Bangor High School’s success in baseball and boys basketball during the past few years featured several common denominators.
Prominent among them were the state championships won by the Rams in both sports and Noah Missbrenner’s contributions to those efforts.
Whether batting in the middle of the lineup while playing first base or pitching on the diamond, or combining hard-nosed defense with a timely shooting touch from beyond the 3-point arc on the court, the recently graduated Missbrenner was a significant contributor to three Class A baseball state championships and the 2019 Class AA basketball state crown.
The three-sport athlete also played three years of soccer and a year of football for the Rams. Outside the athletic arena, Missbrenner was an honor roll student, member of student council and math team, and a National Honor Society inductee.
Missbrenner’s athletic success and the breadth of his contributions to his school have resulted in his selection as the latest recipient of Bangor High School’s annual Red Barry Foundation Scholarship.
The $3,000 Barry award was created in 1989 in honor of the longtime former Bangor High School teacher, coach and athletic director. It is presented annually to the Bangor senior who best lives up to the standards set by Barry for academic and athletic achievement, sportsmanship, compassion and honesty.
Candidates are nominated by their coaches, with the recipient selected by a scholarship committee.
Barry, a 1991 Maine Sports Hall of Fame inductee, was perhaps best known for his 22 years as Bangor’s boys varsity basketball coach. He guided the Rams to a 281-69 record with 18 tournament berths, state championships in 1955 and 1959, and two appearances in the New England basketball championships with a runner-up in finish in 1959.
The Bangor High School gym is named in his honor.
“It means a lot, especially for an award named after such a special man who means so much to Bangor High School,” said Missbrenner, the son of Mike and Robyn Missbrenner. “To be one of the student-athletes who has received this award, it’s a great honor considering how many great athletes have gone through Bangor High School and are in the school now.”
Missbrenner credited the guidance he received from his teachers and coaches for much of the success he and his Bangor teams achieved.
“I’ve had such great coaches that have taught me how to be a leader and have taught us about being a team and how much team chemistry can get you places, especially this year in basketball,” he said. “We probably weren’t the most talented team always, but we were such a close group. The teams at Bangor really got along and that’s something I’ve learned that will help me in the future.”
Missbrenner, who is playing Senior American Legion baseball this summer for Bangor’s Coffee News Comrades, will attend Holy Cross this fall to study pre-med.
He also will attempt to join the Crusaders’ baseball team as a walk-on or continue to play his favorite sport on the club level at the Worcester, Massachusetts, school.
“With baseball there’s a lot of failure, but the pressure of overcoming it and how much work you have to put in to be good at it, that’s what I like about it,” Missbrenner said.
