Gardiner junior Matt DelGallo remains unbeaten in Maine competition and appears headed for his third straight state championship.

I've been critical of Waterville's fan support in the past. The fans they have are great, but it just seems like there should be a lot more of them. Friday night against Mt. View, the fans showed up.

At halftime of Friday's basketball game between the Winslow and Erskine boys, the Black Raiders unveiled a new addition to Mansfield Gymnasium. A banner honoring the school's five 1,000 point scorers is now on display.

The five are: Rachel Bard '98 (1,003 points), Mark McInnis '93 (1,170), Stacey Grenier '93 (1,035), Bethany Roderique '02 (1,112) and Micah Grant '03 (1,097).

Bard, Roderique and Grant were on hand for the unveiling, and each received a basketball commemorating their accomplishment.

McInnis and Grenier, both unable to attend, will also receive a basketball.

Weight training has become a necessary and sometimes mandatory component of high school football. Teams that lift are stronger and the strong thrive. The same is also true in basketball.

Skowhegan sophomore guard Zoe Pease, who is already wearing a brace on her right knee because of an ACL injury, went down in a heap late in Tuesday's game against Nokomis.

The Heal points for girls basketball came out earlier today. I wanted to take a quick look at the classes which have teams in the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel coverage area (Eastern A, Eastern B, Western B, Western C, Western D).

There were referees with pink whistles, some interesting strategy down the stretch and one team's depth making the difference. All in all, just another night at the gymnasium.

Sunday's Fitzpatrick Trophy luncheon in Portland gave us a chance to reflect on the last high school football season. Bonny Eagle quarterback/defensive back Nate Doehler was a deserving winner, and semifinalists Billy Clark of Skowhegan and Justin Staires of Mountain Valley were worthy candidates, too.

We'll get a final chance to see these three, and many of the other outstanding seniors in the Class of 2009, represent their schools in the Lobster Bowl all star game this summer.

The Fitzpatrick Trophy presentation is a good time to look at the state of high school football in Maine. I'm happy to say the sport is in great shape.

The Hall-Dale girls basketball team will be down a couple of starters heading into its final four games of the regular season.

Given the history of great teams and great players at Winthrop and Hall-Dale high schools, you might think there would be more classics in the vault like Winthrop's 85-78 double overtime win over the Bulldogs on Thursday night.

Here are the results of the latest Class A Hockey Coaches/Media Poll, which was released Tuesday by the Maine Class A Hockey Coaches Association.

There are good point guards and then there are caretakers of the ball. Good point guards, like Hall-Dale's Tyler Cummings, make teams go.

HANOVER, N.H. -- Waterville Senior High School senior Shelby Tuttle won the triple jump at the Darmouth Relays at Dartmouth College over the weekend.

Tuttle won with a jump of 37-feet, 5.75 inches, beating second-place finisher Theresa Kennedy of Holy Names of New York, who had a jump of 37-0.

Tuttle also finished third in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 8.65 seconds. Kyle Plante of Colonie of New York won with a time of 8.44 seconds. Tuttle finished 10th in the 300 with a time of 43.91 seconds.

No team sport has as few competitions as cheerleading. The schools have the conference meet, the regional meet and (if they're lucky) the state championship meet. If they're really lucky, they'll move on to the New England championships.

Here is how I voted Monday in the latest Class A coaches/media poll:

You could almost see Edward Little's Corey Therriault salivating when Cony's Ray Cotnoir entered the game Friday night and began to guard him.

A few observations after Waterville turned aside Brewer 3-2 on Saturday:

Hackles get raised every time I've mentioned high school bands and their participation in athletic events, but here goes again.

Following Thursday's 46-41 loss to Lawrence, Skowhegan boys basketball coach Troy Scott confirmed that junior forward Paul Verville won't play this season.

Verville, one of the Indians' top offensive players last season, suffered a neck injury during the football season. Scott said that since Christmas, Verville has asked about playing, but the coach remained firm in his desire to let Verville fully heal and avoid the risk of greater injury.

"It wouldn't be any good to him," Scott said. "His health is more important than winning a basketball game."

After watching two-time defending Eastern Maine champ Bangor stumble to a 1-3 start, the thought around the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference was maybe the Rams were due for a down year.

After Tuesday's 44-37 win at Mt. Blue, it's safe to say the league is in for no such luck.

The win improved Bangor's record to 5-4, and coach Roger Reed thinks the slow start was just a matter of a young team gaining experience.

"I thought we had big upside, because we're so young," Reed said. "We have 11 new kids not used to our system."

Basketball fans have seen it dozens of times. A player receives a call he doesn't like, and instead of handing the ball to the official, he places it on the floor and walks away.

The first hockey Class A coaches/media poll will be released sometime this week. Here's my top 10 as I await Brewer-Waterville showdown Saturday morning at 10:30 at Colby:

Former Waterville coach Norm Gagne is enjoying his position with the Scarborough Red Storm this season.

A World Series champion was behind the visiting team's bench at the Kennebec Ice Arena on Saturday night.

Morgan Frame added to her already impressive resume Friday night when he surpassed the 1,000-point mark for her career in the Waterville girls basketball team's 55-20 win over Belfast.