The 2019 high school football season ended with teams from southern Maine dominating postseason play. While the South swept this year’s state finals, it was a better year statewide than others of recent vintage thanks to tiered scheduling and the implementation of an eight-player division.

The Harlem Wizards will be coming to Dexter Regional High School for a game at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 14 in the gymnasium. This is going to be a fun and entertaining evening of basketball tricks and jokes alike, and it would make for a great family night out. The Wizards will be playing against some favorite high school and Ridge View Community School staff and coaches.

Sportsmen love their toys. Of course, they prefer to consider these toys as indispensable tools for the outdoors. Sometimes the best gift one can give to an outdoorsman or woman is a tool or device that he or she might not either think to buy for themselves or feel comfortable buying.

Cassidy Marsh of the Class C champion Foxcroft Academy field hockey team has been chosen as the 2019 Penobscot Valley Conference (PVC) Player of the Year. Pony head coach Stephanie Smith was named Coach of the Year.

Some may disagree, but I’m among those who generally embrace today’s advancements in technology, even as it fits into those more peaceful times I spend in the woods.

Back in 2010, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife began honoring one individual a year with the Legendary Maine Guide Award. That first year, the honoree was Wilmot “Wiggie” Robinson of Millinocket, who won the award posthumously. The award now bears his name, and the DIF&W is seeking nominees for the 2020 award.

Five high school golfers from the region earned postseason Penobscot Valley Conference recognition.

John Holyoke, outdoors columnist for the Bangor Daily News for the past 17 years, follows a long succession of the newspaper’s well-known outdoor writers – Bill Geagan, Bud Leavitt, and Tom Hennessey. Like some of those before him, Holyoke started out as a sports reporter for the BDN.

An anticipated battle of speed versus size went the quicker guys’ way Saturday, Nov. 23 as Lisbon defeated previously undefeated Little Ten Conference member Bucksport 28-8 to capture the Class D football state championship at Fitzpatrick Stadium.

Cobblestone beaches and the dramatic ocean cliffs. Mossy forests and scenic trout ponds. Open mountaintops and a roaming moose. These are some of the scenes you’ll enjoy in the new outdoor film “Untold Secret,” recently released by the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands.

With a week and a half left in the regular firearms deer season, hunters are on pace to tag more than 30,000 deer this year, according to the state deer biologist and an independent analysis of available data.

Upcoming sporting events around the region.

We’re getting to the point in deer season when the state’s top question -- “Get your deer yet?” -- is being answered in the affirmative much more often. In fact, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, 19,801 deer have been tagged thus far, with nearly two weeks of the regular firearms season remaining.

The Piscataquis County Ice Arena announced that the Center Theatre is sponsoring a free public skating session at the arena from 6-8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 29. Members of the cast of the upcoming production of “Little Women” will be on hand in Victorian costume to skate and help with the evening. Skates will be available for rental from the arena will also have the concessions stand open for snacks

Five players from the area’s three high school field hockey programs have been chosen for the 2019 Maine Field Hockey Association All-State team. The local honorees on the Class C squad are Cheyenne Beem and Avery Herrick of Dexter Regional High School, Foxcroft Academy’s Cassidy Marsh and Ava Rayfield and Sydney Hutchins of Piscataquis Community High School.

Maine’s high school football season comes to a close later this week, and the Maine Principals’ Association has announced the game times for action in all four classes.

Traveling along the bank of Musquash Stream in Nahmakanta Public Lands, a scenic hiking trail visits a series of small waterfalls before turning back into the forest and forming a small loop. This 0.9-mile trail is one of the many hikes located on the state-owned property, which encompasses 43,000 acres about halfway between Moosehead and Millinocket.

Heading into the 2019 Class D North/Little Ten Conference championship on Friday, Nov. 15 on the artificial turf at Hampden Academy, second-seeded Dexter Regional High School had little room for error against No. 1 Bucksport High School. The Golden Bucks would tally more than 400 yards on the ground and take advantage of four Tiger turnovers, with three of these changes in possession leading to touchdowns, in a 46-8 victory.