Autism Awareness Week

Well that was a terrible way to start the Pats' season.

We're on to Week 2.

And Week 2 is the annual Autism Awareness Week in Maine High School Football. Started in 2017 by Cony's BL Lippert as a small thing for an exhibition game, it's grown to over 70 schools and raised over $150,000 for a fantastic cause.

I wanted to know more about this week of games, so I invited Lippert on the podcast to talk about the genesis of the movement and its impact both on the field and in schools.

This is a really interesting conversation that goes beyond football. If you can get to a game this weekend, I highly recommend it. There's a lot of good ones!

BL also reveals a very cool project that's in the works at Cony. It's the kind of thing that when he told me about it on the podcast, my first thought was, "why hasn't anyone done that already?"

The plan for the fall is to do 2 podcasts a week--the overreactions podcast early in the week and then an interview podcast later. So you want to make sure you subscribe on YouTube or Spotify or wherever is is you consume them.

It takes a village to cover high school sports in Maine. You need ADs making sure the games happen and newspapers writing game stories. You need TV stations with Friday night highlights and mid-week features. You photographers getting game photos. You need broadcasters streaming the games.

And you absolutely need someone covering the concession stands. That might even be the most important part. Thankfully, that's now being handled.

There's breaking news out of Lincoln.

Mattanawcook coach Adam Mahaney was arrested earlier this week by the Lincoln Police Department on suspicion of felony theft charges. Yikes.

From their Facebook page:

The investigation began on August 18, 2026, after the Lincoln Police Department was contacted by RSU No. 67 Superintendent Mike Harvey regarding suspected financial irregularities involving Mahaney. Mahaney had been employed by the school district since mid-2025 and, as part of his employment, was responsible for processing the district's payroll. As the investigation continued and additional information was obtained and reviewed, the amount involved was determined to exceed $10,000, resulting in the Class B felony theft charge.

Obviously this is very serious.

It's an on-going investigation and developing story, so we don't have a ton of details yet, just lots of rumors and speculation, which I won't repeat here. But this is not an isolated accusation.

The use of past tense in the release from the Lincoln PD leads me to believe that he is no long employed by the school district and that would include coaching, but that's assuming a base level of grammar. So...you know.

Anyone with information that may assist with this investigation is asked to contact the Lincoln Police Department at 207-794-8455.

Ex-employee accused of stealing money from Lincoln school district

Adam Mahaney faces felony theft charges after authorities said he stole more than $10,000 from Regional School Unit 67 while working there.

Bangor Daily NewsChristopher Burns

These are beyond hideous. I really hope we don't have to watch an actual game with these.

hivementaliplli x archive account (@mewroniverse.bsky.social)

🚨BREAKING 🚨 @Nike & @NBA are unveiling new Specter Edition unis!! Nike’s new NBA Specter Edition uniforms, created for the teams who trace their roots back to the earliest chapters of the league. Kings, Pistons, Hawks, Warriors, Knicks, 76ers, Lakers and Celtics! (from @SacKings_Unis on X)

Bluesky Socialhivementaliplli x archive account

One of the all-time great analysts left us yesterday. RIP to Barry Melrose.

Speaking of hockey, Lord Stanley's Cup came to Hadlock, courtesy of Carolina Hurricanes Manager of Team Services Mike Brown, who's from South Berwick.

If you've noticed that physical media is making a bit of a comeback, you aren't imagining things.

CD and vinyl sales are surging as frustration with digital media keeps growing

News of the latest increase in physical media sales comes from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It revealed that recorded music revenues for H1 2026…

TechSpotRob Thubron

Kids, we used to all have collections of DVDs and CDs and books and it was a glorious time.

And you know what's great? When the internet goes down, they'll still work...as long as we can find our DVD players.

There's only one game on the football schedule today and it's a good one. And kudos to the schedule makers for clearing things out for a rematch of last year's Class C state championship game.

Greely is the 2-time defending state champs, with one in 8-man and last year's 11-man title. Leavitt is the gold standard program in Class C, a perennial participant in the final game of the year.

They're both ranked in the teens, with only 0.0122 separating them in DIRIGO, but don't think too hard about their ranking. Lots of teams are bunched together and week 1's rankings are always quirky, especially if you played a team that doesn't have a lot of value in the Model. If this game is closer than the title game, they'll both be in the top 10 a week from now.

WHOU will have the stream of this one if you can't make it to Cumberland.

The rest of the Model's picks for today's games are after the jump.