In the winter, as Messalonskee High School’s ice hockey goalie Ben Weeks does his best to keep opponents from scoring. In the spring, when he’s on the attack for the Eagles’ lacrosse team, Weeks knows all the soft spots a goalie tries to hide.
Travis Lazarczyk
Columnist
Travis Lazarczyk has covered sports for the Portland Press Herald since 2021. A Vermont native, he graduated from the University of Maine in 1995 with a BA in English. After a few years working as a sports information director and in the ski industry, he began his journalism career at the Berlin (N.H.) Reporter in 1999. Prior to joining the Press Herald, Lazarczyk spent 20 years covering sports in central Maine at the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal. He's been twice honored as the Maine Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association.
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TRAVIS LAZARCZYK: Trash talk here to stay
My brother, Keith, tells a good story about a moment from the 1999 Vermont Division I high school football championship game.
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HIGH SCHOOL: Babin takes over as AD at Nokomis
NEWPORT — Mark Babin started his new job as athletic director at Nokomis Regional High School on Monday and the biggest challenge he faces is simple. “Just getting to know everyone is the big thing right now,” Babin said.
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TRAVIS LAZARCZYK: A giant dream realized
Mike Mestieri works in the family business. The hours are long, the pay isn’t great, but he loves every minute of it.
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Clukey delivers positive message at camp
This is the second year Julia Clukey has organized and operated her Camp For Girls at the Kennebec Valley YMCA camp on Maranacook Lake. Ninety-eight girls ages 8 to 12 signed up for this summer’s two week session, which ends today. Approximately 95 showed up each day. Thanks to a number of central Maine businesses, 45 percent of the campers received some type of financial aid in paying the $350 cost of the camp, and 37 campers had their fees paid in full.
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NEW ENGLAND BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME: Second chance leads to success for Wood Borgman
If it were not for her time playing basketball with the All-American Red Heads, Sheryl Wood Borgman thinks her life would be completely different. She almost certainly wouldn’t have gone to college, which means she never would have become a high school English teacher, which means she never would have coached basketball, volleyball or softball. That softball team Borgman started at Faith Christian School in Lafayette, Indiana, where she currently teaches, wouldn’t exist.
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TRAVIS LAZARCZYK: Winkin gets his due
Ryan Rebar looked over his shoulder, to the spot he was standing when he handed the Dr. John Winkin Award to his uncle. The Senior All-Star Game was about to start, and Rebar and his East teammates prepared to take the field.
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HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL: Rebar is Mr. Baseball
ORONO — After a season in which he was named the Penobscot Valley Conference pitcher and player of the year, Foxcroft Academy’s Ryan Rebar had one more award to claim.
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NE BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME: Lawrence’s McGee was a good player, too
When the New England Basketball Hall of Fame let Mike McGee know he would be inducted as a member of the Class of 2013, it was easy to think McGee was entering the Hall as a high school coach. McGee retired after this past season, ending 28-year career as head boys basketball coach at Lawrence High School with 350 wins, five Eastern Class A titles and two state championships.
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TRAVIS LAZARCZYK: Dad has the answers
Dads, they all have opinions. Give my father, John Lazarczyk, an opening, and he’ll go on for an hour about how the Baltimore Colts of the 1950s were an indestructible football machine.