Winthrop/Monmouth/Corridor-Dale followers watch the opening soccer sport of soccer season on Sept. 2 at Maxwell Subject in Winthrop. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
A few of the finest recommendation I ever acquired was additionally a few of the most humbling.
I used to be just a few weeks into my junior 12 months on the College of Missouri and was reviewing a vital reporting task with considered one of my professors. In an early draft, I assumed to have recognized a couple of issues that I didn’t, and he put me in my place.
“Michael, there’s two methods to be a journalist,” he instructed me on that September day in 2014. “You may faux to be silly — which you might be — otherwise you could be silly.”
It’s true; as a reporter, I’ve completed a few of my finest work once I’ve had little or no data of one thing (or no less than pretended I didn’t) and needed to work my manner from there. It’s one thing I’ve had to bear in mind all through a 2022 Maine highschool soccer season that’s been sheer insanity.
After ending my story on Waterville’s sport in opposition to Spruce Mountain final Friday night time, I took a peek at Twitter to see what else was taking place across the state. Though you at all times anticipate to see one or two surprises once you’re scrolling by means of scores, what I noticed late that night time threw me for a loop.
Perennial Class A struggler Lewiston had plastered Scarborough, which had overwhelmed Bonny Eagle and Marshwood; Cony, which had scored simply 34 factors in three video games, scored precisely that many to handily defeat a Windham staff that hadn’t misplaced a league sport since 2019; Bonny Eagle had wanted a surprising comeback to beat Edward Little, one other standard straggler in Class A; Foxcroft, which had received 13 straight and was contemporary off a bye, misplaced at dwelling to Lisbon.
One in every of these outcomes alone would have been a shock to me, however all 4 of them? It was one thing that took a couple of minutes to course of, particularly provided that I had simply spent three and a half hours in work mode watching and reporting by myself sport. Studying that you simply didn’t know what you thought you probably did, in any case, takes a while.
Filling out this week’s Varsity Maine soccer ballot, then, was a troublesome job for me. Lists, in any case, are about order, and order has been changed by chaos in Maine highschool soccer this 12 months. To even get previous the primary few rankings on that listing, I used to be going to should rethink the season.
Take, for instance, the Cony Rams. Although at all times formidable, they aren’t a staff I’d ever had in my rankings this 12 months — not within the preseason nor after any of their first three video games. At 2-2 with each losses coming by a mixed 64 factors, why would that change?
Nicely, these losses got here in opposition to Oxford Hills and Skowhegan, two groups which have firmly established themselves among the many state’s elite. As for his or her wins, the Rams have now overwhelmed Windham, which hadn’t misplaced a league sport since 2019, and Massabesic, which now has wins over South Portland and Marshwood, by double digits.
If sliding Cony all the way in which as much as fifth in my rankings felt a bit bizarre, transferring Wells up from tenth to ninth after a 36-0 loss to Leavitt felt even weirder. But the Warriors’ wins over Cape Elizabeth and Freeport are wanting higher by the week, and with different groups falling round them, that’s the place they’ve ended up.
Winthrop/Monmouth/Corridor-Dale chases a ball as they run on the sector for the primary sport of the season on Sept. 2 in Winthrop. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
I nonetheless don’t know what to make of Class D. Foxcroft coming off of its bye week and dropping to Lisbon at house is the kind of factor that makes you rethink all the things you thought you knew in regards to the league. Even a few of the coaches within the class admit they don’t absolutely comprehend what is occurring.
“I don’t know if we’ve ever had a category the place no staff is undefeated this early within the season,” stated Oak Hill head coach Chad Stowell. “There’s nonetheless a lot we don’t know but, and we’re going to have to seek out solutions to a variety of these questions over the following two weeks.”
Then, you’ve acquired questions on a few of the conventional powers within the high courses. Has Marshwood actually fallen off? Have Bonny Eagle and 2-2 Thornton Academy? We regularly simply assume these groups will probably be within the combine as a result of we see them reload yearly, but it surely’s not not possible that one thing funky is happening with them this season.
As Stowell stated, we don’t actually have the solutions to these questions but. That’s one thing we’re going to have to seek out out over the following few weeks. As we get these solutions, there may also be different outcomes that pop up and remind us we don’t know as a lot as we’d wish to assume.
That’s the great thing about sports activities, although: We get the solutions to these questions by watching the video games, matches, meets and extra unfold on the sector, within the gymnasium or wherever else they may happen. They’re not performed on paper, that means we steadily get outcomes that don’t align with what we predict ought to or shouldn’t occur.
We’ll get extra of that within the coming weeks, and we’ll should rethink the 2022 highschool soccer season as we do. But if we’re to know it, we will’t be beneath the phantasm that we’re in any manner good.
That’s proper: We’ve got to be silly.
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