Kevin Paradis, who has coached the Ashland High boys soccer team for the last five seasons, has been named the school’s new girls basketball coach.

Paradis’ hiring was approved at a school board meeting Monday evening.

He replaces Bill Nemer, who guided the Hornets to the Eastern Maine Class D championship game last winter in his second stint with the team.

Nemer first skippered Ashland from 1986 to 1996, leading the Hornets to a state championship in 1991. He also coached Ashland from 2005 to 2008.

Paradis, a safety supervisor at the Columbia Forest Products mill in Presque Isle, takes over an Ashland squad that graduated stars Whitney Flint and Mindy Chasse, but the good news is that the Hornets have a strong nucleus returning.

“We’re going to be at least 10 girls deep, we do have a good returning crew, very talented,” said Paradis, a 1983 Ashland graduate who played four years of basketball and three years of soccer.

Flint and Chasse were the only seniors on last year’s team, which fell to eventual state champ Woodland in the regional final.

In addition to running his summer soccer program, Paradis has been busy running a similar program for basketball and the turnouts have been solid.

“We’re just scrimmaging a couple other high school teams like Washburn and Southern Aroostook [of Dyer Brook],” said Paradis, who has had 12 to 13 players participate in the scrimmages.

Since he has never coached varsity basketball or girls before, Paradis feels his first year will be a learning experience.

“For this year to be honest I’ve got a lot to learn, I’ve got a personal goal to at least make it to Bangor,” he said. “I think we can be competitive next year.”

What the Hornets lack in height they’ll make up for in speed and quickness, and Paradis will try to utilize that.

“I would like to try a bunch of different things … pressing, fast breaking but not be locked into just one style,” he said. “It really looks like we’re very quick, I do think we can go pretty deep into the bench.”

MTCCA All-Stars

Waterville’s Dominic Alexis, Bangor High grad Riley Masters, John Bapst of Bangor’s Chris Fogler and Brewer’s Ben Sinclair headline a crew of schoolboy track and field standouts recently named to the Maine Track and Cross Country Coaches Association all-star teams.

Masters, Alexis, Fogler and Sinclair, along with Waterville’s J.D. Gurski, Max HoddWells from Maranacook of Readfield and Brunswick’s David Slovenski all garnered first-team honors.

Masters capped his career at Bangor by winning the 1,600 and 3,200 at the Class A state championship while Sinclair, entering his junior year at Brewer, won the state title in the 400 and was runner-up in the 200.

Fogler was instrumental in leading the Crusaders to the Penobscot Valley Conference Class C team championship this spring, and he set state records in the 110 and 300 hurdles in addition to his 200-meter crown at the state meet.

Local honorable mention honorees include Don Clark of Winslow, Blake Ford of Calais, Foxcroft Academy’s Alex Kasprzak, Dominic Kone and Nate Warren of Bucksport, Bapst’s Derek Smith and Devin Lehman of Belfast.

On the girls side, Orono sprinter Kate Bulteel, who will be a junior this fall, Cony’s Bethany Dumas, Bethany Karter-O’Brien of Waterville, Erskine Academy of China’s Anna Niedbala and Old Town’s Hilary Maxim headline the first team.

Bulteel won state titles in the 400 and 200 as the Red Riots finished third in the Class C state meet. The University of Maine-bound Maxim capped her career at Old Town with titles in the 1,600 and 3,200 in the Class B state championship meet.

Other team members include Waterville’s Jessie Lefebvre, Magen Ellis of Hall-Dale of Farmingdale, MCI of Pittsfield’s Jenna Lorentsen, Belfast’s Megan Nealey, Angel Nelligan of John Bapst, Jamie Pelletier of Fort Kent, Caribou’s Hannah Saunders and Deanna Wilbur of Caribou.

Mainers solid at Region I meet

Waterville’s Alexis won the young men’s decathlon at the USA Track and Field Region 1 Junior Olympic championship meet in New York City over the weekend.

He was one of many Maine high school runners who had solid efforts at the meet.

Alexis, who led the Purple Panthers to their second consecutive Class B state championship last spring, racked up 5,722 points in the 10 events contested.

He won five of those events: the discus, shot put, pole vault, 110 high hurdles and 400 meters.

Also in this meet, Brunswick’s Slovenski cleared the 15-foot mark to win the pole vault. Will Geoghegan, also from Brunswick, won the intermediate 2,000-meter steeplechase in 6 minutes, 49.02 seconds.

He was also second in the 800, which was won by Cony of Augusta’s Luke Fontaine in 2:03.12.

Dumas of Cony placed second in the young women’s pole vault with a vault of 10-6.

The top three finishers in each event during the weekend-long meet qualified for the national championships July 22-27 in Omaha, Neb.

rmclaughlin@bangordailynews.net

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