The wooden basketball court and artificial lights in the Mattanawcook Academy gymnasium served as a substitute for the green grass and sunshine Monday afternoon as the Lynx joined high school baseball and softball pitchers and catchers around the state in starting the spring season.

Schools were allowed 10 pitchers and catchers – eight pitchers and two catchers in baseball and any combination of 10 in softball – in practice Monday. The remainder of the roster can begin practice March 31.

The gymnasium isn’t the same as the field, but the first day of practice is still a big day for the Mattanawcook softball team and coach Dean Libbey.

“You look outside and see all that snow and it’s kind of depressing, but this is good,” said Libbey, who is in his 30th year. “I’m excited about it.”

Libbey put his four pitchers and six catchers through their paces Monday. The Lynx warmed up with laps around the gym, stretching exercises and light tossing.

Then the Lynx got down to business. The catchers donned their equipment while the pitchers continued to stretch. A few minutes later, the gym was filled with the popping noise of balls hitting gloves.

“We do mostly stretching, conditioning for the first half-hour,” Libbey said. “It’s important to stretch properly. Then we’ll go to work on pitching technique.”

Ten players in practice meant the Lynx had some of their top returning starters in the gym. Senior pitcher Deni Nicastro worked out, as did sophomore catcher Brooke Hanscom and her sister, senior Brianna Hanscom, who is a backup catcher and starts in the infield.

Freshman pitcher Taylor Trask also came out Monday. Trask, who does a lot of pitching work in the offseason, was a top middle school-level pitcher.

The Lynx have shown improvement in their last two seasons in Class B after moving up from Class C. Last year Mattanawcook was 9-9 and earned the No. 10 seed for the EM Class B playoffs, where the Lynx lost to Ellsworth 3-0 in the quarterfinals. In 2006 Mattanawcook finished with a 4-12 record.

This might be a good year to continue the improvement. Several teams graduated their top pitchers while Hermon, which figured to be one of the top teams in the state, will be without senior Ashley Kelley. The University of Maine-bound pitcher injured her knee during basketball season and will miss softball.

“There’s still a lot of good pitching out there,” Libbey said. “It’s still tough. I don’t care where you go, you’re still going to face decent pitching. We just hope we can make some noise in Class B. We’ve got some decent athletes and if they perform like I think they can, we should do well.”

MA didn’t have any seniors last year and has only four on this year’s roster. Brianna Hanscom, Nicastro, Kristy Burleigh and Ashley Clapp make up the senior class.

The Lynx are also excited to show off some improvements to their field, including more drainage and a new outfield fence.

“The last couple of years we’ve put some money into drainage, so I’m crossing my fingers that [the field will] dry quickly,” Libbey said. “The field looks good. We’ve put a lot of work into it.”

Dyer wins service award

Former Katahdin of Stacyville coach and athletic director Bob Dyer has been named a 2008 Service to Maine Youth Award winner, the Maine Principals’ Association announced Monday.

Dyer coached the Katahdin girls soccer team to the Class C state title in 1994, a Class D crown in 1990 and three other EM titles. The Katahdin soccer field is named in his honor.

He taught at the school for more than 30 years before retiring in 2004.

As a volunteer in SAD 25, Dyer has spent time constructing and maintaining an outdoor skating rink for the students and community. He also maintains and grooms a cross-country ski trail for students and staff. The same trail is also the site for the annual Katahdin Area Celebration of Life event, which has raised $41,000 in four years for Cancer Care of Maine. Dyer himself is a cancer survivor.

John Grovo of Gorham, 86, a volunteer at Hollis Elementary School, was also named a Service to Maine Youth Award winner.

The award recognizes individual adults who have made an outstanding contribution to the youth of Maine through education and/or the general welfare of Maine youth.

Kaplan takes national title

Carrabec of North Anson sophomore Randi Kaplan picked up a huge honor last month at the 2008 USAPL Women’s National Powerlifting Championships in Killeen, Texas.

Kaplan, a 15-year-old from Embden, won the 148-pound weight class in the 14-15 age bracket, beating her closest opponent by more than 153 pounds and tying a national record along the way.

She squatted 275 pounds, deadlifted a career-best 336 pounds and her bench press of 187 tied the record. All told, she lifted 798 pounds to win the national title.

Her squat came despite a pulled hamstring Kaplan suffered in practice the week before the competition. She performed her squat without knee wraps and went 8-for-9, missing just her third attempt.

Kaplan is a member of the Carrabec varsity soccer, basketball and tennis teams. She trains for powerlifting at 4:30 a.m. with her father, Jack Kaplan, who is a physical education teacher at Carrabec.

She was named the Maine Games Female Lifter of the Meet in 2006.

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

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