In its continuing effort to stay ahead of the pack, Bangor’s baseball team has acquired a new weapon to use against the opposition.

The Rams, who are are trying to win the program’s ninth state championship since head coach Bob Kelley took over the post 32 seasons ago, will take aim at that title with a new gun: a JUGS Professional Sports Radar machine. A radar gun, as it’s more popularly known.

“This baby’s been on the wish list for a long time,” said pitching coach John Stubbs, who has been Kelley’s assistant since 1974. “It’s just one of those things we’ve always wanted and we could finally afford.”

Until this spring, Stubbs’ pleas have fallen on largely deaf ears since there were always other more important items higher up on the necessity scale.

This year, there weren’t any more pressing needs, so the $700 item was budgeted and purchased.

“We don’t feel this is something that’s a luxury in the sense that it’s a waste of money,” said Bangor High athletic director Steve Vanidestine. “I’m not saying it’s something we can’t do without because we could, but it might certainly benefit us, and we think it’s a great teaching tool.

“Maybe a year from now, I’ll find out it’s something we shouldn’t have done, but at this point, I think it’s something that will help our kids.”

At the very least, it’s an instant conversation piece and a rarity for a Maine high school program.

“To my knowledge, I don’t know of any other schools that have one,” Vanidestine said.

At the most, it’s an invaluable tool coaches can use to: 1) accurately monitor pitchers’ performances throughout a game, 2) better instruct pitchers about changing speeds, and 3) chart pitches.

“We just thought it would be a great teaching tool,” Stubbs said. “And it can tell us if a kid has a sore arm. A lot of kids, when you ask them how they feel, they’ll say, `Oh I’m all right coach. I’m fine.’ Well if we know you’ve been throwing 80, 81 miles an hour and all of a sudden, you’re throwing 76, 75… we know something’s wrong.”

Although they aren’t charting pitch speeds yet, team managers are clocking each pitch and reporting the speed to Stubbs via two-way radio during games.

“Right now, it’s a learning experience. We’re just trying to get some benchmarks for these kids with what they’re throwing,” he said. “We’re trying to gauge the difference between their offspeed pitches and their fastballs. You want a difference of anywhere between 12 and 15 miles per hour between the two. That’s optimal.”

Both coaches said the challenge is to get kids to worry more about changing speeds than how fast they’re throwing.

“The biggest thing is you sell your kids on the fact it’s not to see how fast their fastball is,” Kelley explained. “We’re trying to instill in them that hitting is timing and not to rely on one pitch all the time because good hitters will catch up to them after awhile.”

Practical applications or not, Kelley and Stubbs have already taken plenty of ribbing from other coaches about the Rams’ new toy.

“Oh yeah, they’re all saying, `He’s got his new toy’ and stuff like that, but if you can’t take ribbing on our team, you’re in trouble,” Stubbs said with a laugh.

“We try to have a new toy to play with every year. That’s kind of our goal,” Kelley joked. “But really, I think every year’s a new challenge and it’s nice to have new things to work with.”

And no one need worry about the softball team getting shortchanged. Coach Lisa Richards’ girls got a new pitching machine.

`Cactus League’ ball

For the last few years, the members of Ellsworth’s varsity tennis teams have traveled to Florida each spring for an intensive week of preseason tennis.

Last month, the Eagles decided to fly off to Arizona and spend a week at Cave Creek, a town located a little more than 20 miles north of Phoenix.

“Ursula Gammelin’s grandparents and her aunt live out there, and Ursula was telling us about it, so we thought we’d go there this time,” said coach Brian Higgins.

“We worked really hard, but it was fun,” said Gammelin, the top singles player on the girls team.

Ellsworth’s tennis version of Grapefruit League baseball seems to have paid off as the Eagles have won 46 straight matches against Eastern Maine opponents and are three-time defending Eastern Maine Class B champions. The players think their version of Cactus League ball will help, too.

“We got a lot more court time and playing time in Arizona and I think it really helped build our team strength up,” said No. 2 singles player Amy McQuade.

Team members did everything from sell refreshments at craft fairs to fresh crates of fruit from Florida to submarine sandwiches at school to raise enough money to pay for the group trip.

“Whatever we could think of to help raise money, we did,” Gammelin explained.

The trip brought both teams closer together, especially the four sophomore doubles players on the girls team.

“Talk about inseparable… They were together the whole time we were there,” Higgins said.

The trip also provided the Eagles with an unofficial team motto or rally cry.

“We heard this radio ad for Kay Momo’s Hip-Hop Shop, so whenever anyone’s down or something, we’ll say `Kay Momo,’ and that’ll pick us right up,” explained Bekah Metzler, the last of the girls’ senior singles players.

Of course, the downside was their return to the much-cooler Maine temperatures, where conditions have been downright frigid the last two weeks.

“It was, like, 90 degrees in Arizona almost every day, so this is kind of different than the weather we had out there,” Gammelin said with a shiver even after donning a winter coat after a match in Bangor Monday. “I think it thinned our blood, so now we’re really feeling the cold.”