AUGUSTA – Yeah, I’m a traditionalist, even when it kills me.

Spent the first three days of the Western Maine basketball tournament consuming the same steady diet of hot dogs and pretzels that sustained me when I was a runny-nosed fifth-grader, stomping my feet in Section 19 of the bleachers.

Spent the fourth day at home on my back when my gut revolted more violently than it has since, well, since I was in fifth grade.

Under normal circumstances, I appreciate change at the basketball tournament about as much as the Unabomber appreciated technology.

So let me be the first to send a little message to the Maine Principals’ Association regarding its switcheroo of Saturday’s Class C and D regional championship sessions at Augusta Civic Center.

Great job. And thank you.

Tradition will be a big, fat loser Saturday afternoon and evening, but the greater good will prevail.

The Western Class C and D championship doubleheaders have been flip-flopped. MPA officials announced Wednesday that the Class C twinbill will begin at 1:05 p.m. Saturday, with the Class D twofer moving to prime time at 7:05 p.m.

That change will allow Pine Tree Academy, a Freeport school affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, to participate in its first regional hoop championship game against Valley.

Seventh-Day Adventists are a Christian denomination that strictly observes Sabbath from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday.

That means a day of worship and rest, with no work or recreation. Kind of like the rest of us grew up until every town decided it needed a Sunday morning soccer league and church became optional.

“Maybe you could help us thank the MPA,” said Pine Tree coach Wayne Goodall. “They don’t have to do this for us. They’ve always gone out of their way to make it possible for us to play in this tournament. They’ve been so accommodating.”

Consider it done, Coach.

It isn’t a convenient move. It probably doesn’t make financial sense, either.

It’s simply the right thing to do.

“I think we’ll still have a decent gate,” said Monmouth Academy athletic director Steve Ouellette, a member of the nine-man Western B-C-D tournament committee. “People will turn out to see Valley and the Rangeley girls.”

Western Class C championship night has been the main event to the 42-game tournament week for as long as it’s been contested in this building.

Those games have tremendous drawing power. They’re dominated by Mountain Valley Conference schools whose fans travel well. They’ve also been blessed with big names that fueled massive statewide appeal.

Bob Wilder. Rachel Bouchard. T.J. Caouette. Anna and Ethel Struck. Mike Mastropaolo. Any girl wearing a Dirigo uniform the last 11 years.

Pine Tree? Their traveling show couldn’t fill half a section behind the Breakers’ bench during Wednesday’s semifinal win over Hyde.

“We’re just a little school with 66 kids,” Goodall said. “Look through the tournament program and you won’t find too many schools smaller than us.”

The MPA’s contingency plan has been in place for years.

Pine Tree actually turned down its first tournament invitation in the early 1990s. That quarterfinal game was scheduled for a Saturday morning.

Ever since, when Pine Tree has earned a Western D boys’ quarterfinal berth, the tournament committee has consistently moved the Breakers’ session from Saturday to Monday morning to fit with the school’s convictions.

Goodall led the Breakers to the semifinals five other times before Wednesday’s watershed win.

In other years, there was talk of moving the Class D championship games to Friday afternoon, if needed, with the boys playing first. This time of year, even that would have caused a potential compromise for Pine Tree with travel factored in.

The Saturday night solution won’t sit well with everyone.

“You’re in the minority,” Ouellette told me.

Many Class C coaches prepare their vacation week practice schedule to get their players adjusted to a 7 or 9 o’clock starting time.

Others will cry that the MPA is being inconsistent. Last year, the principals refused to reschedule a Friday late afternoon game in Bangor. Changing the game time would have allowed a Mount View High School student with a similar religious objection to play more than a few minutes of the first quarter.

Sorry, but we’re talking about accommodating a whole team, here. In fact, I’d say the MPA is doing a favor to everyone involved with Western Maine basketball.

Pine Tree clearly is one of the three-best teams in Western D this season, along with Valley and North Yarmouth Academy. The Breakers deserve to play in a final. If they’re able to derail the Valley express, they deserve to play for a Gold Ball.

That state final would be on a Thursday night in Bangor, by the way.

And if Saturday’s game is the end of the Valley reign as we know it, heaven knows that program deserves the honor of the evening stage for its final bow.

Will the MPA take a hit at the box office till? Probably.

Will a few MVC fans who work six days and rest on their own Sabbath miss the games that mattered most to them? It could happen.

Many will grumble. I understand their frustration, but I disagree with their reasoning.

Pine Tree Academy loves its faith and loves basketball. They’ve been good at basketball for a while. This year, they can sniff greatness.

Denying them the chance to compete for high school basketball’s biggest prize, now, that’s something that would really make my stomach turn.

Kalle Oakes is a staff writer. His e-mail is [email protected]