Frog jumping returns to Newport

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NEWPORT – After an absence of nearly a decade, frog jumping in Newport is back, and judging by the fun that was had Saturday morning on the shores of Sebasticook Lake, it was well worth the wait.

Nobody broke the world’s record (21 feet, 5 3/4 inches in a triple jump by Rosey the Ribiter at the Calaveras County Jumping Frog Jubilee in California, set in 1986), but Saturday’s event was more about inches, not feet. Dozens of children and adults lined up for the contest, bringing, borrowing or “renting” their frogs.

There were squealing little girls who were reluctant to hold the frogs and boys strutting around trying to scare them. There were children – and more than one mom – looking for wet wipes to get the frog juice off their hands.

There was 4-year-old Cassandra Croce of Newport, who reverently knelt down next to a cooler filled with frogs and quietly talked to them, sort of a frog whisperer.

The more involved participants even named their frogs: Hopper, Nut, Nana, Rocky, Fast Freddy and Ribit.

Every so often frogmania would erupt when one of the frogs slipped from a child’s grasp and began hopping away. There were frogs as big as small chickens and frogs as tiny as a thimble. There were noisy frogs and quiet frogs; frogs as bright as grass and as dark as olives.

And if the children were novices at frog wrangling, the frogs were experts at doing what is pretty much their life’s work – jumping.

The contest rules were simple: Crouch down, release the frog and convince it – without touching it – to hop about 10 feet over the finish line. First frog over wins half the entry fees. Slapping the ground behind the frog was allowed, as were shouting, stomping and blowing on the frogs’, ahem, rear ends.

“Sometimes it makes them jump faster,” organizer Mary Jane Lucas said, rolling her eyes and giggling. Sometimes, however, the little green critters had minds of their own and instead of heading for the finish line, they hopped in a circle or turned backward or jumped sideways.

One little frog just sat there, as if he was sunning himself on a lily pad in the midst of a cool Maine pond. No amount of coaxing by his young handler convinced him to move.

As each group of contestants competed, families cheered them on and video cameras whirred.

“I won!” shouted Lexis Perry, 4, after her frog, Nana, was first over the line.

Brock Graves, 6, of Plymouth tightly gripped two $5 bills after winning with Hopper, one of the biggest frogs of the day.

“He’s big,” Graves said seriously. “I think 30 pounds.”

Graves’ uncle Adam Graves of Etna caught the massive green amphibian early Saturday morning for his nephew. Asked if he had any hopping tips, the little boy said no. “He just wants to get out of our bucket,” he said.

Amanda Chretien won in the adult category with Fast Freddy. “I did this as a kid and I was so excited to do it again,” she said. Chretien remembers the heyday of Newport frog antics when hundreds of entrants showed up for the annual hop-off. “I remember winning in the preliminaries a couple of times,” she said. “Today I got to do it with my son Cody, who is 3.”

But Chretien admitted to a little help. Her mother, Linda LaCroix, 54, of Plymouth, was up to her waist Friday in the weeds of Round Pond looking for “good frogs.”

“We filled two containers with 21 frogs,” she said, but she was wearing the battle scars: Her legs were covered with cuts and bruises from fighting cattails during the hunt.

Nirvana Englehart, who grew up in the Newport area and now lives outside Houston, Texas, brought her son, Peter, to the event. “He’s been talking about it for two days,” she said. “But he’s a city kid and we weren’t able to catch a frog on our own. We’re borrowing one from some nice people over there.”

Peter Englehart didn’t win, but no one could tell from the huge smile on his face.

For years, the Newport Fire Department hosted the event, but about 10 years ago, as their ranks thinned, they were forced to give it up for a lack of frog jockeys.

“It was so popular, we decided to try to bring it back,” said Lucas, a volunteer with the Sebasticook Valley Community Center. “The turnout has been so great.”

The frog-jumping contest was part of the Newport Fall Festival, sponsored by the SVCC, that included a small craft fair, a bounce house, pony and horse rides, a Fire Department barbecue (frog legs were not on the menu), a horseshoes tournament and a street dance in the evening.

As much fun as the frog jumping was, reality struck when it came time for the young competitors to release their frogs into Sebasticook Lake.

“No, no, no,” cried Christian Fernald, 4, of Newport. “I really love him. Please, can we take him home?”

The boy’s daddy took him aside and attempted to explain that a frog is a wild critter that needs to live in the lake.

It didn’t work.

The frog went home with them.