Camden Hills High in Rockport is one step closer to fielding a varsity hockey team with the recent vote of the Five Town Community School District board of directors to approve ice hockey as a club sport at the school for the next two years.

The club team is expected to play a junior varsity schedule for the next two seasons, said Camden Hills athletic director Dave Cook.

“After two years, the club can come back to the board to be considered for varsity status,” Cook said.

Home base for the Windjammers’ hockey team will be the Midcoast Recreation Center, just up Route 90 from the school.

Under the agreement reached with the school board, the district will pay transportation costs, while the Maine Coast Skaters Association will pay for ice time, the largest expense, as well as for uniforms and some other expenses, according to MCSA president Jack Williams.

The Maine Coast Skaters Association was founded in 2000 as a nonprofit organization to develop, support and promote skating in all its forms in Midcoast Maine, and has fielded youth hockey teams at several age levels since its inception.

A solid base of players already exists for the Camden Hills club team, according to Williams. The MCSA currently has 168 boys and girls participating in youth hockey. Of those 168, 102 reside within the Five Town Community School District, which covers Appleton, Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport.

Of those 102, 30 currently are of high school age, with 31 (25 boys and six girls) to be Camden Hills students during the first year of club ice hockey play.

That number increases to 39 for the 2005-06 school year and 51 in 2006-07, when the program hopes to achieve varsity status.

Williams said the pursuit of a high school club team at Camden Hills was accelerated last year, as local youth players who had reached the Midget level (which includes high school-age players) were running out of competition because Midget-level players from other youth programs had moved on to the high school teams in their own communities.

“There are many reasons for wanting to do this,” said Williams. “It’s a natural sport for our state, and it’s a natural for the kids given the championship teams that have come out of our state from [the University of Maine].”

Twin tower power boosts Cony

Paul Vachon’s basketball character is one of aggression, combining fullcourt defensive pressure and attacking offense from the outside in.

He was a pioneer in incorporating the 3-point shot into his team’s game plans once the arc was introduced to Maine high school basketball in 1988.

All of that remains at the foundation of his coaching philosophy as Vachon readies the undefeated Cony High girls basketball team for Saturday’s 3 p.m. Class A state championship game against Deering of Portland at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland.

What’s changed this year is the presence of the talented frontcourt tandem of 6-foot-2 junior Katie Rollins and 6-1 freshman Cassie Cooper, a combo that has Vachon now looking inside-out.

“I think I’ve been coaching long enough to know you have to adjust to your personnel, so it wasn’t that much of an adjustment for me,” said Vachon, who has won five state championships since returning to coach at his alma mater in 1987, and has a 387-33 overall coaching record.

“It’s more of an adjustment on defense because we want to keep them out of foul trouble and we’re not able to go at it as aggressively as someone like Skowhegan goes at it, to be honest, and that’s hard for me because I like to do that. But we’ve made the adjustment in order to win, and these girls believe in what we do defensively, and hopefully we can do it for one more game.”

Rollins has been a key performer for the Rams since her freshman season, earning third-team NEWS All-Maine honors as a sophomore and surpassing 1,000 career points earlier this winter. The daughter of Dave Rollins, a center on the undefeated 1973 Cony boys team that won the Class A champion – Vachon was that team’s starting point guard – Katie Rollins was named most valuable player of this year’s Eastern A tournament after averaging 20 points and 8.7 rebounds.

Her best postseason game to date was in the Rams’ 51-44 win over Skowhegan in the regional final, when she shook off a 3 of 12 shooting performance in the first half to finish with 25 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots.

“Katie’s been our leader all year long, and it’s hard to do it 21 games straight,” said Vachon. “You’re bound to have some shots that don’t go, but we were fortunate that in the second half they went for her.”

One player who followed Rollins’ progress while growing up two years behind her in the Augusta school system is Cooper, with an eye toward one day being her teammate.

“I hadn’t actually played with her since this summer,” said Cooper, “but I had always watched her playing with Mallory Dumont and I always saw how she liked the ball passed to her, how she wanted it, how forceful she really was.

“She has really great hands, it’s really easy to pass to her, really easy to play with her.”

Cooper has grown up in quite a basketball family of her own. Her mother, Maureen Burchill Cooper, starred at the University of Southern Maine from 1981 to 1985 and still holds 13 school records, including points in a game (47), season (642) and career (2,357). Her dad, Bruce Cooper, coached Cindy Blodgett and the Lawrence High Bulldogs to four consecutive state Class A girls basketball titles from 1991 to 1994.

Now Cassie Cooper is emerging as a stellar player in her own right, earning NEWS All-Tournament Team accolades after averaging 16.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game.

Rollins and Cooper combined for 42 of Cony’s 51 points in the regional championship game, and 39 points in the Rams’ 70-50 semifinal win over Mount Ararat of Topsham.

Cony fans hope for similar production against Deering on Saturday as the Rams seek their first state championship since 1998.

“We’re getting better at working with each other,” said Rollins. “We’re starting to know where each other is all the time, we’re get that little chemistry thing going, and hopefully that will continue to grow.”

Bangor, Calvary Chapel honored

The Bangor High girls basketball team and the state champion Calvary Chapel of Orrington boys squad have been named winners of the Eastern Maine International Association of Approved Basketball Officials Board #111 sportsmanship awards.

Each team will receive a banner to display in its school.

Board #111, which covers much of eastern, central and midcoast Maine, annually honors teams from among the 35 high schools it serves for exemplary sportsmanship. Officials rate players, coaches, fans and game administration staff throughout the regular season.

Girls teams earning honorable mention were Calvary Chapel and Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor, with Calvary Chapel also being named most improved.

Boys teams earning honorable mention were Old Town and Katahdin of Stacyville, with Rockland recognized as most improved.

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net