But the South and its West region high school seniors from the 2018 season reasserted their collective strength Saturday at steamy Thornton Academy in Saco, racing out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead and cruising to a record-breaking 60-14 victory over the East.

Recently Maine’s new fish and wildlife commissioner, Judy Camuso, was a studio guest on Maine Calling, an interactive radio program on the National Public Radio station in Portland. She performed well as she outlined the goals and challenges of the Department in the months ahead. The control of coyote populations in the North Woods by IF&W contractors, as well as recreational hunters, was a hot topic. There was a pronounced “urban bias” as some callers railed against coyote-population control as an institutionalized policy implemented by the Department.

Luis Ayala, who has coached the Foxcroft Academy wrestling team to six state championships in 17 years, will be one of four new inductees into the Maine Amateur Wrestling Alliance (MAWA) Hall of Fame next month.

On July 4 three area residents took part in the 39th annual Walter Hunt Memorial 4th of July 3K from Brewer to Bangor.

Al Harris of Hampden and his brother-in-law, Joe Vachon of Toronto, spent a few days fishing together last week, landing an unlikely fish story in the process.

Both will be prominent during this week’s All-Star Game festivities at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio, and both are using bats made in Maine.

Seventy runners took part in the annual Fourth of July 5K on Independence Day morning. Shawn Keenan, 41, won the race a time of 18 minutes, 40 seconds over the 3.1 miles.

Twenty two boats showed up to paddle in the annual Sebec Fourth of July canoe race this year.

Officials with the Penquis Youth Hockey Association had a great deal of fun debuting its “Zamboni” in the annual Fourth of July parade on Thursday in Sebec Village. The public is encouraged to keep an eye out for the float in future parades and events. T

That epitomized Fletcher, a longtime teacher, coach, athletic administrator and the site director of the Maine Principals’ Association Eastern Maine basketball tournaments at the Bangor Auditorium for 26 years. The Milo native died June 29 at the age of 88.

The Foxcroft Youth Track program kicked off the summer season with a June 27 USATF Group D meet at Old Town High School.

A Hex, or if your Latin is good, a Hexagenia limbata, is a bomber-size Mayfly that shows up on Maine trout ponds in mid-summer, usually early July. For a trout, they are a turkey dinner with all the fixin's - a chance to get the most amount of food for the least amount of effort.

Come July 14, a group of Maine Key Clubs, led by the club at Penquis Valley High School in Milo, will stage an event that you may want to consider supporting. Not your run-of-the-mill fundraiser, the first Schoodic Lake Bass Fishing Tournament is trying to share something that Maine has plenty of -- fresh water -- with countries that simply don’t have enough of it.

Look, most of us who love to fish Maine in early June expect to be swatting a few bugs, right? When I was a lad fishing with Dad he always lathered me up with that black, foul-smelling Old Woodsman fly dope. I’d complain about the stinky stuff and whine about the buzzing hordes and he would say, “It’s part of the deal, son, bugs and trout. You can’t have one without the other.”

The 2019 Penquis Rec Girls Softball League playoffs and championship games were held on Saturday, June 22 at Veterans Memorial Park in Sangerville. In the grade 3-4 division, Palmyra defeated the hometown Pirates from Guilford/Sangerville.

Again in 2019 the Maine Whoopie Pie Festival kicked off on Saturday morning, June 22, with the Piscataquis Regional YMCA’s Earn Your Whoopie Pie 3K, along with a 1K kids fun run. The 10th annual races took place on a new course, both starting and ending at the PRYMCA on Park Street with the older runners covering portions of Park Street, Autumn Avenue and Summer and North streets.

Senior Gage Stone of Dexter Regional High School and Foxcroft Academy senior Enrico Ayala have been selected along with 16 other of Maine’s top wrestlers for the 34th annual Maine–Nebraska Wrestling Exchange. Foxcroft head coach Luis Ayala has also been selected along with three other coaches for the trip.

Some days, any angler will tell you, the fishing seems pretty simple, and the fish nearly hop into the boat. And other days, that’s just not the case. The fish are just plain finicky, and an outing turns into a guessing game of “what do they really want to eat?”