You could make a pretty good basketball team out of all the schoolgirl basketball players who have suffered season-ending knee injuries this year.

One of the most recent to join the club is Stearns of Millinocket guard Adriana Eurich, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament and injured the medial cruciate ligament in her right knee during a Jan. 30 game against Penquis of Milo.

That left the 5-foot-5 junior guard on the sidelines for Stearns’ Eastern Maine Class C quarterfinal against George Stevens of Blue Hill last week.

Eurich is due to have surgery today. She wanted to do the operation as soon as possible in order to be back in time for field hockey, which she acknowledged is the favorite of the three sports she plays. Eurich is a wing in field hockey and a second baseman in softball.

“I don’t want to miss field hockey, and the doctor said if I wanted to play up to my level I’d have to have ACL reconstruction,” she said after the Minutemen fell 68-41 to the Eagles. “I don’t want to miss my senior year. I just want to be able to get back for that.”

Eurich has some good role models to look to for quick recovery. In the game immediately following Stearns’ matchup against George Stevens, Fort Kent’s Marissa Albert scored 12 points in a loss to Houlton just a few months after tearing her ACL. Albert hasn’t had surgery yet, but Eurich was still encouraged that Albert returned to athletics quickly.

“If you’re really committed to everything, you can come back,” Eurich said. “I want to come back.”

Eurich can’t be on the court, but stays involved. She sat next to the Stearns coaches during last week’s quarterfinal.

Hermon’s Ashley Kelley, who tore her ACL last month, appeared at some tournament games in a wheelchair after surgery.

Bowen bound for Keene-State

Tyler Bowen isn’t sure if he’ll go to swimming New Englands this year – he qualified after winning the 200-yard individual medley and the 500 freestyle at the Class B state championships last week – but he is sure about his college plans for next year.

The Belfast standout is heading to Keene State in Keene, N.H.

“I’m kind of looking forward to it,” he said after his double-win night at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. “I didn’t want to go anywhere big because I’m not really a big-school kind of person. I was recruited by a few other schools but I went down to Keene and I really liked it.”

Bowen said he also picked Keene State because he liked the coach, Jack Fabian, and that the team is young.

“The coach is real nice,” he said. “The team is loaded with freshmen and sophomores and they’re all really fast.”

Bowen won both the IM and 500 free at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championships earlier this month.

Bowen is the two-time New England champion in the IM. He’s unsure about New Englands this year, however. The meet is scheduled for Saturday, March 1, the same day as Maine’s YMCA state championship meet starts.

Uniform changes for field hockey

A major change in uniforms was one of 18 rules changes approved by the National Federation of State High School Associations’ Field Hockey Rules Committee at its most recent meeting last month.

Effective in 2011, the home team must wear a single, solid white uniform on top and the visiting team must wear a single solid black or dark-colored uniform top.

The change was made because officials were having more difficulty differentiating between teams because of the similarity of uniforms.

Revision were also made to the uniform design, including the position of the team name, decorative accents and side inserts.

Other changes relate to goaltending positioning, stick size and weight, the naming of the broken line circle which is five yards from the strike circle, and ineligible players on the field.

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

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