As a former player, coach and athletic director, Andy Dolloff says he’s as big a basketball fan as it gets, but when it came time to watching his high school team play last winter in the basketball tournament, he made the trip from Gorham to Augusta just once.
Between work and family, the principal at Scarborough High School didn’t have the time or energy to make the trek to the Capital City three times in the same week.
This year, that won’t be a problem, and Dolloff hopes that will be the same for many when the Western Maine Class A and B basketball tournaments are held in Portland at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
“I’m so excited to have it be a local tournament,” said Dolloff, the chairman of the Western A basketball committee. “I’m looking forward to it. I’m glad we made the change. It makes sense for a lot of different people.”
The Class A tournaments now play during February vacation week. Western A combines with the Western B tournament, which moved South from Augusta. The Eastern A tournament fills the void at the ACC, joining Western C and D. Bangor still hosts Eastern B, C and D.
Dolloff, a former coach at Lewiston and Dirigo, put together the schedule for the revamped tournament in Portland and has basketball holding court at the Cumberland County Civic Center for six full days.
“We owe a lot of gratitude to the Civic Center,” said Dolloff. “It wasn’t so bad to put together because the Civic Center agreed to work with us. We took over the Civic Center for six days, and we gave them Friday for a Pirates game. It made it much easier, and it gave us plenty of space to fit two classes in.”
The tournaments in Portland begin with a pair of B boys’ quarterfinal games on Friday, Feb. 17. Another two B boys’ quarterfinal games are played the next morning along with all four B girls’ quarterfinals. The Western A boys’ play four quarterfinal matches Monday, with the Western A girls following Tuesday. With the exception of an 11 a.m. game the first Saturday, no game starts before 2 p.m. The schedule is also set to rotate over four years, giving both genders and all classes an opportunity at prime slots.
“The feedback has really been excellent, especially when they see it’s a four-year rotation,” said Dolloff. “The one thing I worked at hardest was making it equitable for everyone. I had four tournaments to look at. I took the four tournaments and tried to make them equitable for all four. Then I took it over a four-year calendar.”
One of the features he tried to include are days that showcase girls’ and boys’ basketball.
In Augusta, the format won’t change much. The Eastern A field replaces the Western B teams. The only difference is that play begins earlier at 3 p.m. Friday with four Eastern A girls’ games, and follows with an 8:30 a.m. start Saturday morning with two Western D boys’ games and four Eastern A boys’ games, the last scheduled to start at 9:30 p.m.
Because of the large crowds expected with the Class A schools, there will be two-game sessions instead of four-game sessions during the quarterfinals.
“We come from a tournament set up that was weekends, to one that is during vacation week,” said Frank Keenan, the chairman of the Eastern A basketball committee. “That’s a significant change for us. The C and D committees have been very helpful in helping us put that together.”
The biggest difference may be from larger schools and crowds descending on the arena. The goal was to accommodate the Eastern A tournament while also protecting the integrity of the Western C and D events.
“There’s always going to be a challenge,” said Keenan, the principal at Easton Elementary School. “It’s a whole new set up for us. We’ve never run a tournament out of that site.”
Adjusting to the new schedule and venue is just part of the change for the Eastern A tournament. Joining a pair of Western Maine tournaments creates conflicts in the way things are done.
“Even though we’re sharing the site with Western Maine tournaments, we are an Eastern Maine tournament that’s representing Eastern Maine,” said Keenan. “We have to try to be consistent with what our Eastern Maine group is doing.”
The differences were relatively minor. One example is honoring individuals following the regional final. Western tournaments recognize the top player in each tournament, something Eastern Maine does not.
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