Casual observers of Eastern Maine high school football wouldn’t think much of the fact that Stearns of Millinocket is once again involved in the playoffs.

For those in the know, however, the fact the Minutemen earned the No. 3 seeding in the LTC Class C playoffs with a 5-4 record is nothing short of astounding when you consider what they’ve overcome.

The way the season began, it looked like the only thing the Minutemen would have to look forward to was its end. Three-year assistant Chris Preble was suddenly thrust into his first-ever stint as a varsity head coach after former coach Tom Bertrand accepted an assistant coaching position at Class B Winslow just 31/2 weeks before the season’s start.

If that wasn’t enough, Preble was taking over a team that suffered heavy graduation losses after advancing to the 2000 LTC title game. Only two offensive and two defensive starters returned.

That was only the beginning of Preble’s problems as he had to learn his new position on the fly, contend with a killer schedule early on that matched Stearns up with defending Class B state champ Winslow, perennial B power Belfast, and Bucksport, a favorite to win the east Class C title this year.

The result was an 0-3 start.

“It’s really rewarding to see that the kids stuck with it. It could have been very easy for them after the first couple games to give up and start pointing fingers,” said Preble.

There were other distractions too as two assistant coaches were suspended at midseason for the remainder of the year for unspecified reasons.

“I was thinking it couldn’t get any worse,” said halfback-cornerback Matt Leino. “We don’t deserve this. We’ve worked too hard to let this happen to us, but sometimes it doesn’t happen the way you want to.”

Wait, it gets worse.

The sidelines at Stearns’ games and practices looked more like M.A.S.H. units for the first five weeks of the regular season as starter after starter went down with worse than average injuries. The result was 70 percent of the players having to be moved into unfamiliar positions.

“We’ve had guys who were backups at other spots who found good spots for us to plug them into and others who had to switch positions,” Preble explained. “It wasn’t necessarily a spot they wanted to play, but once they got used to it and warmed up to it, they did really well.”

Here’s a sampling of the most noteworthy injuries:

. Starting fullback-linebacker Will McLaughlin broke his leg in the team’s first preseason scrimmage and is out for the year.

. Backup quarterback Mark Madore is out with a broken collarbone.

. Two-way starting tackle Terry Leet broke his wrist and was lost for the middle four weeks of the season, but is now back.

. Ankle sprains limited starting halfback-linebacker Ryan Sweeney to defensive duty the first three games and kept two-way tackle Jeremy Rush out for one game.

. Fullback-defensive back Ricky Michaud switched to center after injuries wracked the offensive line. He missed a game himself with a bone bruise, and tailback-linebacker Ian Johnson, who had to move over to fullback, missed one game with a hip pointer.

. There seems to be no end in sight as left tackle Joe Emery broke his ankle Friday night, but oblivious to the injury, he kept playing on it. He’s now out for the rest of the season.

Makes one wonder if there’s some kind of Stearns’ injury curse.

“I don’t know … maybe,” Preble joked. “A lot of these injuries were breaks. If it was pulls or strains, you could attribute it to training and workouts. It’s tough, but one good thing is it’s brought our team closer together.”

Captains Leino, guard Dan Bernardini, and Michaud agree.

“I knew we were going to come together later on. We had to fight a lot of adversity, but we just had it in us to get it done. We stayed together and the seniors really stepped it up.”

Volleying for pride

It’s East vs. West with bragging rights on the line as Jonesport-Beals High School will host the Downeast Athletic Conference Senior Showcase Volleyball Tournament Thursday at 6 p.m.

Coaches Amy Mather and Gill McLaughlin will lead a West team made up of players from Narraguagus of Harrington, Jonesport-Beals, Machias, and Washington Academy of East Machias while Rich Nutter and Steve McGinley will head up the East team with players from Woodland, Calais and Lubec.

The tournament follows a best-three-out-of-five format and admission is $3 for adults, $2 for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and free to children under 5 years old.

Record-breaking season

Nutter has had to rewrite a good portion of the record book as his Woodland Dragons’ volleyball team blazed its way to a second straight state title.

The Dragons put the finishing touches on a repeat championship and undefeated season by breaking three single-match records in a 3-1 victory over Bucksport in Saturday’s state championship match.

On the seasonal side, senior setter Alicia Guptill broke two records as she piled up 236 assists to smash her previous mark of 97 and finished with 74 digs to eclipse senior Ashley Marble’s 72 last year. Marble equaled her 2000 record of 184 kills.

In match play, senior outside hitter Julia Knights broke the mark for good serves with 29, Marble broke her own mark of 24 with 26, and junior middle blocker Kati Holmes eclipsed teammate Julia Knights’ record of four blocks with five on Saturday.

Those weren’t the only records to fall as Woodland saw three season records get broken or tied along with three career marks.

Among the record breakers for career excellence are Marble and Knights, the other half of Woodland’s dynamic outside hitter duo. Marble finished a brilliant career in which she helped lead the Dragons to four straight state final appearances with a record 493 kills. Knights also loomed large as she is the school’s all-time blocker with 47. Guptill is also at the top of the list in career assists with 333.

With those accomplishments in mind, it’s easier to understand how the Dragons have been able to put up astounding numbers such as a 35-o match record over the last two seasons, a 62-4 record over the last four, and a whopping 81-9 game record over the last two years. Last year, the Dragons averaged 14.58 points per game while holding opponents to 8.4. This year, the numbers were even more impressive as Woodland averaged 14.82 to the opposition’s 6.7.

What does Nutter have to say about these eye-popping numbers?

“That’s pretty dominating.”

It’s hard to argue with that.

Andrew Neff’s High School Report is published each Wednesday. He can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600, or at aneff@bangordailynews.net.