LEWISTON – Bates College junior defender Meg Coffin has been named Second Team All-America by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, and she and two teammates were named to the All-Region team in New England.

Coffin and junior forward Kim Alexander of Cumberland made the NSCAA’s First Team All-Region, while sophomore midfielder Molly Wagner was named Second Team All-Region. Both Coffin and Alexander were named Second Team All-Region in the 2004 season.

Coffin switched from a wing defender spot in 2004 to the sweeper position in 2005, and served as the anchor of Bates’ tough defense, which held opponents to a mere .87 goals per game. The three-sport standout also scored six goals, tying her for eighth in NESCAC.

Alexander headed Bates’ high-octane offensive attack. Her 12 goals ties her with Tuft University’s Ariel Samuelson on top of the league’s scoring list. Alexander has made the All-NESCAC First Team for two consecutive years.

As the center midfielder, Wagner handled the ball as much as anyone on the team, and with great results. Her eight assists puts her alone atop the NESCAC rankings, and her five goals put her in a tie for eighth in the league. The three players all played an enormous role in an outstanding 2005 season for the Bobcats.

Hall announces Class of 2006

AUBURN – Seven-time track champion Dana Graves, former NASCAR National Modified Champion Ernie Gahan and the late Silas “Si” Parlin, a three-time track champion, are among the seven legends of Maine auto racing to be inducted into the Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame. The names of the seven newest members to the three-year old Hall of Fame were announced recently at a general meeting of the Maine Vintage Race Car Association.

Also named as members of the Class of 2006 are racing pioneer Arthur “Buster” Burt, legendary flagman Harold “Lefty” Ellis, racing official/technical director Ken Farrington and driver Al Robinson.

Graves began his career in the late 1950s, competing on eight different tracks in Maine. He won four championships at Unity Raceway and three titles at Speedway 95 in Bangor. Gahan was a weekly competitor at Sanford Speedway and at the Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in the 1950s before moving to NASCAR in the 1960s. He earned NASCAR’s national Modified crown in 1966.

Parlin was regarded as one of the best dirt track drivers in Maine, and began racing in the late 1940s. Parlin recorded two championships at Oxford Plains Speedway and one title at Beech Ridge. He also won races in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Canada during a stellar career. Parlin passed away last month. Burt also started his career in the 1940s on the dirt tracks of Maine, and later raced on the old beach course at Daytona and on the high banks of the famed superspeedway.

Ellis was a well known and respected flagman at Beech Ridge in the 1950s and early 1960s. Like many other flagmen of that era, he used to flag events from the racing surface. In dramatic fashion, Ellis would wave the green flag with cars going on both sides of him. Farrington got involved in racing as an official at Oxford in the 1950s. He was regarded as one of the wisest, most fair-handed officials in the region, and made big contributions to NASCAR’s Busch North Series in its formative years.

Robinson also started his racing career in the 1950s and continued on into the 1960s. He raced primarily at Unity Raceway and Speedway 95, and tutored three sons in the sport. The Class of 2006 will be honored at the Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame dinner and induction ceremonies at the Augusta Civic Center on Sunday, April 9, 2006.