If not for a football player’s fortuitous brush against the new fence erected around Bucksport’s new running track, fans at last Saturday’s exhibition game would have been in for a shock.

And it would have had nothing to do with the final score.

While leaving a special night practice last Wednesday, Golden Bucks’ senior captain Brian Dubois accidentally brushed the fence surrounding the new, all-weather track which rings the football field. The contact gave him a mild electical shock.

“He asked one of the coaches if we put in an electric fence,” said Bucksport athletic director Patricia Frazier.

“I thought he was kidding,” said Bucks coach Joel Sankey. “I was like `No way.’ ”

That was before assistant coach John Carmichael took one of the chains used to rope off the open portions of the fencing and connected it to the other side, producing a visible, blue arc running along the length of the chain.

“After they told us what happened, we figured it might be a fence post that was sunk down into a live wire, which would have electrified the fence when the power was on,” Frazier said.

Frazier found out later the electification of the fence might have been confined to a small section on the home side had not all the sections been connected by the chains, which were used to discourage people from using the track until it can be painted.

Once the chains were connected, the entire fence was electrified.

“Fortunately, the player happened to touch the fence on the opposite [visitors] side,” Frazier said. “If he had been on the other side, the current would have been much stronger.”

After being alerted to the problem, Frazier and other school officials checked the fencing Thursday morning.

“We kind of tracked it down by using a voltage meter. We figured it was near one of the light posts,” Frazier explained. “We were able to isolate it, turn the power off, and fix it. We just moved [the post] back slightly.”

Because school officials were unsure how long it would take to correct the problem, they moved the Friday night exhibition game with Hampden Academy to Saturday afternoon.

And what of Dubois? The starting center and defensive tackle wasn’t hurt, although he’s now the brunt of many jokes and nickname attempts.

“Yeah, I’ve heard a few,” said Sankey with a chuckle. “Sparky’s one I like. I also like the Flash.”

Poor Dubois, talk about having to take one for the team.

When asked about changing the team’s nickname to Chargers, Sankey laughed and said he’d have the team vote on it.

If not for Dubois’ accidental brush, the problem might have gone undiscovered before fans got an extra charge out of Saturday’s exhibition, which was won by Hampden.

Having solved the unintentional electrification, Frazier and others can turn their attention to other, less hazardous problems like getting the new bleachers installed and fixing the scoreboard.

“If that wasn’t enough. We also found out the sound system and scoreboard weren’t working,” Frazier said with a sigh. “The sound system works now, but we’re still having trouble with the scoreboard and our bleachers have not yet come in. They were supposed to be the first thing we had, but we don’t have them yet.”

Frazier said they will bring in bleachers from the baseball and softball fields for Friday night’s season-opening home game with Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield.

Brewer golf hooks Hall

Mark Hall, the head pro at Hermon Meadow Golf Club, is having fun coaching the Brewer High varsity golf team.

“I applied for the UMaine job when they had an opening and I was hoping a high school job would come up. It’s fun working with kids,” said Hall.

Hall, 37, took over for Tom Winston two weeks ago.

Winston resigned his post to become the director of co-curricular activities at Lawrence High in Fairfield.

“Tom approached me about the job,” Hall explained. “He wanted me to fill in for the rest of the year and I said `Rest of the year? I’d like to do it longer than that.’ ”

This is the second high school coaching job for Hall, a Brewer alumnus who played golf for former coach John Norris and graduated in 1979.

“I coached back at Orono back in 1985, but we had a hard time getting a lot of kids to come out for the team,” Hall said. “I’ve got 14 kids on the team this year and that’s a pretty good number. And the good thing is I don’t really have to cut anybody.”

Despite not having any seniors or juniors on the team, Hall is excited about coaching the team.

“We’re really fortunate to have someone with his expertise to work with the kids… We’re hoping he’ll have time to work with the staff,” said Brewer athletic director Dennis Kiah.