BUCKSPORT – It will be a new-look Bucksport High School team that seeks to remain among the upper echelon of the Eastern Maine Class B baseball world this spring.

Eight seniors graduated from the 2007 squad that finished 16-3 and reached the regional final after winning the Eastern Maine championship in 2006.

That cast of graduates was led by Penobscot Valley Conference Class B Player of the Year Chris Maguire, who is now at Husson College in Bangor, along with fellow first-team All-PVC honorees Teddy Cooke and Todd Freeman.

But the Golden Bucks are not without talented returning veterans – particularly in first-team All-PVC outfielder Eddie Robbins, second-team catcher Cam Wadleigh and three-year starter Derek Fish.

“We’re just trying to set an example and be good role models for the kids coming up,” said Wadleigh, a strong-armed senior who plans to join Maguire at Husson in the fall. “I’m just trying to be a leader vocally and physically, and show the younger players what to do.”

Wadleigh, Robbins and Fish have been key players for a Bucksport program that has gone 34-5 over the last two seasons.

“Their leadership is going to have to come with good play. In big situations, they’re going to have to step up and take the pressure off the other guys,” said Bucksport coach Tiger Stewart. “But I try to tell them that they don’t need to do anything more than they have in the past.”

That trio will be surrounded by a core of younger players, several of whom helped Bucksport’s Junior League team reach the state championship game last summer.

“It’s a double-edged sword. We were real successful for three years with that group we had starting for three years, but then you have that year of transition,” said Stewart. “We have a group coming up that’s been real successful at the youth levels in Little League and Junior League that are now freshmen and sophomores, but still it’s a big step from JV to varsity, so there’s going to be a transition.”

The Golden Bucks do have a pair of promising juniors to head up their pitching staff in Ray Wood, a second-team all-conference choice who went 4-0 last spring, and Steve Klenowski, who is coming off a solid summer of American Legion play.

“It’s different for both of them this year because they’re pitching with pressure now,” said Stewart. “That’s going to be an adjustment, but they have good stuff and by the end of the year I think we’ll be where we want to be with them.”

Stewart is hopeful the younger players throughout his roster – including some sophomores and freshmen who will have the chance to contribute immediately – will make similar improvement throughout the season.

“This group of kids watched the older group when they were growing up and saw them have success so that helps,” said Stewart. “But at the same time success brings expectations. I’ve talked to the kids about pressure, that if you don’t feel any pressure you don’t have any expectations, so if they feel some pressure that’s not a bad thing.”

Walker-Spencer back on the job

Chris Walker-Spencer, who stepped down two years ago after leading the Camden Hills of Rockport boys tennis team to the 2005 Class B state championship, is back in charge of the Windjammers this spring.

Walker-Spencer resigned after the 2005 season to devote more time to the two young children in his family, but said the kids are a little older now and able to come out to some of the matches – as well as pick up a racket of their own on occasion – prompting his decision to return to coaching.

Dale Temple guided the Windjammers during the 2006 season, and former Camden Hills athletic administrator Dave Cook coached the team last spring.

Walker-Spencer’s last match as the team’s coach was in the 2005 state final, when Camden Hills knocked off perennial Western Maine power Cape Elizabeth to end the Capers’ 63-match winning streak and give the Windjammers their first boys tennis state title since 1992, when he was a player on the team.

The 2005 season also marked the third of three consecutive Eastern Maine championships won by Camden Hills during Walker-Spencer’s original four-year tenure as head coach.

“We’re not the ’04-05 Camden Hills Windjammers,” said Walker-Spencer. “We don’t have that level of skill. “But can we be in the running in our conference and a couple of rounds of playoffs? Probably we can.”

Despite having just two seniors on the roster, Camden Hills has some experienced players returning from last year’s squad that went 8-4 before losing to Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference rival Waterville in the regional playoffs.

This year’s team is led by senior Willie Levine, who returns for his second spring as the Windjammers’ No. 1 singles player, along with lefthanded sophomore Aaron English, at No. 2 after playing third singles as a freshman, and senior Dan Withey, who moves up from first doubles to third singles.

“The big thing for us is to work on our games to continue to get better,” said Walker-Spencer.

eclark@bangordailynews.net

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