Jerry Adams is back coaching basketball at the high school level.

Adams, who spent last winter as the men’s and women’s coach at Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle and coached the Houlton High boys for six years, will take over the varsity girls team at East Grand High in Danforth.

Adams was set to return as the NMCC women’s coach, but there weren’t enough players for a team this winter.

Adams’ hiring was approved by the school board in a Nov. 13 meeting, East Grand athletic director Troy Cilley said.

It’s actually Adams’ second stint at East Grand as the Houlton resident coached the boys in 1978. Current school board member Cary Brown played for Adams at that time, Cilley said.

Adams replaces Wade McLaughlin, who is now teaching in Blue Hill. McLaughlin was with the Vikings for two seasons.

The East Grand girls were 7-11 last year. The Vikings will be lead by seniors Marie Gilman, Gina Zaneldin, and Mariah Marks.

Beyond those three, it’s a young squad.

“It’s a perfect fit,” Cilley said. “He wanted a team that was young and rebuilding, and that’s the situation we have here.”

Adams compiled a 74-45 record and five Eastern Maine tournament appearances in six seasons with Houlton.

His final season with the Shiretowners was 2001-02, during which Houlton had a 7-11 record and some distractions on and off the court, including a game at Ellsworth High School in which some Houlton players overreacted to taunting from the crowd, prompting referees to issue technical fouls to those players. Several players were either removed or suspended from the team after that game.

Cilley said the problems at Houlton weren’t an issue for East Grand.

“He got caught up in a lot of issues with playing time and politics [at Houlton],” said Cilley, who is also the Vikings’ boys basketball coach. “I don’t think that’s going to happen here. The administration here supports him. Coaches coach, that’s what they’re hired to do.”

Adams has been a fixture in Aroostook County basketball. He has coached at Central Aroostook in Mars Hill and Ashland Community High School, and has served as a basketball referee.

Gymnastics loses two teams

Two more high school gymnastics teams have disbanded this winter, leaving only seven squads left in the state.

Edward Little of Auburn and Leavitt of Turner will not field teams for the 2003-04 season, Skowhegan High principal Gilbert Eaton confirmed.

Eaton, who is a member of the Maine Principals Association’s gymnastics committee, said the 2003-04 season will go as planned, but the MPA may have to have serious talks about the future of the sport.

“It’s something to look into, whether or not the MPA can continue to support it,” said Eaton, who discussed the issue Wednesday in casual conversation at an MPA meeting in Portland. “Those words weren’t spoken, but it’s quite clear.”

The remaining teams are Old Town, Belfast, Skowhegan, Kennebunk, Noble of North Berwick, Mountain Valley of Rumford, and Waterville.

Eaton said the MPA nearly eliminated gymnastics several years ago. At that time he was a member of the interscholastic committee and served on an ad hoc group that looked into adding volleyball and lacrosse while eliminating gymnastics.

The MPA voted to add the two sports but also voted to continue to support gymnastics. The sport rebounded somewhat, he said.

But now there are only seven full teams, along with 11 other schools that send individuals to compete.

“I can see the question being, what is the future of this sport?” Eaton said.

The MPA has never voted to eliminate a sport, Eaton added.

The big cost of equipment is one reason the sport has dwindled at the high school level, he speculated.

One thing gymnastics does have going for it is that many high school-aged gymnasts consider club teams their primary outlet. So even without the high school teams, gymnasts will still have the chance to learn, practice, and compete.

The high school teams are subject to MPA sports season rules that the club teams aren’t. Many schools have to get waivers in order to hire coaches that run club teams year-round, which is usually a sport season violation.

Skowhegan has a chance to defend its team title when the Indians host the state meet Feb. 14.

Cross country winner unclear

The Scarborough boys cross country team has forfeited its Class A state championship because it used an ineligible runner, and the MPA will likely wait until January to decide if and to whom the title will be awarded at all.

The Portland Press Herald reported that the Red Storm, which won the Nov. 1 meet in a tiebreaker with Deering of Portland, entered a runner who formerly attended Deering and continued to live in Portland while competing for Scarborough. The student was therefore ineligible.

Scarborough self-reported the violation, the Press Herald reported.

The MPA’s interscholastic management committee discussed the issue in a meeting this week and ruled that the team would have to forfeit all events in which the student participated, including the regional and state meets.

The committee decided to put off the decision of who would be awarded the trophy until its next regularly scheduled meeting on Jan. 28.

The MPA will rescore the meet.

Scarborough and Deering both scored 118 points, but the Red Storm won the tiebreaker, which is based on the finish of a team’s sixth runner.

Scarborough’s sixth-place runner was 45th, Deering’s was 63rd.

If Deering is awarded the state title, the runner-up could also be in question.

Bonny Eagle of Standish and Edward Little of Auburn each had 120, but the Scots earned third as their sixth-place runner placed ahead of the Red Eddies’ sixth-place runner.

There is a chance the championship title could remain vacant.

“Not only is there a decision as to whether to fill the vacancy or not,” MPA executive director Dick Durost told the Press Herald, “there’s the discussion of how they would go about it. So it makes some sense to put some proper thought into it.”