The Bangor High softball team held its second practice on its new field Monday despite a light drizzle.

Now, the Rams are hoping the weather will cooperate so that field will be ready for the first game there. Bangor is supposed to play a 4:15 p.m. game against Old Town.

The only thing missing for Tuesday’s game are the two foul poles, which Bangor High athletic director Steve Vanidestine said will be up this afternoon. Rain in the forecast could put a damper on the day, however. If the game is postponed it will likely be made up later in the week.

The Rams aren’t planning a big ceremony for Tuesday’s game. Vanidestine said he’d rather wait until the field is completely finished. It’s playable now, but there are a lot of touches left to be finished.

“Inside the fences we’re really happy,” he said Monday evening. “The weather is the big thing [for Tuesday].”

Among those touches are things like power to the press box, benches and shelves inside the dugouts (there will be temporary benches for the girls to sit on Tuesday), netting for the spectator bleachers in foul territory, adjustments to the fence in center field, and erecting the batting cage.

The one big thing left? Lights for night games.

Neal McCrum, who is helping to coordinate the fundraising effort and is the father of former Bangor High standout Megan McCrum, said the softball boosters have raised more than $15,000 and are still hoping for more than $100,000.

The new field was built over the old field to the left of the high school. The Rams practiced and played at the Union Street complex last season and part of this year.

EM Class A cheering to move

The Eastern Maine Class A cheerleading championships are likely headed for Augusta.

The Maine Principals’ Association voted to accept a cheerleading committee report that recommended moving the large schools from the Bangor Auditorium to the Augusta Civic Center.

The Western Maine Class A competition will also go to Portland.

“It’s 99.9 percent certain,” MPA executive director Dick Durost said.

The vote was taken at Thursday’s general membership meeting in Rockland.

The small sticking point will be making sure facilities in Portland are available. Once that facility is found, the move will happen. The cheerleading committee will work over the coming months to solidify a location for the Western Maine competition.

“The move is going to happen as soon as they can get it done,” he said.

Durost said the vote was “nearly unanimous” and there was little to no discussion against the proposal.

Brewer cheerleading coach Kristie Reed, who serves as a liaison to the MPA cheerleading committee, recently said the coaches seemed to be in favor of a move to Augusta because the number of teams in Eastern Maine Class A (19) makes it hard to squeeze everyone in during championship day.

This year all four classifications, 68 teams, held their regional championships Jan. 24 at the Bangor Auditorium. The Class A teams didn’t have enough time to warm up on the competition mat.

The Western Maine competition, held the same Saturday, featured 41 teams in Classes A, B and C.

Augusta is also a much more central location for Eastern Maine Class A. The only remaining Class A schools north of the Fairfield area are Bangor, Brewer, Old Town and Hampden. Schools in the Brunswick and Lewiston areas, meanwhile, have joined Eastern Maine in the past five years.

Gymnastics eliminated

As expected, the MPA also voted last week to eliminate gymnastics as a sponsored sport. It’s the first time the MPA has eliminated a sport.

The vote was 39-4, Durost said.

There was some discussion before the vote was taken, Durost said, as the gymnastics committee presented a proposal whereby the sport would be suspended for two years but the committee would remain in place. The hope was that gymnastics would rebound somewhat and could then be revived.

But the interscholastic management committee presented a different proposal – one that stated it was time to “cut the strings,” according to Durost – and that was the proposal accepted by the general membership.

Skowhegan High principal Gilbert Eaton, who is a member of the gymnastics committee, presented the two-year suspension proposal.

“We went back and forth, but we didn’t win this one,” he said. “I think everybody knew it was on shaky ground.”

Six high school teams took part in the 2004 state gymnastics championships, which was won by Skowhegan. There has been a huge drop in teams over the years, from 29 teams in two classifications in 1983 to 18 teams in 1989. The two classes merged into one in 1994.

Club teams through private gyms and YMCAs continue to thrive, however, which means kids will still have the chance to compete and practice gymnastics. That likely made the prospect of cutting the sport easier for the MPA.

“Now it’s up to the people who run the clubs to keep the sport alive,” Eaton said.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.