Belskis, Morse and Townsend
gain induction into Hall of Fame
By Kevin Sjoberg
PRESQUE ISLE – The number of Owl Athletic Hall of Fame members grew to 75 on Sept. 18 as Peter J. Belskis, Michelle (Davis) Morse and Matthew A. Townsend were the latest to be inducted during a ceremony held at the Campus Center on the University of Maine at Presque Isle campus.
Contributed photo/University of Maine at Presque Isle
HALL OF FAMERS – From left, Peter J. Belskis, Michelle (Davis) Morse and Matthew A. Townsend were inducted into the Owl Athletic Hall of Fame during ceremonies held Sept. 18 at UM-Presque Isle.
Dan Cyr, a 1999 inductee, was the presenter for Belskis, who has taught physical education and health and coached soccer at Ashland Community High School (now Ashland District School) since 1974.
Cyr played for Belskis in the mid-1970s at Ashland and said his coach “had a way of getting the best out of each of us.”
“We learned to play the game with passion,” Cyr recalled. “We were intimidating and other teams did not like to play us.”
He said his coach never settled for “mediocrity,” a term Cyr said he has repeated to his players during his many years as a high school coach.
“Coach Belskis would ask us ‘do you want to be a mediocre player on a mediocre team, or do you want to stand out and be the best?’” Cyr said. “He had a way of making his players accountable for how they play the game.”
In Belskis’s speech, he first thanked the university for his induction. Belskis played baseball at UMPI and graduated in 1974. “Being placed alongside other UMPI greats is truly a great honor and one that I will cherish for the rest of my life,” he said.
He thanked his wife, Nan, who he referred to as his “lifetime assistant coach” and also said he accepted the honor on behalf of his players. “They were the ones that had to buy into the philosophy that hard work, taking pride in what you do, teamwork, commitment, believing in oneself and trusting in each other were the necessary ingredients to success,” he said.
Belskis said he believed “one of the greatest tributes that can be bestowed upon a coach is to have his or her former players be inspired enough to become coaches.” Three of Belskis former players were in attendance at their coach’s induction – Kevin Paradis, a member of the 1981 Eastern Maine champions who now coaches the Ashland boys and led them to the 2007 regional title; Adam Leach, a member of the 1987 Eastern Maine champs who coached the Bangor boys to a state title in 2004; and Cyr, who has won numerous titles during his stints at Caribou, Fort Kent and currently Madawaska.
Finally, Belskis gave advice to current young athletes in attendance. “Find your passion, the thing you love to do, and be the best you can be at it,” he said. “Set your goals high, think about your goal everyday, have perseverance and follow your dream.”
Alan Gordon, who coaches men’s soccer at the university, presented Michelle (Davis) Morse. He was Morse’s basketball coach and said he knew from the first day of practice that UMPI “had an amazing young athlete.”
Morse played three sports for the Owls – soccer, basketball and softball – and stood out in all of them from 1992-96.
“She played during an era when there were some amazing female athletes coming through the university,” Gordon said.
Morse was at one time ranked third in the nation in goals against average for the women’s soccer team, was a two-time team MVP in basketball and made the all-state second team, and was the team MVP in softball as a junior. She was the school’s Outstanding Female Athlete during the 1993-94 school year.
In accepting the honor, Morse told the audience that she “appreciated everything her friends and family have done for me and appreciated everything UMPI has brought to my life as well.
“I am tickled to be here.”
Matt Townsend, a basketball standout at UMPI who graduated in 2000, was the final honoree. His presenter, longtime basketball coach Bill McAvoy, said Townsend acquired his knowledge for the game of basketball at a very young age. “He came to our clinics beginning in third grade, and came not just to play the game, but to understand the game,” McAvoy said.
McAvoy admired Townsend’s ability to make other players around him “better than they actually were.”
“He was the complete player every coach would just die to have on his team,” he added, “and he got that from a lot of hard work. He did whatever was best for the team.
“He always played hard and he played to win, but he always played fair.”
Townsend, a native of Blaine, ended up his Owl career fifth in assists, eighth in points, ninth in foul shootoing percentage and sixth in three-point field goal percentage.
The theme of his speech was thankfulness for the support he received from several people throughout his career.
“It was an easy choice to come to UMPI, and a big reason was that it was great having my family come to all my games,” Townsend said. “I’d also like to thank the many teammates and coaches, both at the high school and collegiate level, that I was blessed to play with and for. They all inspired me to become a better player.”
He teared up while thanking his mother and father, aunts and uncles and grandparents for what he called “amazing support” over the years.
“My dad sacrificed a lot and worked a lot of jobs over the years, and my mother is the rock of the family,” he said.
Townsend went on to become a successful coach and is currently a special educator at Scarborough High School. He and his wife, Kelly (Hartman), a former Limestone High School athlete, have two young children.
