Beyond basketball contests

Say the phrase “February school vacation” in Maine and, unless the listener is newly arrived from away, basketball will be the word that comes to mind. My children and my students find it difficult to believe, but I remember the early 1990s. Those were the years that my husband and I watched Cindy Blodgett play basketball for Lawrence High School on MPBN. That might not sound so unusual, but for us it was very unusual.

Neither of us is particularly athletic, and neither of us had played basketball other than in physical education class. But we were attracted to watch the tournament games to find out what all the hoopla was about and we discovered the excitement of watching the result of hard work and talent on the basketball court in the form of Cindy Blodgett and a lot of other high school students.

A couple of years later, I brought my children to the Bangor Auditorium to watch the Orono High School teams play. It was something to do during February vacation, and I was trying to instill the idea of sportsmanship through example. Something I observed during the game helped change my attitude toward high school sports that admittedly was based on my own high school experience of arrogant jocks ruling the social scene.

The varsity team was present and listed in the program, but there were also names of girls that I knew had played on the junior varsity team including one girl with noticeable disabilities. I discreetly asked a colleague who was there cheering on her daughter’s team about my observation. She told me that the varsity team had voted to add all the senior girls on the junior varsity team to the varsity team for the tournament. So, not only were those girls a part of the team that played in the Bangor Auditorium, the coach also gave all of those girls playing time. This gave the ideal of sportsmanship as practiced by athletes a new dimension for me. Simply put, I was impressed.

It’s February vacation again and I think of basketball, but I also think of all the other high school sports that are having their own version of tournament week. It would be nice if these lesser recognized sports got the same attention as basketball.

Last Saturday, the first day of February vacation, the wrestling teams of Maine high schools held their state meets in three locations – Class A at Cony High in Augusta, Class B at Mountain Valley in Rumford and Class C at Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft. Today, Presidents Day, is also the day for the indoor track state championships with Class A meeting at the University of Southern Maine and Class B meeting at Bates College.

Skiing Class C championships in freestyle are scheduled today at Black Mountain in Rumford, and my personal favorite, the state swim meet for boys, is at the University of Maine at Orono for Class A and Bowdoin College in Brunswick for Class B.

Friday brings the preliminary rounds of the ice hockey championships for Classes A and B at several sites. Check the Sports pages for places and times.

As you can see there are lots of opportunities for everyone in Maine to see our winter sports athletes in action. Choose a sport that has a state meet near where you live or take a “daycation” (my family’s word for day trips) to a state meet a little farther from home.