Soccer and basketball were the two most popular participatory sports for Maine interscholastic athletes during the 2004-05 school year, according to information released by the Maine Principals’ Association.

High school soccer totaled 8,321 participants – 4,435 boys and 3,886 girls -in Maine last fall, according to the student survey, part of an annual nationwide study conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

The NFHS represents about 18,000 U.S. high schools and 13 million students. One hundred fifty-two Maine schools responded to this year’s survey.

Basketball was second in participation statewide, with the 2004-05 Maine data showing that 4,103 boys and 3,509 girls played high school basketball, for a total of 7,612.

The third most popular boys sport during 2004-05 was football with 3,853 participants, followed by baseball (3,658) and outdoor track (2,546).

Trailing soccer and basketball among Maine schoolgirl athletes were softball (3,127), field hockey (2,863) and outdoor track (2,237).

Overall, 55,256 Maine high school students participated in a sport, up from 53,150 a year earlier.

Nationally, the number of participants in high school athletics increased for the 16th consecutive year in 2004-05 and topped 7 million for the first time in history.

Participation in 2004-05 rose by 115,157 students, or 1.6 percent, to 7,018,709, according to the NFHS survey, which also determined that nearly 53 percent of students enrolled in high schools participate in athletics.

The girls participation total of 2,908,390 set a record. The boys total also increased to 4,110,319, second in the survey’s history only to the record 4,367,442 in 1977-78.

Basketball remained the most popular sport for girls with 456,543 participants, followed by outdoor track (428,198), volleyball (386,022), softball (364,759), soccer (316,104), cross country (170,450), tennis (169,292), swimming and diving (148,154), cheering (84,416) and golf (64,245).

On the boys’ side, football was again the most popular sport with 1,045,494 participants, followed by basketball (545,497), outdoor track (516,703), baseball (459,717), soccer (354,587), wrestling (243,009), cross country (201,719), golf (161,025), tennis (148,530), and swimming and diving (103,754).

Texas remained the state with the most participants with 740,052, followed by California (678,019), New York (350,349), Michigan (311,814) and Illinois (310,791).

Liburd to lead Narraguagus

Kenrick Liburd doesn’t bring a typical Down East accent to his new post as boys varsity basketball coach at Narraguagus High in Harrington.

The 25-year-old Liburd grew up not far from the Atlantic Ocean, but his perspective was from the other side of the pond – his native London, England.

Liburd’s true accent this winter is on re-establishing Narraguagus as a competitive program within the Downeast Athletic Conference and Eastern Maine Class C.

The Knights went 4-14 during the 2004-05 season, and have not had a winning year since 1998.

“I’m going into a program that’s hungry,” said Liburd. “They’re not used to winning here, and they want to work hard and have success.”

Liburd grew up playing basketball in London, but came to the United States after finishing high school. He spent a year in Nebraska, then came to Maine. He initially was recruited by University of Maine at Fort Kent coach Derek Johnson, a fellow Englishman, but wound up being recruited to the University of Maine at Machias.

The 6-2 point guard played his first two years at UMM, but had to sit out his junior season while recovering from an Achilles tendon injury. Instead he became an assistant coach as he recuperated, and he was a player-assistant coach as a senior.

That junior-year experience gave him the coaching bug, one he has continued to pursue. He has been an assistant soccer coach at UMM for the past two years.

He coached an AAU team of Downeast basketball players including Brandon Tomah of Woodland, Jeff Ramsdell of Washington Academy and Sam Bell and Chris Taylor of Calais each of the last two summers.

And he coached the Narraguagus boys team through its most recent summer schedule.

“As a coach, I’m a person who likes to press and to get up and down the floor,” said Liburd, who also teaches business education at Narraguagus. “I like to have a running team.”

Liburd inherits a returning cast of players including senior forward Ren Dorr, senior point guard Travis Perry and junior guard Luke Parsons, who played on Liburd’s AAU club.

There’s also a strong freshman class of players, some of whom may have an immediate impact at the varsity level.

“Our goal for this season is that Narraguagus should be a tournament team,” Liburd said.

Fuller hired as Lewiston AD

Lewiston High School is in search of a new boys varsity basketball with the decision by Jason Fuller to become the school’s new athletic director.

Fuller, who had been the Blue Devils’ basketball coach since 1995, replaced Paul Amnott as Lewiston’s athletic director after Amnott became the assistant principal at the school.

Fuller also has served as an assistant football and baseball coach at his alma mater, from where he graduated in 1992.