Meandering from topic to topic …

. The voting process is under way to determine this year’s winner of the Fitzpatrick Trophy, which goes annually to the state’s top high school senior football player.

The consensus among those who pay the most attention to the subject is that Bonny Eagle of Standish quarterback Nate Doehler is a lock for this year’s award – he probably would have won last year after leading the Fighting Scots to the Class A state title, but only seniors are eligible.

Other contenders include Jack Heary of Deering of Portland, Justin Staires of Mountain Valley of Rumford and Billy Clark of Skowhegan.

But no list of finalists will be complete without including Nate Warren of Bucksport. He has rushed for 2,230 yards in just 10 games and scored 20 touchdowns in leading the Golden Bucks to a 10-0 record and the chance to host John Bapst of Bangor in Saturday’s Eastern Maine Class C final.

That’s 223 yards a game against defenses stacked up specifically to stop him.

That number, amid a continuing run at a state title, speaks for itself.

. Congratulations to Foxcroft Academy, the rest of the LTC football programs, fans and high school football officials who combined to raise nearly $9,000 for the Ricky Gibson Fund over Halloween weekend.

Here’s a 15-year-old high school football player who suddenly learned he has a life-threatening illness, and when offered the chance to have a wish fulfilled by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Gibson chose to help others by wishing to have lights and bleachers installed at the school he attends, Maranacook of Readfield.

It was an incredibly selfless gesture on Gibson’s part, one that not only deserves to be supported but whose story deserves to be shared as an example of the best in all of us.

. It’s funny to hear detractors who assume Tom Knight won’t be able to make it in the big-time basketball world at Notre Dame.

I’ve never seen the 6-foot-8 senior center from Class C Dirigo of Dixfield play in person, but the skill set that those who surround him say he possesses – 3-point shooting range, strong moves near the basket and a keen passing eye – seem to be the combination that major-college programs are looking for in their power forwards these days.

And if Notre Dame – and Rutgers, which also offered him a scholarship – both think he’s good enough to play in the Big East, rather than pan his choice we should all simply wish him luck.

. I didn’t have much of an issue with conditions for the Class A boys soccer state final between Bangor and Scarborough at McMann Field in Bath last weekend. If anything, the deteriorating grass and slippery conditions caused by the drizzle of the day favored the Eastern Maine champion Rams against a Scarborough team that plays home games on artificial turf.

What bothered me more was the pronounced crown of the field, great for drainage but not good for two skilled teams attempting to advance the ball largely on the ground. Any bounce on either side of the field resulted in the ball picking up speed along the downward slope toward the sideline, rather than the truer bounce of a flatter surface.

State finals are held frequently at this site because nearly all other aspects of the facility are first class.

But I’m not so sure a field without a crown wouldn’t be better for such a crowning achievement.

eclark@bangordailynews.net

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