MPA’s call to change sites good

It is easy to be critical of the Maine Principals’ Association.

I will forever chastise them for not allowing postponed post-season games or meets to be played on Sundays when most families can still attend without having to adjust their work schedules.

Most makeups are rescheduled for Monday.

However, you also have to tip your hat to the MPA for its decision to move Tuesday’s Eastern Maine Class A championship games from Augusta to the Bangor-Brewer area.

The Class A baseball final between Brewer and Hampden Academy was moved to Bangor’s Mansfield Stadium with the Bangor-Brewer EM softball title being decided at Brewer’s Coffin Field.

The MPA has usually held steadfast once it makes up its mind, but this showed an intelligent flexibility and fiscal responsibility.

Rather than forcing four teams from the Bangor area to travel the 75 miles to Augusta, the four teams will have to travel less than 10 miles apiece.

It is also thoughtful on behalf of their fans.

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the MPA’s decision to move the Class A basketball and baseball tournaments from the Bangor area to Augusta. However, especially now with the soaring gas prices, it makes sense because roughly 70 percent of the schools in Class A are closer to Augusta than Bangor.

Now if they would only take a longer look at my Sunday suggestion….

The Bangor High School boys soccer program is in good hands after naming Dave Patterson its new head coach, replacing Adam Leach.

Patterson helped put the University of Maine women’s soccer program on the map by recruiting an outstanding striker named Sophie Lecot, who led the Black Bears to their first season at or above the .500 mark in 1996. Lecot was named the North Atlantic Conference Player of the Year in 1996 when she scored 17 goals to set a school single-season record. Maine went 8-8-1 after going 22-69-4 in its first six varsity seasons.

Unfortunately, Lecot transferred to the University of Massachusetts after the 1996 season and the underfunded Bears went 6-12-2 and 4-11-2 the next two seasons, the last two of Patterson’s four-year tenure.

Quality strikers are very hard to find and it is nearly impossible to replace someone of Lecot’s talent.

Patterson has a keen soccer mind and a quick wit and he has also coached some of his future players at the youth level.

Plus, do you ever get tired of hearing an Irish brogue?

I never do but maybe that comes from having relatives in Galway.

Bangor has evolved into a soccer power, becoming the first team north of Fairfield to win a state Class A championship, in 2006 under Leach. Bangor was undefeated during the regular season last fall before archrival Hampden Academy upset the Rams in the playoffs.

The youth programs are flourishing in Bangor and Patterson will always have talent at his disposal. It’s the same with new Bangor girls coach Joe Johnson, who replaces Larry Smith. Smith led the Bangor girls to an Eastern Maine Class A title in 2005.

Speaking of soccer, have you been able to catch any of the Euro 2008 championships on ESPN, ESPN 2 and ESPN Classic?

What a treat it is to watch some of the world’s greats.

But it continues to get increasingly difficult to score goals as defenses are much more difficult to penetrate.

But that also means the games are always close.

lmahoney@bangordailynews.net

990-8231