DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — One player who won’t be able to participate in Saturday’s Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic football all-star game at Waterhouse Field in Biddeford is recent Foxcroft Academy graduate Hunter Smith.
Smith, the 6-foot-4 wide receiver who will join the University of Maine football program on scholarship in August, is recovering from a case of mononucleosis he contracted last month.
Smith said Monday that he feels better and has joined his East squad teammates for the Lobster Bowl training camp being held this week at his alma mater. But he added that he still has an enlarged spleen related to the illness and must avoid contact until that is resolved in the coming weeks.
Instead, Smith is serving as a player-coach of sorts for the East offense, a role similar to what he did last fall for the Foxcroft football team after suffering a dislocated hip during a preseason game and missing his entire senior season with the Ponies.
Smith did return to good health in time to play basketball for Foxcroft last winter as well as help the Ponies win the Class B state championship in outdoor track and field this spring by scoring individual victories in the 110 hurdles and high jump and placing second in the long and triple jumps.
He also played in the Blue-Grey North-South All-American Bowl high school all-star football game at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, in January.
