February vacation has always gone hand-in-hand with the annual high school basketball tournament in my household, and this year was no different as several local squads had another strong showing in the postseason.
The Houlton boys and girls teams, Southern Aroostook boys and East Grand girls all earned the right to play in Bangor at the Cross Insurance Center. And for the second straight year, there is at least one local team competing for the gold ball.
The Houlton girls will meet Maranacook of Readfield, 7:05 p.m. Saturday for the state Class C championship. The Shires, who are appearing in the state championship for the first time since 1993, are hoping to follow in the footsteps of the boys’ team, who brought home the gold ball last year.
Kudos to coach Shawn Graham and assistant coach Ben Drew for doing a remarkable job keeping the team focused this postseason. The young Shires have slowly been building toward this moment. The team fell in the semifinals last year before revamping the roster this year. And the good thing is, there is not a single senior on the team, so essentially the entire roster could return for another go next year.
For the past few weeks, the team has been wearing “Pink for Hannah” T-shirts during warm-ups in memory of Hannah Mooers, a 2013 graduate of HHS who died unexpectedly Feb. 3 at the age of 19. The team has also added pink socks, while coach Drew has been seen spotting a pink shirt and pink tie. It’s a touching tribute by the Houlton girls to honor Mooers, who although she did not play basketball at HHS, was someone many of the Shires remember seeing in the hallways just two short years ago.
Due to scheduling problems, the Houlton girls were not able to have a victory, welcome home caravan through the town on Sunday. Hopefully, the school will do some sort of big student send off for the team Friday afternoon before classes let out for the day to show the team they have the full support of their peers. This coming Sunday, a reception for the team will be held at the high school, regardless of the game’s outcome. Details of that event were not finalized by Monday morning, but will be shared on our newspaper’s Facebook page once they become available.
Tourney time is always a wonderful experience, with so many people using it as an opportunity to break out of the winter blahs. Fan support for all of the local teams was remarkable to see. The East Grand girls, who fell in the quarterfinals last Monday, had an exceptional showing of fan support for such a small community. The same could also be said for Washburn and Fort Fairfield as both of their boys and girls teams made it to the Class D championships and had large fan bases for their games.
The staff of the Houlton Pioneer Times wishes the best of luck to the Houlton girls teams as the Shires compete in the state game. We also offer congratulations to all of the teams that made it to the tournament.
Joseph Cyr is a staff writer for the Houlton Pioneer Times. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect that of the newspaper. He can be reached at pioneertimes@nepublish.com or 532-2281.
