Stearns Shocks the State

The marquee games on Saturday were the 8-man title games in Auburn.

Up first was the large school matchup between Camden Hills and Spruce Mountain. The Windjammers in their first ever football title game and the Phoenix just having risen from an 0-7 season in 2023.

Spruce hung around for a little while. Dylan Jewett's TD run got the Phoenix within 4 late in the first half, but after that it was all Camden. Hollis Schwalm had the play of game with this epic 67-yard run.

Braden Beveridge was seemingly everywhere on defense. Camden poured it on in the 3rd quarter to blow the game open and coast to a 52-26 win for their first football Gold Ball.

After the game, I spoke to head coach Chris Christie (who is also your Vertical Maine rep).

During the interim, I posted a question to several folks who know ball: will OOB outscore Camden's 52 points? The consensus was 50/50.

Turns out OOB and Stearns together didn't match Camden's 52 points. They were averaging a combined 104.9 points a game. They scored 38.

OOB struck first with Trot Moody hitting Wes Gallant on a deep ball. Stearns' Lucas Pelkey tied it up and the first half was kind of a mess, riddled with turnovers. Stearns turned the ball over 4 times as an underdog--and won! But their defense was awesome. They made OOB look mortal and every time it looked like the Gulls were about to break it open, Stears would make a stop.

Late in the 4th quarter, Gallant scored out of the wildcat to bring OOB within 2, but they got flagged for a formation issue on the conversion and after the 5 yard penalty, Moody was pulled down at the 2. Then Moody came up with an interception, returned it to the Stearns 20 with 3 minutes to go, and it seemed that the OOB comeback was inevitable. What's 20 yards to the most prolific offense in the state? I even asked Dave Dyer if he would kill clock to make sure Stearns didn't have time to respond. Dyer felt like you'd have to score and take your chances. He was right. OOB got flagged for 2 consecutive holding penalties. Stearns came up with a strip sack. And the Minutemen pulled off the upset of the year.

Defense leads Stearns football to eight-man Small School title

A fumble recovery with 1:11 left seals the first Gold Ball for the Minutemen since 1998.

The Portland Press HeraldDave DyerStaff Writer

After the game, I spoke to coach Cody Herring.

Fun fact: Herring was one of the refs in the Biddeford/Caribou game but–he insists–the Deprey free throw was not his call.

Maine really is just a small town.

We've got one more football podcast before we make the switch to basketball and it's a good one. The award-winning broadcasting duo behind WHOU's Gold Ball coverage from Fitzy and Maine Public's title games, Rob Kennedy and Jarod Richmond, joined me to talk about the 8-man finals and preview Saturday's 4 Gold Ball games in 11-man.

This is a good one. Rob and Jarod work so well together that they didn't really need me, but they were nice enough to come on the podcast (presented by Vertical Raise) and let me ask the questions.

There's some fun basketball stuff lined up to preview the season, so you'll want to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you podcast so you don't miss anything. Up next is a 2-part, nearly 3 hour conversation with Jay Baines looking at the results of the preseason poll.

I think part 1 is going to release on Monday evening on YouTube and then everywhere else the next morning (I'm testing out some ideas).

In the wake of the Stearns win, there was a bit of drama.

The short version is someone ripped Andrew Hart's Stearns team celebration photo and it got shared to a bunch of different Facebook pages. Andrew took umbrage, which is his right, and Facebook did Facebook things.

What's super dumb about this is people could have just asked, but they didn't. And they could have just shared the initial post, which is easier than stealing a photo, but they didn't. There's the whole, "they didn't know!" line, but they know they didn't take the photograph.

A quick reminder on copyright law. If you take a photo of something--say your kid on the first day of school--you own the copyright on that. You don't have to register it. You don't have to watermark it. You 100% own that photo you took. And that carries the following exclusive rights:

• The right to reproduce works
• The right to create derivative works like sequels, spin-offs, translations, and other forms of adaptation.
• The right to distribute copies of the work. [this is the one in question here]
• The right to publicly perform the work.
• The right to publicly display the work.

There's also the question of fair use, but this isn't anywhere near a fair use case.

So there's a couple of things I want to say here. First, this is hardly an isolated incident. 207 Photo posted something similar a couple of days ago. A certain Instagram account has built an entire network on stealing other people's content, cease and desist letters be damned. Unless you think they've got the budget to have someone following Maine's basketball talent around the country. It's also illegal and the criteria to elevate it to a felony is WAY lower than you think it is. So there's that.

But more than that, it's a dick move.

Let's talk about Andrew Hart. Andrew runs MaineHighSchoolFootball.com, far and away the best resource for Maine high school football coverage. We've been doing the overreaction podcasts and to say that series relies heavily on his work is an understatement. I know first-hand how much work he's putting into that site because I know how much time I put into this site and I'm pretty sure he's putting in more than I am. Part of what I think is triggering people about this whole thing is the monetization element of it. We're not talking about a lot of money. We're talking about gas money. My video of Stearns celebrating their win has made $1.27. I don't think I'm talking out of school to say that I've encouraged Andrew to pursue monetization more than he has. He's turned down money, despite how much time he puts in, because he does it for the love of the game. Plus, Andrew gives a shit. When I started branching out into football, he wasn't like "hey, this is my corner". He was incredibly generous in showing me the landscape and helping me get started. Very few people would do that.

So put yourself in Andrew's shoes on Saturday. He was at Edward Little when I got there around 10:15am. He had Tyler McInnis helping him. We'll get back to Tyler, who had taped over the Poland logo on his jacket because Andrew insisted he follow the MPA's rules about not wearing logos while using a press pass. Andrew covered both of the 8-man games, then drove over to Lewiston to cover the Leavitt/Hermon game. That's 3 games in one day in pretty cold weather. Sure, he's from Minnesota, but still. At one point, my neck started to hurt from shivering. It adds up! We probably left Lewiston around 8pm, so that's a 10 hour day on your feet in the cold, only to drive home and discover that a bunch of people have ripped off your photo from the comfort of their home (probably sitting by the wood stove) and shared it as if it was their own. Some of those pages, like Gary Allen's Millinocket Marathon, absolutely know better.

Let's talk about how monetization works. You know how Facebook and YouTube and Apple and OpenAI and all the other tech companies have destroyed the economy? So they have some monetization policies where large accounts like Andrew's are encouraged to continue posting their content on Facebook, etc. This means they're giving a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the money they're making to those creators. Is it a fair value transaction? Absolutely not. Does it help? Yeah.

The best thing you can do to help Andrew is to share his stuff, not rip it off. The number of people on Facebook mad at Andrew for standing up for himself is ridiculous. As Tyler pointed out, these are probably the same people who, if Andrew hadn't spent his Saturday freezing on a sideline, would have complained that no one pays any attention to small schools. You can't win with some people.

In Texas, a school with fewer than 100 students just beat a school with an enrollment of over 5,300.

Did this tiny high school just pull off biggest hoops upset in Texas?

David vs. Goliath in North Texas? The small-school Longhorns toppled an opponent with over 5,300 students.

ChronLeah Vann

Caribou's Parker Deprey is reffing now.

A former Caribou basketball star now officiates alongside his dad

Father-son duo takes on officiating shortage in Maine high school basketball, providing much-needed support and enjoying the experience.

Bangor Daily NewsCameron Levasseur

Easton is holding a 3-on-3 tournament.

If you've got a preseason tournament, put it in the comments.

Game of the Day

A state championship game is always Game of the Day, but the Model likes Class B the most.

Led by Parker Morin, Cony is third in the state in scoring, 2nd in scoring defense, and first in differential (+410). Other than a close game against Oxford Hills, they've be absolutely destroying everyone. They'll take on a Westbrook team that's one of the stories of the season. They beat Kennebunk last week in their first ever Regional Final to advance to their first ever State Championship game.

Can the Blue Blazes keep their Cinderella season alive on the biggest stage? Or will Cony finish off their dominant season?

The Model says Cony by 8.6.

Jarod and Rob will have the call on WHOU. I'll be in the booth helping them out with stats. WHOU will also have the C and D games in Lewiston. Time to turn on your WHOU subscription, if you haven't already.

The Model's picks for Saturday's Gold Ball games are after the jump.