Edwards in homestretch

As Ian Edwards goes through preseason baseball workouts for his final sports season at Bangor High School, he’s already had a remarkable career.

Since joining the Rams’ varsity baseball, basketball and football rosters as a sophomore, those teams have compiled a combined 114-19 record – with two state titles, four Eastern Maine crowns and two other appearances in regional championship games.

Only once has any of those eight teams lost more than three games in a season, and that was the 2006 basketball team that lost seven games after All-Maine forward Mark Socoby was lost for the year with a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered during the preseason.

It’s a winning tradition Edwards hopes to continue beyond high school with his acceptance at Bowdoin College beginning this fall.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Edwards may study economics at the Brunswick school, and also plans to play both football and baseball for the Division III Polar Bears, a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference.

The chance to extend his athletic career in multiple sports, as well as the experience older sister Caitlin – a senior at Bowdoin – has had at the school, led Edwards to his college choice.

“With my sister being there the last three years I really got to see the school a lot, and it’s a really good academic institution obviously,” said Edwards.

“And being able to play two sports there was a clincher for me.”

Edwards is likely to play on defense for Bowdoin’s football team. The son of former Fitzpatrick Trophy winner Mike Edwards starred at safety for Bangor last fall, earning All-Pine Tree Conference first-team honors on defense despite not having seen any substantial duty on that side of the ball since his middle-school days.

“I probably had more fun playing defense than offense last year,” he said. “You just feel like you’re more a part of the team. I know I was the long snapper since my sophomore year, and after I snapped the ball I’d try to go down the field and make as many tackles as I could when I had the chance because it was a lot of fun.”

In baseball, the reigning Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A North player of the year is likely to see duty as both a pitcher and middle infielder at Bowdoin.

Edwards enters his third year on the Bangor baseball team having helped the Rams amass a 37-3 record with two Eastern A titles as well as the Class A state crown in 2006. In addition to earning KVAC player of the years honors last spring, he also was a first-team All-KVAC Class A North choice in 2006.

In three seasons as the starting quarterback for Bangor’s football team the Rams went 22-7, with trips to the Eastern Maine Class A championship game each of the last two years.

In basketball, Edwards was a reserve forward for three years and helped Bangor compile a 55-9 record with Eastern A titles in 2007 and 2008 and the Class A state championship in 2007.

Edwards also has starred for the last two summers on Bangor’s American Legion baseball team, for which he twice has received All-Zone 1 first-team accolades while helping the Comrades compile a 47-15 record and earn two trips to the state tournament.

eclark@bangordailynews.net

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