The faces are familiar although you can’t put a name to all of them. The smell of popcorn permeates the facility.

The kids with their faces painted in their school color. The signs supporting their schools or a particular player. The paper-covered hoops that anxious players jump through to take the court and begin pre-game warmups. The bands playing their renditions of the school song or, in a lot of cases, hit songs from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

The Eastern Maine schoolboy and schoolgirl basketball tournaments are much more than a bunch of people watching their teams try to win championships.

For some, it’s like a family reunion. It’s the opportunity to see people they haven’t seen in a while. In a year, to be exact.

It is a chance for the City of Bangor to showcase itself like it does for the Senior League World Series and the National Folk Festival.

Bangor has to be among the nation’s leaders in per capita hotels. You will be hard-pressed to find a city of 32,000 (31,473 in 2000 census) that has as many hotels as we do.

And lots of youngsters and their families look forward to spending a night or two away from their homesteads. Our restaurants and stores also benefit substantially.

The tournament is a cash cow for the city of Bangor and, hopefully, it provides our visitors with a positive experience they look forward to every year.

It is imperative that we keep the tournament by renovating the Bangor Auditorium or building a new one.

We can’t afford to lose the tournament to one of the newer sterile facilities.

The Augusta Civic Center is a beautiful arena with a convenient location. But the spectators are too far away from the court.

There isn’t the intimacy you have at the Bangor Auditorium.

The fans are on top of you. It appears as though they can reach out and touch you. Just like the Alfond Arena at University of Maine hockey games.

Every basket is rewarded with an Auditorium-rattling cheer.

As close games draw to a thrilling conclusion, the passion and the angst of the fans becomes magnified.

It is a time of year everyone looks forward to.

Memorable performances… dramatic rallies… no-name role players who become stars for a day… the wonderful unpredictability of it all.

The only negative is the three-person refereeing system.

It doesn’t work.

Too many sets of eyes.

Too many foul-fests.

Too many good players spending too much time on the bench in foul trouble.

Having an extra set of eyes can work for hockey where players occasionally punch or take a stick to an opponent behind a play. The extra set of eyes acts as a deterrent. That isn’t necessary in high school basketball.

Referees, like players and coaches, are under pressure at the basketball tournaments.

Their supervisors are scrutinizing them so it is human nature to feel compelled to call fouls even if they are marginal.

It’s not their faults.

They are conscientious, and they want to keep working the tournaments.

It’s as much a thrill for them as it is the players and coaches.

The quickest way for a referee to lose that privilege is by letting a game get out of hand.

However, calling a lot of nit-picky fouls can lead to frustrated players and coaches, and a game can deteriorate quickly.

Go back to a two-referee system.

Larry Mahoney can be reached at 990-8231, 1-800-310-8600 or by email at lmahoney@bangordailynews.net