Jay Kemble held his first official practice as the new field hockey coach at Bangor High School on Monday night.
Not only is this his first season coaching the Bangor team, but it’s his first time coaching field hockey. Kemble is also Bangor High’s women’s basketball coach.
He’s up to the challenge and likes what he’s seen from his team.
“They are wonderful, hard-working kids,” Kemble said. “They are very coachable and enthusiastic. We had fun.
Monday marked the start of the fall sports season, although schools in Aroostook County began on July 25 due to the long potato harvest break later this fall.
It’s also the first time since the start of the pandemic that no COVID-19 protocols have been put in place for high school sports, according to Mike Bisson, deputy executive director of the Maine Principals Association. It is expected that there will be little to no disruption to the sporting calendar this season due to COVID-19.
Teams gathered across the state on Monday to begin practice in football, soccer, field hockey, volleyball and golf.
In Bangor, Kemble, 58, said he was happy with his field hockey team’s 11 summer sessions.
“We had between 15 and 25 women every night. It was a great turnout,” he said.
The Rams are coming off a 4-9 season under Edythe Dyer. The Rams finished 10th among 12 teams in the Class A North Heal Points standings before losing to No. 10 Mt. Blue of Farmington 5-0 in the first round of the playoffs.
Dyer is now a field hockey coach at Hampden Academy.
Kemble, the former University of Maine relief pitcher and assistant baseball coach, said he continues to better understand the sport and the skills of his players.
“It’s a learning process for me and I’m getting acclimated to girls as well,” the Farmington native said. “But I’m also acclimating to their style of play and their athleticism.”
He has two assistants in former Bangor High Madison field hockey player Arno and former Hampden Academy player Leah Mcbreairty.
The Rams will practice on the artificial turf at Cameron Stadium for the next two weeks before returning to practice on their high school field, which has a grass surface.
“Our first game is September 1 at Skowhegan and they have a grass pitch. And we have a lot of grass matches at the start of the season. So we have to be prepared to play on grass,” Kemble said.
Skowhegan won 20 consecutive Class A North championships and 16 state titles during that span under Maine Sports Hall of Fame coach Paula Doughty.
Portland’s Cheverus toppled Skowhegan 4-1 in last year’s Class A state final for its first field hockey crown.
In the Class B final, Leavitt High School of Turner beat Old Town 1-0 for its first state title since 2012, and in Class C, Winthrop won two championships in three years with a 3-2 victory over the Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield. .
The state championship games are Nov. 5 at Messalonskee High in Oakland.
In women’s soccer, the defending state titles are Windham in Class A (3-1 against Brunswick), Cape Elizabeth in Class B (3-0 against Hermon), Maranacook de Readfield in Class C (5-0 against Bucksport) and North Yarmouth Academy in Class D (3-0 over Wisdom of St. Agatha).
Cape Elizabeth and NYA each earned their third straight win. Windham won their first since back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014, and the Maranacook championship was their first ever.
In men’s soccer, Marshwood of South Berwick (2-1 against Brunswick) and Lee Academy (5-0 against NYA) won their first state titles in Classes A and D, respectively, while Yarmouth won their sixth in seven years in Class B. (3-0 over Winslow). Portland’s Waynflete won its third straight Class C game with a 2-1 victory over Fort Kent.
The state finals are scheduled for Nov. 5 at Hampden Academy (B and C) and Deering Memorial Field in Portland (A and D).
The state volleyball champions were Scarborough (3-2 against Biddeford) in Class A, Yarmouth in Class B (3-2 against Cape Elizabeth) and Washington Academy of East Machias in Class C (3-0 against George Stevens Blue Hill Academy).
Scarborough’s title was his third in six years. Yarmouth have now won three in a row and WA have won their second in three years.
State A and B championship games will take place at the University of Southern Maine on Oct. 28 with Game A at 6 p.m. and B at 8:30 p.m. Game C will take place at Mount Desert Island High School in Bar Harbor on October 28 or 29.
In cross country, the Hampden boys won their first-ever State A crown; Freeport won their first consecutive B titles in 14 and 15; and the Orono boys won their third in five years in C. The Bonny Eagle girls of Buxton won their third consecutive A title and fifth in six years the MDI girls annexed their first in B since winning in ‘ 12 and ’13 and the Orono girls notched their third in four years and sixth in eight seasons in C.
The national cross country meet will be held Oct. 29 at Twin Brook Recreation Area in Cumberland.
In golf, last fall’s winners were Falmouth in A, its first state title since 2013; Yarmouth were titlists for the first time in B and Kents Hill won for the second time in three years in C. The individual champions were Lucas Flaherty of South Portland in A, Eli Spaulding of Freeport in B and George Fahey of Waynflete in C.
The girls’ individual winners were Cheyenne Couture from Noble High in North Berwick in Class A, Jade Haylock from Leavitt in Turner in Class B and Clarice Bell from Orono in Class C.
The state tournaments will take place on October 7 in class A and on October 8 in B and C.
