The John Bapst High School girls basketball team had a bit more excitement than it bargained for during its trip to Presque Isle on Wednesday afternoon.
Shortly after crossing the Aroostook County line on Interstate 95 in their Cyr motorcoach, bus driver Don Paul made a noise and hit the brakes.
Head coach Chris Woodside was talking to assistant coach Harold Williams when he heard the noise.
“A turkey hit the mirror and the window,” said Woodside. “It came out of nowhere. It was unavoidable.
“It was pretty wild. No pun intended,” added Woodside, who at the time was talking to assistant coach Harold Williams.
“It damaged the driver’s side mirror and put a crack in the windshield,” added Woodside.
No one was hurt. And after Paul pulled into the breakdown lane, stopped and surveyed the damage for a few minutes, the Crusaders continued their journey.
Woodside doesn’t know the fate of the turkey, but said his girls took the adventure in stride and even had a little fun with it.
“They named the turkey ‘Sherman’ because that’s where it happened,” said Woodside.
Paul later fixed the mirror after the bus pulled over in Houlton for the usual routine of stretching their legs and using the restroom.
The windshield was replaced Thursday morning after it had returned to John T. Cyr & Sons, Inc./Cyr Bus Line in Old Town.
Woodside praised Paul’s handling of the situation, calling him “a world-class bus driver.”
He was also thankful they were in a Cyr coach rather than a yellow school bus, because he speculated that the turkey might have had more of a negative impact if it had hit a regular school bus.
The turkey was only part of the adventure.
After getting off I-95 onto Route 1, the bus was delayed 35 minutes because a tractor-trailer had slid off the road into a snowbank in the left lane in Bridgewater.
The subsequent cleanup resulted in one-lane traffic.
“We usually get to a game an hour before but we got there 25 minutes before,” said Woodside. “We still had plenty of time to get ready.”
He learned that there was an even longer delay for travelers who came upon the scene later.
“The parents of our players didn’t get to the game until the second quarter and the third official didn’t arrive until late in the second quarter,” said Woodside.
To cap the day, Presque Isle beat John Bapst 55-50.
“But (the misadventure) had nothing to do with the outcome of the game,” insisted Woodside, who put the day into perspective.
“Whenever you travel in Maine, expect the unexpected,” said Woodside, who said his girls will have a lifetime memory.
“They’ll always be able to tell this story but I don’t know if they’ll remember if we won or lost,” said Woodside.
Paul didn’t have much time to share his ordeal with friends and family because he drove the University of Maine men’s hockey team to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst on Thursday.
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