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DOVER-FOXCROFT — If the East team for the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl is a platoon, Anthony Pickell is its sergeant — at least as the unit enters each practice.

As the team files two-by-two onto the practice field behind Foxcroft Academy, the Messalonskee lineman shouts, ‘I left my home.” His teammates follow in unison, “to join the East squad.” 

“He gets us started every day,” said Waterville’s Donovan Porter, one of Pickell’s East teammates in Saturday’s all-star football game at Lewiston High School. “He’s a great teammate, and he’s one of our leaders. It’s great to have him here.”

It’s great for Pickell just to be here given where he was a year ago. Following a car accident that nearly claimed the life of his mother, Pickell is a leader for the East after a strong senior season for Messalonskee.

On July 28, 2024, Pickell and his mother, Sarah, were leaving First Church of Waterville on a humid Sunday morning. As they were about to traverse a crosswalk on Elm Street, a driver in a Jeep veered onto the sidewalk, striking both of them.

Although Anthony, amazingly, suffered only minor injuries despite being sent flying through the air, his mother was not quite so lucky. She was pinned beneath the vehicle, suffering six broken ribs, internal bleeding and a lacerated liver.

“She took the brunt of the car,” recalled Pickell, who described his own injuries as little more than road rash. “I was wondering for a while (if she was going to make it). … It was tough, mentally, to see her in the hospital. That was a lot of trauma.”

Sarah Pickell, who was taken by LifeFlight to Maine Medical Center in Portland, underwent five surgeries in seven days before being released after three weeks. The driver, 70-year-old Peter Michaud of Waterville, was charged with aggravated driving to endanger.

In the midst of it all, Anthony Pickell turned to football. Messalonskee players rallied around him, dedicating the team’s 2024 season to the Pickell family. At the season opener on Sept. 6 against Cony, Sarah Pickell, after whom Messalonskee renamed its “team mom” award, was presented with roses.

“That’s the kind of impact she had on the team and what she means to all of us,” said Messalonskee coach Blair Doucette, who is also an assistant coach for the East. “It brought the whole team together because everybody wanted to support Anthony.”

Pickell didn’t miss a game, garnering an All-Pine Tree Conference first-team selection at guard for Messalonskee, which won its first playoff game in eight years. He also had strong indoor and outdoor track seasons, emerging as one of the state’s top throwers.

Kyle Gallant, head coach of the East team, got a chance to see Pickell up close during Messalonskee’s 35-34 overtime win over his Hermon squad in Week 2. After seeing Pickell’s strength up front pave the way for the Eagles offensively that night, he’s happy the Sidney native is playing for him Saturday.

“You look back at that game, and he was amazing,” Gallant said. “He’s a big body, and he’s got great athletic ability, but he’s also got a great motor and a great work ethic. He’s the type of guy you wish you had 11 of, and I’m glad he’s on my side for once.”

Others see that, too. Winslow’s Seth Bard called Anthony “a dog” on the line; Porter, pointing to Pickell’s initiative in the team chant, called him one of the most vocal players; Drake Brunelle, Messalonskee’s other Lobster Bowl representative, raved about how Pickell fought through adversity in the aftermath of the incident.

There’s a lot of spirit on this East squad. Look, for example, at Lewiston’s Joe Dube and Lawrence’s Colton Carter, or at the Blue Devils’ Gage Parent, Falmouth’s Owen Bombardier and Portland’s Anthony Tavares. Yet even with all the personalities, Pickell stands out.

“He knows what he’s doing, and he sets our tone in practice and gets us going,” Gallant said. “I’m proud of him, and I’m glad that myself and everyone else here has gotten the chance to see who he is outside of a football helmet these past few days.”

As for Sarah Pickell, she’s made nearly a full recovery, running 3 miles every morning. Even as she recovered at home, she was able to attend every one of her son’s games in 2024 — and now, nearly a year later, she’ll get to see him take part in one of Maine’s greatest football traditions.

“She continues to amaze (my dad and I) every day with her attitude, how well she’s recovered and everything she can do,” Anthony Pickell said. “To have the season I had this year and be able to make it here for her, it’s just awesome.”