With several days of rain in the forecast, the Maine Principals’ Association has decided to change its field hockey playoff schedule.
The quarterfinals had been originally scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at the sites of the higher seeds, while the semifinals were set for Saturday at the higher seeds and the regional finals were going to be held on Tuesday at Hampden Academy (Eastern Maine) and Scarborough (Western Maine) followed by the three state championship games at Thomas College in Waterville on Nov. 1.
The quarterfinals are still tentatively scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday but the semifinals have been moved from Saturday to Tuesday to allow Saturday to be used as a makeup date for quarterfinal games. Following the Tuesday semifinals, the regional title games will now be played on Thursday.
The Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal between No. 1 Skowhegan and No. 8 Bangor, originally scheduled for Wednesday, has already been moved to 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Colby College in Waterville, which has artificial turf.
“If we get the rain we’re supposed to, a lot of the [natural grass] fields won’t be playable,” Mike Burnham, the MPA’s assistant executive director, said.
He explained the quarterfinals are divided into two days “because we wouldn’t have enough officials if we played them all on one day.”
That’s why Wednesday games couldn’t have been rescheduled for Tuesday as was the original request made by Bangor and Skowhegan.
Burnham said it was important to be “flexible” and give schools an extra day to use for quarterfinals to ensure they are able to play on a good surface and have quality officials.
“You can play football and soccer in the rain but the weather conditions are really important in field hockey,” Burnham said, referring to the danger involved with having a hard ball skipping on a wet surface.
Hampden Academy and Scarborough have artificial surfaces as does Thomas College.
Skowhegan, which has won 12 Class A state championships in 13 years, is the top seed in Eastern Maine Class A even though it had its 78-game winning streak snapped and lost twice to Messalonskee of Oakland during the season. Skowhegan is 12-2 along with No. 2 Lawrence of Fairfield and No. 3 Messalonskee.
Gardiner, under first-year coach Sharon Gallant, who replaced the legendary Moe McNally, is the top seed in Class B thanks to its 12-1-1 record and Mary Beth Bourgoin guided 13-0-1 Winslow to the top spot in C.
Defending Class B state champ Nokomis of Newport finished ninth at 5-8-1 and didn’t make the playoffs while Class C state titlist Foxcroft Academy is the third seed at 13-1.