3-point shot remains popular after 20 years

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Lawrence “Red” St. Louis played in his first Eastern Maine tournament game at the Bangor Auditorium in 1963, when he was a junior at Orono High School.

Michelle Paul is a senior on the Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln girls basketball team, which advanced to the Eastern Maine Class B finals two weeks ago.

Despite the difference in years of experience, St. Louis and Paul both share a love for basketball – and for the 3-point shot.

This is the 20th anniversary of the long-range basket’s introduction into Maine high school basketball in 1988. Now, the 19-foot, 9-inch distance shot from behind the arc is a standard part of the game, although some see positives and negatives to the long-range field goal.

St. Louis never had a chance to use it in a game but saw plenty of it as a former Orono High School girls basketball coach and ex-referee.

For Paul, 3-pointers are a huge part of how she plays.

“I don’t know, but there’s something about a big 3-pointer,” she said Feb. 20 after a 42-39 semifinal win over John Bapst of Bangor in which she hit three of her seven 3-point tries. “The crowd goes wild and it’s just the best feeling ever. It gives you adrenaline and makes you want to shoot more and hope they go in.”

St. Louis admitted he feels a bit wistful when watching players hoist 3-pointers. The long shot, he said, was his strong suit back in his playing days.

Paul has had a chance to experience that first hand.

Last year she made six 3-pointers in a 57-55 semifinal loss to Waterville, tying a record for most 3-pointers in one tourney game. She shares the mark with Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield’s Amanda Leavitt, who hit her six in 2001.

Paul nearly broke the record when she took a last-second desperation 3-point shot at the end of the game. It missed.

Paul first got hooked on 3-pointers as a 9-year-old, when she went to a basketball camp at what was then Northern Maine Technical College in Presque Isle. She was one of the youngest campers there but still managed to beat the teenagers from behind the arc.

“I think from then on I just loved shooting the 3,” she said. “Any advantage I get, if [the defense] is off me, I’ll shoot it. It’s fun for me.”

St. Louis, who has charted 3-point shots at the tournament in addition to other duties, said the prevalence of long-distance shooting has de-emphasized the inside game.

“I think it has taken away from the two-point shot,” he said. “People don’t shoot 15-foot foul shots very well anymore. And now the big thing I notice is that the Class C and D girls shoot them more than the boys. So it has changed that. And I’m not sure they practice inside [play] very much.”

But St. Louis, like Paul, understands the thrill of firing up a 3-pointer, especially from the fans’ perspective. And the 3-pointer adds another strategic dimension coaches must consider in close games.

“A 10-point lead with a minute and a half to go is not safe anymore,” St. Louis said. “Before, it would have been over. It has made it a lot more exciting, no doubt about it.”

MPA’s LaBrie to retire

Rest, travel and time at camp will be on Larry LaBrie’s immediate agenda when he retires from the Maine Principals’ Association this summer after 16 years as an assistant executive director with the association and 42 years in education.

LaBrie’s wife retired from teaching last year, which provided him with the impetus to do the same.

“I thought I’d join her,” said LaBrie, who has a camp on Clearwater Lake in Farmington. “We wanted to do it while we still had our health.”

His last day will be June 30.

An Auburn native who graduated from the University of Maine-Presque Isle in 1966, LaBrie spent 26 years at the Walton School in Auburn, which was a freshman-year school. He was a social studies teacher, assistant principal, principal and football coach during his tenure there.

LaBrie later became the principal at Edward Little High School in Auburn before joining the MPA in 1992. He had been a member of several of the MPA’s interscholastic committees as a principal, and continued that as an MPA staff member.

As an assistant executive director, LaBrie is the MPA staffer who sits in on a number of different sports committees.

He is also the MPA’s liaison to Sports Done Right, a University of Maine initiative that seeks to define healthy interscholastic sports programs, and is the liaison to the New England Council of Secondary School Principals. LaBrie was the president of that organization from 2004 to 2006.

“He’s an extremely hard worker and one of those people who doesn’t have to be in the limelight,” said Dick Durost, who has been the MPA executive director since 2001. “He’s been a tremendous second-in-command, if you will, on the interscholastic side of our association. He’s a trooper, a worker.”

Durost said the MPA will advertise for LaBrie’s replacement some time this month.

“He’s going to be someone who will be hard to replace,” he added. “But at the same time, he and his wife now deserve the opportunity for a long, happy and healthy retirement.”

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

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