KENTS HILL — Members of the Gardiner hockey team skated up and down the ice in a series of flow drills at Bonnefond Ice Arena. The Tigers worked on puck handling and, as senior Jeff McAuslin said, “getting our hockey legs back.”
It was a typical first day of practice for the Tigers in what promises to be a season like no other.
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Winter sports teams practiced for the first time Monday, and that meant the first of many long days for the Gardiner hockey team.
Gardiner, along with Cony, was left without a home rink when the Kennebec Ice Arena collapsed in March. Cony will play its home games at Kents Hill this season.
Gardiner decided to play a full slate of true road games, although it will practice at Kents Hill.
“We’ll be on a bus the whole year,” said Gardiner senior forward Cam Sullivan. “We were kind of upset about it at first, that we couldn’t play at home. We really love our fans because they get us going. But I think this will be a good bonding experience for us.”
Added McAuslin, who will play primarily at defense this season: “It bummed us out for a little bit, but we still have a team and we still have a place to play, so that is a positive.”
Gardiner coach Jeff Ross, whose team finished 5-13-0 last season, said he addressed the situation with his team and urged them to “move on.”
“It stinks,” he said. “It’s not ideal, but it is what it is. There’s not much we can do. We won’t belly ache about it. We can cry about it, or we can get over it. We’re thankful we have a place to play. We’ll spend a lot of time on buses this season, but that’s OK. We’ll be road warriors this season.”
Ross said he’ll have about 18 players this season.
“We’ll get them used to battling,” he said. “We get right into it. I don’t spend a lot of time talking out on the ice. We don’t have a lot of time to waste. We really just wanted to skate them (Monday).”
The Maranacook/Hall-Dale/Winthrop hockey team also practiced at Kents Hill on Monday.
Coach Andy Dube said he planned to ease the Hawks into the season. MHW finished 11-7-1 and reached the Eastern A quarterfinals last season.
“We’ll do some skating and passing drills but we don’t try to do too much,” Dube said. “We’ll have easy practices the first two days. We give them one or two days to loosen up, but we’ll push them hard at the end of the week.”
MHW and Gardiner will skate against Brewer in exhibition games this weekend.
Elsewhere Monday, several members of the state championship-winning Richmond girls soccer team transitioned to basketball.
The Bobcats, who had about 20 players out, return a strong and talented team that should contend in Western D.
“I’m excited,” Richmond coach Molly Bishop said. “I’m ready to have my squad.”
Danica Hurley and Jamie Plummer helped the Bobcats win the Class D girls soccer state title this fall. The two said they were eager to start playing basketball again.
“I have been looking forward to this day since the summer,” Plummer said. “There’s high expectations and a lot of pressure on us, but we have the potential to be back where we were last year.”
Richmond reached the Class D state title game last season, losing to Washburn 43-30.
“We’ve all been looking forward to (Monday),” Hurley said. “Our victory this fall in soccer, we’re hoping to feed off that and use that positive energy.”
Cony boys basketball coach Tim Bonsant said about 35 players came out Monday, with many already in “great shape.”
“My kids are in better shape coming into the season, which is a huge plus,” said Bonsant, whose team was picked by coaches to finish eighth in Eastern A this season. “Instead of having to work so hard to get in shape we could go over plays. It was quite an advantage. It took three weeks last year to get in shape and then we were three weeks behind most of the year. The kids did their part and now it’s up to us to do ours.”
Walker Cooper, Chandler Shostak and Zach Lachance should lead the Rams this season.
The Cony swimming teams also returns plenty of talented athletes from last season, including Victoria Weber and Tyler McKinley.
Coach Jon Millett said it takes a few weeks for the newcomers to adjust.
“We have some quality back, and we have that to look forward to,” he said. “We start off with a review of stroke mechanics. We gradually build into things. The first three weeks are the hardest part. Just getting the new kids ready for the season, it’s hard.”
Bill Stewart — 621-5640
bstewart@centralmaine.com
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