The move to Eastern Maine Class B has been a good one so far for the Old Town girls basketball team.

The Coyotes have been competitive in all three of their games so far this winter and emerged from the first week of the season with a 2-1 record.

The fact that this group is close to a 3-0 mark – Old Town was tied with Hermon Friday night before the Hawks finally edged the Coyotes 62-57 – hasn’t come as a surprise to coach Alan Brownewell, who is in his second year as the varsity coach after seven years as the junior varsity skipper.

“Coming into this year I could sense from the kids that we knew we were going to be competitive in every game and we were going to have a lot of games like that,” he said Friday night. “This group of kids I had as JV kids two years ago and we had seven or eight games like this, close games, down to the wire, that were exciting and fun, and we won most of them. The kids have been there, so they know what to do when we get into a situation like this. They can have the confidence to win those.”

And that’s despite last year’s 1-17 season, which was Old Town’s final one in Eastern Maine Class A. The Coyotes struggled night in, night out, in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference loaded with experienced, senior-laden teams and four girls who are now playing NCAA Division I basketball and others at Div. II or elite Div. III programs.

Old Town’s enrollment is 578 this year. The Class A enrollment cutoff is 735.

Still, the Coyotes maintained a good attitude through an 0-15 start.

“Not once did they dread going to a game thinking they didn’t have a chance,” Brownewell said. “Never once did I hear, oh, we’ve got to play Morse again. Or whoever. Lawrence, they beat us by 40 points. Not once did anybody say that. Every day was positive. It was awesome.”

Old Town’s only win in 2006-07 was pretty awesome for the team, too. The Coyotes beat Bangor 39-35 on Feb. 2 at the Rams’ Red Barry Gymnasium, rallying from a 29-22 deficit at the start of the fourth quarter.

Senior guard Jenna King was a key part of that win, scoring six of her team-high nine points in the final period. She was the team’s top scorer last year, averaging 10.7 points per game.

King kicked off the season with 20 points in a 64-26 win over Orono, although her offensive production has fallen off from that with a combined 12 points in the Coyotes’ most recent two games. But King has found other ways to help out, including five rebounds against Hermon.

“She contributes in other ways,” Brownewell said. “The other day she had some steals, some rebounds, some assists. Today she had a really nice pass to Cally Randall on the fast break. Boy, that was sweet. It gave me goose bumps.”

And the rest of the team has certainly picked up its scoring. Backup center-forward Rebecca Taylor, who looked good against Hermon, had a team-high 15 points in a 52-15 win over Ellsworth last Wednesday and four other players scored seven points while King had six.

King is one of three returning starters along with 5-10 center-forward Randall and guard Sarah Wilcox. Guard Ashley Goodwin and center Nicole Guay have started this season, while the 5-11 Taylor, guard Lindsay St. Louis and forward Allison Brown have been strong off the bench.

Despite the group of returning players and the tough competition they faced in Class A last year, Old Town wasn’t exactly on the minds of many people going into this season – especially with last year’s two Eastern Maine Class B finalist Waterville and John Bapst of Bangor, returning many starters.

That’s fine by Brownewell.

I kind of like them not talking about us. I like flying under the radar,” he said. “I think we’ll be competitive. We’ll be up there.”

Arnold’s shot not quite off

Hermon’s Erin Arnold made four free throws against Old Town Friday night with a lot on the line – even if she wasn’t quite in the middle of it.

Arnold has found that when she stands in the right corner of the foul line rather than in the center of the stripe, she makes more free throws. It’s unconventional, but it has worked so far. The junior guard went 4-for-6, all in the final 1 minute, 4 seconds of the fourth quarter, to seal the win for the Hawks. She finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.

Arnold started shooting from the corner during practice one day when she found she couldn’t make free throws from the middle of the line. She tried a few from the corner and stuck the shots.

Her teammates teased her, at first.

“They called me weird and they were saying Erin, what are you doing?,'” she said. “But I started making them. They were like, all right, do what you’ve gotta do. I like to be unique. It’s different and it makes people stare. I know it’s weird, but it works.”

Arnold hasn’t heard much about her free throws from the crowd or opposing players, but referees will ask her if she plans to shoot from the corner.

Not that Arnold pays much attention to anything but the impending free throw, anyway.

“On the foul line, I don’t hear anything, the crowd or anything like that,” she said. “My main thing is to look at the basket and hope that it goes in to help the team.”

Thomas sets Bangor mark

Bangor High swimmer Erin Thomas made a splash in her first-ever high school dual meet.

The Ram senior broke the school record in the 100-yard backstroke, winning the event in 1 minute, 1.18 seconds Friday night in a meet against Presque Isle. The previous record was 1:02.15.

Thomas, who will swim for Penn State next year, decided to compete in high school swimming for the first time this year. She also swims for the Bangor Y Barracudas.

Broncos win academic award

For the fifth straight year, the Hampden girls soccer team has been recognized for its academics.

The Broncos’ 2006 varsity squad, which had a team grade-point average of 3.50 on a 4.0 scale, won a 2007 High School Team Academic Award, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America announced recently.

It was also the seventh time in 10 years Hampden has been so honored. This year, 261 girls teams were recognized, including Cape Elizabeth and Falmouth. The Falmouth boys also won an academic award.

The 2006 team members were Abby Tarbell-Reynolds, Sophie Kelmenson, Kathleen Macone, Lauren Maltz, Abbey Seitel, Courtney Reeves, Michelle Manning, Anna Kalliola, Lindsay Martin, Mikkala Libbey, Lauren Jadallah, Siobhan Grogan, Rylee Rawcliffe, Michelle Wells, Brandy Eldridge, Tara Utecht, Katie Foster, Rachel Lawler, Kayla Alley, Jennifer Wilson, Tess Hoffmann, Eva Shannon and Katie Chambers.

“Their parents provide the genes and the faculty in the SAD 22 system nurture them,” said coach Dewey Martin, who has coached the Broncos since 2003. “My only part was to see that they get recognized for their academic excellence.”

Jessica Bloch may be reached at jbloch@bangordailynews.net or 990-8193.