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With snow in the forecast, the MPA postpones state title basketball games and hockey semifinals.

By RACHEL LENZI, Staff Writer February 29, 2008

The Maine Principals' Association postponed six championship basketball games and the entire slate of hockey semifinals scheduled for today, after the National Weather Service issued a weekend storm warning.

The state is under a heavy snow warning for today and Sunday morning, and the state's governing body for high school activities rescheduled the six basketball championship games and eight hockey games for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

This is the second consecutive year playoff or championship contests in hockey and basketball have been rescheduled because of the weather. Last year, the Class B basketball championships were rescheduled, as well as the Western Class A hockey semifinals.

"We've been on this all morning with the (sports) committees and the site directors," MPA Assistant Director Larry LaBrie said. "We've had a lot of people inquiring to see if games were being postponed or not."

In basketball, the Cumberland County Civic Center will host the Class A girls` championship Monday and the Class A boys` championship Tuesday. The Augusta Civic Center will host the Class D girls' and boys' championships Monday and the Class C girls' and boys' championships Wednesday.

"We were called (Friday) morning around 11 a.m. and we were informed that the MPA considered postponing the games, and we were asked for our input," said Cheverus Athletic Director Gary Hoyt, whose boys' basketball team plays Bangor on Tuesday. "My response was, we want to do whatever is the safest and most prudent thing to do."

The Colisee in Lewiston will play host to four Class A hockey regional semifinals beginning at 3 p.m. Monday. The Western Class B semifinals begin at 5 p.m. at Portland Ice Arena, and the Eastern Class B semifinals begin at 5 p.m. at Sukee Arena in Winslow. The Eastern Class A and Western Class A championship games have been moved from Tuesday to Wednesday at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

"It's frustrating at first, but you have to move on," said Falmouth Coach Scott Rousseau, whose team faces Kennebunk in a Western Class A semifinal. "It is what it is, and you can't make an excuse."

LaBrie said the dates and times of the postponements hinged on the availability of facilities. While a contingency plan was in place for hockey playoff games to be rescheduled for Monday, the basketball committee met Friday morning to reschedule the six state championship games scheduled for today in Augusta and Portland.

"It's been a rare occurrence," Hoyt said. "The fact that it's happened a couple years in a row, I'm sure the basketball committee was prepared for it and they sprung into action."

Peter DeWitt, Time Warner of Maine's spokesperson, said the cable company still plans to air live broadcasts of all the basketball games in conjunction with the Maine Public Broadcasting Network.

Lou Morin, MPBN's marketing and communications manager, said MPBN plans to preempt regularly scheduled programming.

"We're scrambling to figure out what we're going to do," Morin said. "We're going to broadcast the games, but we`re trying to figure out when it's going to be done."

Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be contacted at 791-6415 or at:
rlenzi@pressherald.com