By Ernie Clark
Bangor Daily News
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Former athletes in sports ranging from hockey and wrestling to basketball, baseball and soccer are represented among the 2017 Presque Isle High School Athletic Hall of Fame inductees.
Darren Carlisle (Class of 2002), Katie Delong McQuade (2006), Peter Fields (1973), Eugene Fitzgerald (1958) and Andy Packard (1970) will be honored during a ceremony scheduled for
Friday, Jan. 13 at the Northeastland Hotel. A social hour begins at 5:30 p.m. followed by a buffet supper at 6 p.m. The induction ceremony follows at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $30 each and available at the Presque Isle High School athletics office or Star City IGA in Presque Isle.
After spending his first two years of high school at St. Dominic of Auburn and winning Class A hockey state titles both seasons, Carlisle returned to Presque Isle and as a junior accumulated 36 goals and 25 assists to establish a single-season school record of 61 points and become the school’s first Eastern Maine Class B first-team all star.
As a senior he was named Eastern Maine Hockey Coaches Association Player of the Year the and again gained EM Class B first-team all-star status after posting 40 goals and 19 assists for a school-record total of 120 career points.
Carlisle played for the Maine Junior Pirates following the conclusion of the 2000-2001 season and helped that team win the New Englands and finish eighth in the nationals.
He has been heavily involved in Presque Isle Youth Hockey and since 2010 has been an assistant varsity hockey coach for the high school team.
Delong McQuade garnered postseason accolades in all three sports seasons at PIHS before going on to play Division I college soccer.
She scored a school-record 57 goals in four soccer seasons with the Wildcats, gaining all-conference, All-Eastern Maine, All-State and All-New England honors. She made the Maine Soccer Coaches Class B all-star team her sophomore, junior and senior years and capped off her career by being named MSCA Class B Player of the Year.
As a senior she led the Presque Isle basketball team to a state championship and was both a Bangor Daily News All-Maine first-team choice and Miss Maine Basketball finalist. Delong McQuade was also named Big East Conference Player of the Year.
An All-Aroostook outfielder for the Wildcats softball team, Delong McQuade played soccer at the University of Maine for two years.
Fields was the first Presque Isle wrestler to place in the state championships, winning a Eastern Maine regional championship his senior year while placing third at states as a junior.
He attended the University of Maine at Presque Isle where the four-year captain won numerous tournaments and was a four-time qualifier for the NAIA National Championships as well as a four-time NAIA District 5 all-star. In 1979 he was selected to the Maine AAU All-Star Wrestling Team and was chosen to compete against The Netherlands Olympic Team. He was inducted into the UMPI Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006.
Fields began his professional career as an assistant athletic director at Kent State University and Toledo, then spent six years as associate director for athletics at Missouri before serving as director of athletics at Montana State for 14 years. Last fall, he became senior associate director of athletics for development at Santa Clara University.
Fitzgerald was co-captain of the baseball and basketball teams his junior and senior years and also competed in track and field. In baseball, Fitzgerald batted .483 as a junior and .450 as a senior. In basketball, he was second-team All-Aroostook and a consistent double-digit scorer during two varsity seasons.
Fitzgerald attended Gordon College and was named to its Athletic Hall of Fame after starring in basketball and also playing baseball, soccer and touch football. He was a vital part of three consecutive North Atlantic Christian College championship basketball teams and was NACC MVP in 1962. He scored more than 1,400 points during his career with the Fighting Scots.
He taught history and physical education for 39 years and coached many of those years, including 18 at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia.
Packard was a dominant figure on the Maine high school basketball scene during the 1969-1970 season, culminating with a berth on the BDN All-Maine second team.
The 6-foot-1-inch Packard was a double-digit scorer and top-flight rebounder throughout his three-year varsity career. As a senior he averaged 18 points and 15 rebounds per game, highlighted by a 31-point, 24-rebound performance against Fort Kent. He is believed to be the second-leading rebounder in Presque Isle High School varsity basketball history behind fellow Hall of Famer Eric Wieder.
Packard attended the University of Maine for one year before transferring to the University of Prince Edward Island, where he had his basketball jersey number (42) retired in 2012. He finished among the top five scorers in the Maine Maritime Intercollegiate League during 1972-1973, when he was named UPEI’s Male Athlete of the Year.
