DIXFIELD – Hundreds of basketball fans will be glued to their televisions or to bleacher seats Saturday night when the Dirigo High School Cougar boys’ basketball team squares off against the Calais High School Blue Devils for the state Class C championship.

This is the first time in 26 years that the Dirigo boys’ team has made it to the championship game, and SAD 21 residents are thrilled.

“We’re very excited,” said Tom Tompkins of Carthage, a Dirigo High School graduate and former basketball player for the team.

Tompkins will be traveling to Bangor with a group of family members, and his 4-year-old son, Dakota.

“Dakota thinks Tom Knight is an NBA star,” Tompkins said. “He has a Dirigo boys basketball team shirt.”

Knight, at 6 feet, 8 inches, may very well make it there someday. The team center received a basketball scholarship to Notre Dame where he plans to major in marketing.

Tompkins believes this year’s team has an incredible amount of talent.

So does Dixfield resident Randy DeRoche, who plans to attend the game Saturday night after his fifth-grade son, Randy Jr., plays basketball with the travel team at the Bangor YMCA.

“I think we’re going to take it (the gold ball). I think we’re going all the way,” DeRoche said.

Mark Folland, an Andover resident who graduated from Mountain Valley High School, follows many area sports teams.

“I think Tom Knight is one of the top basketball players in Maine, and the coach is one of the best. He took the Dirigo girls team to the Class C championships and now he’s taking the boys,” Folland said.

Coach Gavin Kane was the girls’ coach when Tom Knight’s sister Holly played for the state championship team.

Tom said she’ll be there to watch him and the rest of the team play Saturday night.

The Dirigo girls’ team, which won several state championships, with the most recent in 2005, often went against the Calais team.

Dirigo High School assistant principal and athletic director, Charles Swan, said the Bangor Auditorium will have many, many Cougar fans there on Saturday.

“A lot of students, staff and community members have been traveling to Augusta,” he said of the games leading up to the championship. “People aren’t surprised to see Dirigo versus Calais. A lot of people are anticipating a good game.”

Prior to the boys’ Class C championship game, the girls Class C game will be played between Jay and George Stevens Academy.

People from the Dixfield and Jay areas have been cheering each other’s teams on. So have the teams.

The Jay girls sent 16 bags of candy, decorated with cougar paws, to the Dirigo boys. In turn, the boys sent the Lady Tigers flowers.

Dirigo High School is sending a fan bus to Bangor on Saturday afternoon. Anyone wishing to take the bus should come to the high school by 4 p.m. Fans will be taken on a first come-first served basis for a travel fee of $3 to $5. Swan isn’t sure what the cost will be until Saturday.

Win or lose, the high school will host a reception for the basketball team at 6 p.m. Monday in the school’s community room. Students, staff and community members are all invited, Principal Michael Poulin said.

The trophy case in the corridor is full right now, but Poulin said that’s not a problem.

“We’d love to have to make room for the gold ball,” he said.

The game begins at 9 p.m. and will be broadcast on MPBN.