Proposals to change Maine’s high school basketball postseason structure earned one final preliminary vote of support Wednesday.

Members of the Interscholastic Management Committee of the Maine Principals’ Association voted 9-0 in favor of three proposals that include moving the Eastern Maine Class A basketball tournament from the Bangor Auditorium to the Augusta Civic Center beginning in 2006, according to MPA executive director Dick Durost.

Other changes supported by the IMC would shift the Western B tournament from Augusta to the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland and advance the Class A regional tournaments from early March to the third week of February, the same week regional tournaments in Classes B, C, and D traditionally are held.

None of the changes would take place until at least the 2006 tournament.

The IMC vote followed a 20-1 vote earlier this month by the MPA’s basketball plenary committee to support the changes.

The proposals now will be considered by the full MPA membership Nov. 19 during the organization’s fall conference in Portland.

The proposals likely would have been sent to the full MPA membership for a vote no matter how the IMC voted, Durost said.

“I think they would have gone to the full membership anyway based on the vote of the basketball committee,” Durost said. “This was a vote to see if members of the Interscholastic Management Committee had similar feelings about the proposals, and based on their vote today, I would say they do.”

The proposals coincide with negotiations under way between the MPA and each of the three tournament venues on new five-year contracts to host the tournaments. The current five-year deals expire at the end of the 2005 tournaments.

The shifting of the Eastern A and Western B tournaments seeks to address the southward migration of the state’s population in recent years and its effect on school enrollment.

Moving the Class A regionals to February vacation week would end a conflict between those tournaments and the annual Maine Educational Assessment testing. The MEAs are used to measure student and school academic proficiency in conjunction with Maine’s Learning Results standards, as well as to gauge achievement relative to the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Bangor’s Russell sidelined

The Bangor High football team will be without two-way end Paul Russell for the rest of the season.

Russell, a 6-foot, 190-pound senior, broke a bone in his upper left arm during the Rams’ 3-0 Pine Tree Conference Class A victory over Mt. Blue of Farmington at Cameron Stadium in Bangor on Friday night.

“He’s one of our best players,” said Bangor coach Mark Hackett. “He was one of our best defensive players, and he was our best tight end, just a solid football player.”

Russell, in fact, was credited with one of the biggest plays in the victory over Mt. Blue, a sack of quarterback Mason Barker that produced a fumble that teammate Nick Buchanan recovered to halt a Cougar foray into Bangor territory during the third quarter.

In three games this fall, Russell had 11 solo tackles, including two for losses and one quarterback sack. He also forced two fumbles.

On offense, he made three pass receptions for 23 yards and also has been a key blocker for a Bangor offense that is averaging 249.3 rushing yards per game.

Hackett said Bangor plans to fill the void left by Russell’s injury by committee, though Russell still plans to help the Rams on the sidelines as they continue on what through three games has been an undefeated season.

Bangor returns to action Friday night at 1-2 Skowhegan.