and varsity track at Fort Fairfield.

“It’s going to depend on how hard the kids want to work, it’s going to be up to them. Missing by as little as they did last year, you realize that one more win on our schedule would have made the difference.”

Coyotes shine in ‘A’ swan song

The Old Town baseball team ended its long run in Class A in a high-quality manner, completing one of its most successful seasons in recent memory.

Just three years removed from a two-win season, the Coyotes finished the 2007 campaign with a 14-5 record – with three of the losses coming to undefeated defending state champion Bangor, including Saturday’s narrow 8-6 defeat in the Eastern Maine Class A semifinals.

Led by the state’s 2007 Gatorade Player of the Year, pitcher-shortstop Jarrett Lukas, Old Town ranked among the leaders in the Eastern A Heal Points throughout the regular season and earned the fourth seed in the division entering the playoffs.

The Coyotes then brought postseason baseball back to Old Town, using a seventh-inning rally to edge upset-minded of Edward Little of Auburn in the preliminary round before besting No. 5 Brunswick in the quarterfinals to advance to its semifinal at Bangor.

The Coyotes had been blown out by the Rams in 10-run-rule fashion twice during the regular season, 16-0 in six innings and 10-0 in five innings, as Bangor righthander Ian Edwards limited Old Town to three hits while striking out 13 batters and walking three in 11 innings covering the two starts.

But their third meeting took a decidedly different tone when Old Town jumped out to a 4-0 third-inning lead against Edwards before Bangor came from behind to extend its winning streak to 18 games this year, 29 games overall.

Five seniors graduate from this year’s Old Town team, led by Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A North all-stars Lukas (.487, 4 HR, 17 RBI, 5-3 pitching record), Tyler Honey (.431, 2 HR) and Adam Fournier (.333, 16 RBI).

But the Coyotes should be formidable when they compete in the Penobscot Valley Conference Class B ranks next spring, with All-KVAC first-teamer Dana Leland (.404, 2 HR, 23 RBI, 2-2 pitching record) the top returning player.

“I’m just proud of the way the guys battled this year,” said Old Town coach David Utterback. “Fourteen wins with this team is quite an accomplishment, and these guys should be very proud of what they did.”