Tennis teams from Dexter, Foxcroft and PCHS took part in the postseason.

Saturday, May 25 was the first day this year that the temperature exceeded 70 degrees at Chesuncook Lake. The lake was flat calm in the morning and there was just a whiff of a breeze in the afternoon. The sun was reflecting brightly off the cool glassy lake surface. If you weren’t paying attention, you ended up with a nice spring sunburn. The flying ants and other insects were stretching their wings and shrugging off Maine’s lethargic start to spring.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine recently attended the Maine Sports Hall of Fame VIP reception, where she met with this year’s recipients of the 2019 Maine Sports Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete Awards. The six students were presented with $5,000 scholarships during the 44th annual awards ceremony on May 19 at Merrill Auditorium.

Golfing season is here. Gordon Contracting and Pine Tree Hospice bring you this year’s big fundraiser at Foxcroft Golf Club on Saturday, June 15. This fun event has been a huge success for years – it’s a favorite of so many people who look forward to it.

It was mid-November in the Big Deer Woods. A northeast wind was rocking the hemlock tops and pushing a cold, pelting rain that seemed to penetrate the slicker beneath my wool hunting shirt. The damp, raw day was in my pores. Noon or not, it was time to call it a day.

Three athletes from the area earned first-place honors at the 2019 Penobscot Valley Conference Outdoor Track & Field Frosh Championships on May 28 at Hampden Academy.

Penquis Valley High School senior Cymeria Robshaw won the 100-meter dash and triple jump and she finished as the long jump runner-up during the 2019 Penobscot Valley Conference Small School Outdoor Track & Field Championship on May 24 at Bucksport High School.

Piscataquis Community High School senior Eben Cooley and Foxcroft Academy junior Olivia Wesley took part in the 2019 MPA state tennis singles tourney, which began on May 24 at Apex Racket and Fitness. The pair earned bids to the tournament by winning qualifying matches, which put them in the top 48 boys and girls tennis players across all three classes of high school tennis.

Athletes from area high schools took part in the Penobscot Valley Conference junior varsity outdoor track and field championships on May 22 at the Brewer Community School.

Annie Raynes of SeDoMoCha Middle School won the grade 7-8 800. Raynes covered the two laps around the track in a time of 2 minutes, 42.25, narrowly edging the 2:42.66 for Isabelle Fox of the William S. Cohen School in Bangor.

Anglers who fish in Maine now have a new tool that makes it quick and easy to find out the fishing regulations on any of the state’s inland waters. The Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife has created Maine’s Fishing Laws Online Angling Tool (FLOAT), an online map-based tool that can be accessed from your computer or your smartphone, giving you access to fishing regulations for all your favorite fishing waters.

Baserunners were few and far between for John Bapst Memorial High School of Bangor during a May 21 Class B North softball game at Foxcroft Academy. The Ponies allowed just five players to get on base, with two coming on dropped third strikes and only two of the five getting into scoring position, in seven innings. Senior Makenzie Beaudry tossed a 1-hitter with zero walks and 15 strikeouts. The shutout is the team’s sixth in 13 games.

On Saturday, May 18 the Foxcroft boys placed fifth of six teams at Old Town High School with a score of 57 points.

While southernmost Maine has turned away from American Legion baseball in recent years, the tradition-laden summer program has battled to maintain its foothold in eastern and central areas of the state. From its peak of 48 Senior Legion teams spread from central Aroostook County to the New Hampshire border in 2007, the roster of programs for the oldest level of the national program in the Pine Tree State has gradually dipped to just 16 teams this summer.

Four of the region’s high school track teams took part in a May 17 Penobscot Valley Conference meet at the University of Maine.

Dexter Regional High School did most of its damage in the top of the third, scoring five runs on the way to a 7-0 Class C North victory at neighboring Piscataquis Community High School May 15 to start the second half of the regular season for both teams. The Tigers (7-2) won for the seventh time in eight games since the 2019 opener while the host Pirates dropped to 2-7.

In rural Maine the ownership and use of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) of every make and description has become a way of life. This ATV presence has taken off like a rocket leaving the launch pad at Cape Kennedy. According to Maine state officials, ATVs generate $250 million a year in revenue.

We are hoping to recreate some of that success on Chesuncook Lake and we need the help of anglers interested in catching salmon. The situation on Chesuncook Lake is similar to that of Moosehead Lake back in 2008. The lake simply has too many salmon and growth is suffering. At one time, this lake produced some of the largest salmon in the Moosehead Lake region.