University of Southern Maine baseball coach Ed Flaherty admits he wasn’t completely sold on Dave Ricker when he recruited him at Winthrop High School.

It wasn’t quite spring training in Fort Myers, Fla., but Monday’s opening day of the spring high school season here in Central Maine sure felt like it. With the thermometer nudging 70 degrees, many players went outside and practiced in shorts and T-shirts.

Tammy Cushman and Emily Levasseur aren’t picky about their wrestling opponents. Boys, girls — it makes little difference. In a sport dominated by males, it’s rare that they face an opponent of the same gender, though. Levasseur, who wrestles for Monmouth Middle School, has faced just one girl in 12 matches this spring while Cushman rarely wrestled girls in her four years at Monmouth Academy.

Hall-Dale High School athletic director Tim Johnson gets the itch every spring to get back into the dugout and coach.

A week after his final college basketball game, Sam Leclerc was back in the gym working on his game. It’s a routine he began early in his high school career at Winthrop and old habits die hard.

LEWISTON — The pain of defeat was still fresh on Travis St. Pierre’s face Saturday afternoon as he emerged from the locker room at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.