Red Devils jump into EMITL Matt Connolly catalyst for Central’s first indoor track team

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Central High in Corinth has fielded competitive outdoor track and field teams in recent years.

With the success the Red Devils have had in Class C competition in the spring, some of head coach Mike Viani’s athletes wondered why they couldn’t compete in the winter.

“The kids had a great outdoor season and said, ‘How come we don’t have indoor?”‘ Viani said. “I said, ‘No one has been serious about trying to get it pushed through.'”

Then, Matt Connolly decided to do something about that.

Connolly, a senior captain and jumping specialist, was the driving force in getting the program started.

Connolly applied to USA Track and Field for a grant but was rejected, Viani said, but he applied to the Stephen King Foundation, which helped start Central’s outdoor track program back in 1997.

“He’s [Connolly] really responsible for getting the program off the ground,” said Viani, who has coached at Central since the inception of the spring track program.

“He’s one of the hardest workers and most competitive kids I’ve got. He analyzes everything to a ‘T’ to try to get better,” Viani added.

Thanks to Connolly’s vision, the dream of competing in the Eastern Maine Indoor Track League has become a reality for the Red Devils this winter. The boys team placed fourth and the girls fifth in their first EMITL meets Friday at the University of Maine field house.

However, that’s only the beginning of the story.

Unlike the nine other teams that the Devils competed against, the school doesn’t fund its program.

Since the idea for the program was presented to the school board after the budget for this school year had been passed, the 20 boys and four girls on the team have had to raise money to pay for practice time at UMaine, as well as bus trips to Orono and back for meets.

Viani said the school’s athletic boosters donated $1,500 so the Red Devils could compete in the EMITL, while his athletes do fundraising activities to compile the $1,600 needed for bus trips to UMaine.

The school board gave the program the green light with the agreement the athletes would have to fund it.

Viani and assistant coach Alan Norris, former Ellsworth teammates who led the Eagles to a state indoor championship in 1985, coach the Red Devils on a volunteer basis.

The Red Devils showed a competitive fire in their first meet, with the girls scoring 281/2 points and the boys 49 in a field that included Eastern Maine powerhouses Brewer, whose girls are among the favorites this winter, Old Town and Ellsworth.

Aliza Underhill, a senior, made a case she will be a threat in the long and triple jumps this winter, placing second in the triple jump with a leap of 32 feet, 71/4 inches and fourth in the long jump at 14-71/4.

Underhill has won the triple jump in the PVC Class C outdoor championships the last two years, and Viani expects big things from her.

Kimber Thomas, a sophomore sprinter, took fifth in the 55- and 200-meter dashes and joined Underhill, Brittany Ferrie and Jessica Adams for a fifth-place effort in the 4×220 relay.

Connolly sparked the boys with a second in the triple jump at 37-33/4 while placing sixth in the long jump at 17-63/4.

Viani is hoping the success the Devils are having so far pushes the school board to fund the program starting next winter.

Viani has some newcomers to track and field, including Scott Kelley, a baseball standout at Central who previously had never competed in a winter sport.

The addition of the indoor track program provides a chance for athletes like Kelley to participate in a winter sport at a school where the only other options are basketball, wrestling and cheerleading.

“If kids weren’t playing basketball, they’d be doing nothing through the winter,” said Viani. “Getting this program going gets interest in some kids like [Scott] Kelley.”

Kelley placed fourth in the 200 in 25.41 last weekend, while Aaron Partridge was third and Tyler Duncan fifth.

Those three teamed up with Nick Townsend to place fifth in the 4×220.

While Viani knows it will be tough to be competitive as a team with the likes of larger schools such as Brewer, Bangor, Hampden Academy and Old Town, he feels individually the Red Devils can compete well with some of Eastern Maine’s top athletes.

“The goals that we set for the kids, they each have set individual goals,” Viani said. “Number one is to qualify for the [EMITL] championship, number two is to qualify for states.”

Viani acknowledged the kindness fellow coaches and top officials have shown.

“[League director] Mary Cady’s been great. Any question I’ve had she’s helped me out,” he said. “Some teams have offered us to come up and work out with them. I thought that was extremely nice. We feel very welcomed by the league.”

If anybody would like to make a donation to the Central program, they can contact the superintendent’s office at 285-334, and the donation should be made in care of the indoor track and field program.

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