Category: Sports

Until this year Melissa Rivet and Megan Higginbotham had never played lacrosse.

Now, just four months removed from their introduction to the sport, they’re playing in a Division III college program.

That might seem like an anomaly, but it’s nothing unusual for Sue Frost’s seven-year-old program.

Without any interscholastic high school lacrosse in the northern half of the state and only pockets of interest elsewhere, Frost has continually had to supplement her rosters with athletes who have never before played the game.

The USM women’s softball team showed their offensive prowess last week, sweeping UMass Boston 11-3 and 8-2 in their first “real” home doubleheader Tuesday afternoon.

The Huskies, who have been playing their scheduled home games at St. Joseph’s and the University of New England’s fields because theirs was unplayable, finally got to step on their home grass.

For the second year in a row, you can sell back more than just your used books – on Sunday, bring in your bike. The Great Maine Bike Swap is coming to USM’s Sullivan Gym (Portland) on April 27, thanks to PIRG and the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. Between 8 and 10 a.

I’m twenty-one, but I’ve still got heroes: my parents, Jim Koch – the founder of Sam Adams, and athletes from Maine who have made it to the pros.

I’ve always loved seeing people from Maine make an impact at the highest level. I’ve always held people like former Cy Young nominee Billy Swift of Scarborough and former gold-glover and Winterport native Mike Bordick in the highest regard.

Year: Junior

Major: Business

Sport: Lacrosse

FP: How long have you been playing lacrosse?

Tom: I started playing in the 7th grade, so probably eight or nine years. I switched from baseball to lacrosse when I was a kid.

FP: What made you want to play lacrosse instead of baseball?

Tom: Well football was my main sport, and I wanted to get faster for football so I tried out lacrosse in the spring; plus my friends wanted me to play.

Indoor Track

Connolly and Towle earn track and field honors

Freshman Christina Connolly (Boise, Idaho) and coach George Towle were both honored for their efforts during the 2008 indoor track and field season. Connolly, the 2008 New England Alliance pole vault champion and third place performer in the New England Div.

The University of Southern Maine’s intramural sports program is one of the best-kept secrets at the school.

Each semester, various recreational and competitive intramural sports and activities are put on display, much to the enjoyment of the masses that simply just want to have fun without having to worry about the nuances of a being a full-time student-athlete.

Baseball

4/15 – USM 12, Bowdoin 1

4/16 – USM 16,

Colby 9

4/17 – St. Joseph’s 7, USM 6

Men’s Lacrosse

4/12 – UMass Dartmouth 14,

USM 7

4/14 – University of New England 11,

USM 3

Softball

4/12 – UMass Dartmouth 5, USM 2

4/12 – USM 9, UMass Dartmouth 5

When Luke Robinson saw The Rock step into a WWE ring in eighth grade, he was sold.

Now 23, the senior business major is living out his childhood dream.

He’s a professional wrestler.

Last week, he sat in the Luther Bonney computer lab studying videos, explaining to me the nuances of great wrestling.

“This was when less was more,” he says, pointing to a YouTube video of the Ultimate Warrior battling the venerable Hulk Hogan in Wrestlemania. “That is just great showmanship.”

But what could possibly draw a former three-sport all-state athlete to a sport as maligned as professional wrestling?

“Wrestling is the greatest entertainment,” he says. “Nothing else can sell out arenas 52 weeks a year. Nothing else can reach that broad of an audience.”

An important and historic member of the USM community, Richard “Doc” Costello, passed away last Monday at the age of 79 in his Gorham home after battling cancer.

Born in 1928 in Burlington, NJ, he came in 1953 to what was then Gorham State Teachers College as a physical education teacher and assistant coach.

This semester, Eric Favreau took over as president of the USM Outing Club, one of the university’s most active student organizations.

The group, which has an email list-serv of nearly 500 students, has grown by “leaps and bounds,” he says, but he admits that implementing his larger vision for it is sometimes a struggle.

The Huskies improved to an impressive 15-7 after a busy week, earning three wins in their last four games. A robust offense delivered 41 runs over the four-game week, with the defense keeping opponents in check by allowing only 24 runs.

On Wednesday against Husson College, an offensive battle went the Huskies’ way as the hot bat of sophomore Chris Burleson (Portland) lit up on Husson’s pitching, earning him four runs, including two doubles and a triple.

I know a few Huskies who are looking for a good home. This isn’t a classified ad: they play baseball, softball and lacrosse. Their fields, wet and brown, are so far unplayable.

After the long snowy winter and with fields that take forever to dry, our athletes have been forced to travel all over — to play their home games.

Year: Senior

Major: Health Sciences

Sport: Softball

FP: How long have you been playing softball?

Kristina: Since I was 9 years old.

FP: Did you fall in love with it right from the start, or did someone push you towards it along the way?

Kristina: When I first started out playing, my parents said that I didn’t like it, but about a year went by (without playing) and I got back into it and started playing on a little league team and as I got older I played ASA ball (and) it became my favorite sport.

Baseball

4/6 – Rhode Island College 3, USM 1

4/6 – USM 7, Rhode Island College 1

4/9 – USM 11, Husson 10

4/10 – USM 13, Salem State 2

4/11 – USM 4, Eastern Connecticut 2

4/11 – Eastern Connecticut 9, USM 6

Softball

4/10 – USM 8, Salem State 7

4/10 – US

UMass Dartmouth always proves to be a season-deciding opponent for the women’s lacrosse team. The Huskies and the Corsairs usually end up as the middle pair in the Little East Conference, and have met each other for the first round of play-offs three of the last four years.

Baseball

Huskies earn key split with Eastern Connecticut

4/11 – Sophomore Mark Schmidt (Gorham) pitched 5.2 innings in relief of an injured Collin Henry (Penobscot) to help lead USM to a 4-2 victory over conference rival Eastern Connecticut. Schmidt allowed only two hits and one run and improved his record to 4-0.

After one of their most impressive seasons in recent memory, the 2008 men’s tennis team started right where last year’s Huskies left off. In their home opener, they took down Little East Conference rival UMass Dartmouth 6-3.

The close competition was led by sophomore Josh Warren (Hermon) and junior Derek Stevenson (Raymond), two of only three returning players on this year’s squad, who is looking to extend their LEC supremacy by vying for their fourth conference title in a row.

Warren, playing in the number one singles slot, took over the court with a 6-2, 6-3 win over the Corsair’s senior Dave Gogoi, and Stevenson floated through at number two, taking a 6-1, 6-1 win over junior Chris Forster.

Steve Lent (Sharon, NH) and Adam Mitchell (Windham, ME) each won their singles matches against UMass as well, Mitchell taking home his first collegiate victory, filling the number 5 position for USM.

“I’m gonna race again, I’m gonna win.”

The words of Brian Farrell’s father stumbled off the hospital room walls and found their place inside Brian’s head, and the heart monitor beside the bed began to etch its sound across his eardrums: a long line.a beep.

The primary function of the SAAC, Student Athletic Advisory Committee, is to discuss and resolve issues for USM athletes. But the SAAC does much more than that. They’ve become one of the most active community service groups on campus.

“We have a huge focus on community service, especially to the children in our greater community,” says Shannon Kynoch, a senior social work major.

The women’s lacrosse team grabbed its first win of the season in a 20-3 trouncing of St. Josephs last Wednesday night. The win brought the Huskies to a 1-5 overall record going into the weekend.

Sophomore Jessica Knight (Alfred) and Freshman Kristy Kendrick (Waterboro) combined for 11 goals.

Baseball

Huskies take 8 wins in

Arizona

4/5 – Of the 16-game opening to their season, the Huskies have only lost four, including one very close match to Wheaton on Saturday, which ended 5-6. They started the season in Arizona with three losses in a row to William Paterson and Suffolk, but rallied to finish their spring break trip with only one more loss – and eight wins.

Spring break: to most college students it means minimal activity and maximum inebriation, but to athletes at USM it means something a little different.

Whether it’s a trip to New York to finally play on a grass field or a cross-country trek to Arizona where cacti and baseball rule the day, athletes and coaches from USM spend their spring breaks away from the classroom, but still with the university.

This is not a public service announcement, just a cautionary tale: be weary of betting on sports.

No, I didn’t squander away thousands of dollars in student loans to write this column, but I did put myself into a precarious situation at the hands of my own curiosity.