RUMFORD — The 23rd annual Mountain Valley Rec Basketball Tournament was held April 5-7 with 24 teams competing in 3 divisions; A, B, and Senior. All games were played at Dirigo High School, Mountain Valley Middle School, and High School. All divisions were very competitive. This benefit Tournament is run by the Mountain Valley Rec Basketball League.
The A division is an open format, the B division is for those 25 and older with exceptions, and the Sr division is for those 40 and over with some exceptions. There were a minimum of 3 games played on Friday night and Saturday, with playoff games and semi-finals on Sunday morning. Championships and weekend finals of shooting contests were on Sunday afternoon at Dirigo High School.
The A division was made up of 10 teams with designated captains, RJ Construction (Cam Yorke), Crockett Plumbing and Heating (Mason Desgardins), Emerson Chevrolet (Mark Barrett), Let’s Hoop (Jacob Farnam), Tusk Audio (Jon Benjamin), Smart Care PT (Cody St Germain), Class Acts (Bill Simpson), Ranor Mechanical (Aaron St. Pierre), Caught In Traffic (Tre Butler) and The Rock (Graham Safford).
In a competitive weekend, Ranor Mechanical won the championship (2 years in a row) over Class Acts. All Stars were Jason Reynolds (Ranor), Paris Horne (Caught In Traffic), Mike Delome and Simon Chadbourne (Class Acts), and MVP Cash McClure (Ranor).
The B division was also very competitive, as there were a lot of former A division players who gravitated down with age. It included Smart Care PT (Nick St. Germain), Laid Back Installers (Rodney and Bryan Canwell), Hotel Rumford (Tom Danylik), IS Elite (Meteo Lapointe), Clean Cut Painting (Mike Pelletier and Will Bean), Mt. Blue (Justin Evens), Rip City (Josh Berard), Bethel Bucks (Ryan Kimball) and The Essential Store (Jake Turner). LBI beat Rip City in the B Championship. All-Stars were Nick Hinkley and Arsenio Santa Maria (Rip City), Uriah Forest Bully, and Owen Jones (LBI), and the MVP was Aaron Newcomb (LBI).
The Senior division had 5 entries this year and the venerable competitors had a fun weekend. Teams were Chapter 11 (Bobbie Dinan and Joe Gaudreau), The Express (Frank Brillant), Shooters (Heath Crocker), Oxford Federal Credit Union (Dean Boudreau), and Team Zespy (Jerome Holt). OFCU outlasted The Express in the championship.
The shooting contests were held throughout the weekend with the finals on Sunday. The foul-shooting champion was Simon Chadbourne of Class Acts. The 3-point champion was Drew Coppenwrath of Class Acts. The Slam Dunk Champion was Metao Lapointe of IS Elite.
This year’s tournament helped support Mountain Valley High School baseball team, boys and girls basketball, and Dirigo High School boys basketball. Assisting in organizing the tournament were MV Baseball and JV basketball coach, Mason Corriveau, MV boys basketball coach Scot New, MV girls basketball coach Peter Chase, Dirigo boys coach Cody St. Germain, and veteran IAABO referee Mark Pare.
Assistant Dirigo coach Nick St. Germain was essential in helping put together and run the tournament. For general information, please contact Eddie Paterson, Commissioner MVRBL, at [email protected] or 207-364-9352, or visit the MV Rec Basketball League Facebook page. A new league website will be available soon. Next year’s tournament will be at its usual end of March weekend, 28-30. The league will again try to organize a women’s tournament the previous weekend, March 21-23.