HODGDON, Maine — Several former players from the first Eastern Maine Class C girls’ team to bring a state championship home to eastern Maine gathered in Hodgdon for a reunion on Saturday.
The 1979 Hodgdon girls basketball team reunited at the school to share memories and cake at Hodgdon Middle-High School.
Seven of the 12 former players attended the event, which was held inside the gymnasium. Although the gold ball and eastern Maine championship trophy they earned 40 years ago had tarnished a bit, memories of that event had not, several players said.
Lynette Libby Rarick said on Saturday that the team, which was coached by Roger Sherman, had a perfect 20-0 season.
“We were an outstanding team,” she recalled. “Every single one of us contributed something to the game, which is why we were so successful.”
Lynn Wilson Oliver said that the key to their success lay in their “awesome press fastbreaks and outside shooting.”
“We had been together since junior high,” she said. “We knew each other so well that sometimes we’d just pass without looking and another player would be right there to grab it and score. We could read each other’s movements so well.”
Both Oliver and Rarick said that Sherman’s coaching also was instrumental to their success.
“He was just an amazing coach,” she said. “Our practices were more than two hours long, and we would come in and do calisthenics and running and then we’d start practice. We were all in incredible shape.”
The team beat Katahdin High School in the Eastern Maine championship, and went on to beat Wells 58-40 to earn the gold ball.
“It was an unbelievable time,” Rarick said on Saturday.
