It's always tough interviewing a coach after a tough loss. If I were a coach in that situation, probably the last person I'd want to talk to is someone with a notebook or a tape recorder. So it's nice when there's another reminder that we have some good people coaching in central Maine.

On Friday, I watched Waterville defeat MCI, 66-15 in girls basketball. MCI was never in the game after midway through the first quarter, and Waterville is going to do that to a lot of teams this season.

After the game, MCI coach Jason Allen sat with me in the bleachers and thoughtfully answered each of my questions. It was classy, and we reporters appreciate that.

There are coaches who wouldn't do that. Some coaches, when we don't hear their scores, you know automatically it's because they lost. Those same coaches call in their wins without fail.

But coaches like Allen, and Maranacook's Jon Berry, who called in every game last season when the Black Bears were 0-18, and Cony's Paul Vachon, who knows when a loss gets called in everyone will be talking about it -- those coaches and others are doing their players a much better service.

Because if you think about it, if a coach expects his players to go all out on the court, that same coach can take a few minutes to call all the local papers with the results, and give the players the recognition they deserve.