Court standouts from Knox, Waldo, Lincoln county set to hoop it up for bragging rights
WARREN — Spectators were unable to attend high school basketball games in the pandemic-altered and -shortened 2020-21 winter season, thus missed the usual in-person experience and excitement of seeing talented area teenage court athletes demonstrate their skills.
Watching livestreams of games was nice, of course, but not the same as being at a venue making one's voice heard in support of the players.
Now, thanks to the Midcoast Athletics Center, one can do that as a bundle of players from high schools in Knox, Lincoln and Waldo counties have the opportunity to play in front of "fans."
That is because the first annual Midcoast High School All-Star Basketball Games, hosted by MAC, will dribble in on Friday, April 2.
The rosters include some of the top players, regardless of their class affiliation, from schools in the Midcoast "pod" who accepted invitations to participate in the games, said Rachel Coor of MAC.
She said other players were invited but will be unable to attend.
The games will include players from Oceanside of Rockland, Camden Hills of Rockport, Medomak Valley of Waldoboro, Boothbay Region, Lincoln Academy of Newcastle, Belfast and Mount View of Thorndike.
The girls game begins at 5:30 p.m. and boys at 7:30 p.m. at the facility located on the corners of Route 1/Atlantic Highway and Short Street. The games will be 20-minute halves. There also will be three-point shooting contests at halftime.
The gym will be cleared between games.
The event sponsors are Midcoast Athletics Center, Machias Savings Bank and Maple Lane Builders.
The girls coaches are Laurie Stiles and Kelly Mackie, while the boys teams will be led by Larry Reed and Marty Messer. Reed is the boys coach at Oceanside and Messer the boys coach at Belfast.
Games will be livestreamed on lctv.org. WABI TV sports anchor Bryan Sidelinger, a Medomak Valley High School graduate, will serve as the master of ceremonies.
The players who will participate include:
Belfast — Jason Bartlett, Jaiden Philbrook, Chris Kelley and Halle Tripp.
Boothbay Region — Ben Pearce, Glory Blethen, Sullivan Rice and Jaelyn Crocker.
Camden Hills — Hunter Norton, Ella Powers, Jeremy Fraser, Molly Hixon, Casey Messer, Tessa Whitley, Ryan Clifford and Ella Graffam.
Lincoln Academy — Tucker Stiles, Maddy York, Lizzie Ober, Gabe Hagar, Paige LaFrenaye and Grace Houghton.
Medomak Valley — Parker Morrison, Trevor Brown, Aiden Starr, Addison McCormick, Autumn Ripley, Alyssa Creamer and Abby Lash.
Mount View — Joe Grassi, Sean Raven, Kricket Thompson and Hannah Coolen.
Oceanside — Cam Kingsbury, Elliott Lucier, Everett Allyn, Bodi Ames, Audrey Mackie, Carter Galley, Grace Woodman, Abby Waterman and Anna Kingsbury. The Kingsburys are siblings.