When Coach Joe Robinson removed his Portland/South Portland/Deering/Waynflete cooperative hockey team from the ice in the first period of Saturday night’s game against Old Town-Orono at Alfond Arena and refused to return, the Black Bears were awarded their first win of the season via forfeit, 1-0.
That decision could have serious repercussions for the Beacons.
Mike Bisson, the assistant executive director of the Maine Principals Association, pointed out on Tuesday that the MPA “doesn’t allow forfeits.”
Bisson said in his nine years with the MPA, he has never encountered a situation like this one.
“Right now the schools are looking into it. We’ll see what needs to be done,” said Bisson, who will replace the retiring Mike Burnham as the MPA’s executive director at the end of this school year.
Todd Livingston, the athletic director at South Portland, said the four athletic directors have been gathering information from team members and parents who were in Orono and will be meeting at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to “talk our way through what we learned” and decide a course of action.
The other athletic directors are Portland’s Spencer Allen, Deering of Portland’s Michael Daly and Waynflete of Portland’s Ross Burdick.
Livingston said he discovered on an email chain between the athletic directors and MPA officials that the forfeit could very well end their season immediately with two games still remaining.
And, according to the MPA handbook, “Any member school which submits a game schedule in Heal Point or Crabtree sports for a specific sport and does not complete that season’s schedule will be prohibited from participating in varsity competition leading to postseason play in that sport for the following two years.”
Livingston noted that there is an appeals process to the Interscholastic Management Committee and, in the past, “the MPA has taken a stance to not penalize kids for a decision that an adult made.”
According to Old Town-Orono head coach Scott Rhynold, the Portland-area Beacons were assessed an interference penalty and Robinson, the Beacons coach, then received a bench minor for protesting the call, meaning the Beacons would be down two players for a full two minutes.
Old Town-Orono was leading 2-1 at the time.
There was some milling around on the ice before Robinson motioned for his players to leave the ice and head to the locker room before heading home, according to Rhynold.
“I was in shock and disbelief. I had never seen anything like it before,” said the 30-year-old Rhynold, who was previously an assistant for three years at Old Town-Orono after playing four seasons for Dr. Carl Flynn at Presque Isle High School.
The Old Town-Orono coach said he didn’t realize what was happening until the visiting Beacons started to head to the locker room.
“I didn’t understand what was truly happening until they started marching up the stairs,” Rhynold said.
Rhynold said he had chatted with Robinson before the game and informed him that the referees in northern Maine called games a little tighter than their southern Maine counterparts.
The teams had met a week ago in Portland with the Portland/SP coop team winning 3-2. Rhynold said that there were probably 70 penalty minutes called on the two teams in that game, and he didn’t want another penalty-filled contest in Orono.
The Beacons, who are now 4-12 on the season, are scheduled to play the Marshwood of Eliot/Noble of North Berwick/Sanford/ Traip Academy of Kittery coop team on Saturday and the Kennebunk/Wells coop team next Thursday, Feb. 19.
It was Seniors Night for Old Town-Orono and they honored their only senior, Orono defenseman Noah Schneider, before the game.
“He was the most disheartened,” Rhynold said. “It was a special night for him and he wasn’t able to compete for a full game,”
Rhynold said it was a “little strange” to have his first win as a head coach be a forfeit, but he added that his players were happy to dent the win column after losing their first 13 contests.
The Old Town-Orono coach said he has discussed the situation with his players and is using it as a learning tool.
“We put a big focus on how rare of a situation it is and how important discipline is on and off the ice,” said Rhynold. “We’re using it to move forward in a positive way and focusing on what not to do and how we have to conduct ourselves.”
Old Town-Orono, now 1-14, has road games remaining against the Cony of Augusta co-op team on Wednesday and Camden Hills of Rockport on Saturday and a home game against Messalonskee of Oakland on Monday.