Rams sprinter Sinclair to attend Bowie State

BANGOR, Maine — Ben Sinclair was born in Washington, D.C., so it seems fitting that the Bangor High senior will return to that area to pursue his education and track and field career.

The Rams’ sprinting sensation has decided that he’ll attend Division II Bowie State University in Maryland in the fall.

Sinclair also considered Howard University in Washington, D.C., but was sold on Bowie State after visiting the school earlier this spring. It is located about five miles east of Washington.

“They have a good track program, [and] they’ve got a [good] TV and radio program,” said Sinclair, who plans on majoring in communications.

He said he wants to enter the broadcasting field in television or radio, or pursue a behind-the-scenes career in either field.

Sinclair, who plans on running indoor and outdoor track at Bowie, still has family in the Washington area.

“I wanted to be close to Maine, my parents are in Maine, but my hometown is D.C.,” he said. “Either place I’m going to have family.”

Sinclair kicked off his senior outdoor campaign on a resounding note Friday, sweeping the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes while anchoring Bangor’s winning 4×100 relay team in a PVC meet at Cameron Stadium.

“I have the indoor season behind me, so I feel like I’m 100 percent right now,” he said.

Sinclair won Class A state championships in the 400 and 200 dashes this winter, and while he said he wants four gold medals this spring — three individual and one relay — he’s relieved that the decision-making process is over.

“It just feels like a weight’s lifted and I don’t have to make any more decisions, just run fast, and that’s easy for me,” he said.

Sinclair did get to meet head coach Michelle Latimer, but didn’t get to meet any students on Bowie’s team as they were on spring break when Sinclair visited the institution.

Bowie’s men’s squad earned Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association second-place honors at that league’s indoor championships this season.

Sinclair said he plans on spending a lot of time in the nation’s capital while attending Bowie State, and that he hopes to meet President Obama.

Playing with a lot of heart

The Old Town softball team has a lot to play for this season for a couple of reasons.

First off, the Coyotes have six talented seniors hungry for a deep postseason run.

The other is that nearly all the players on coach Lester Cowan’s club were close to Cody Hamm, the Old Town student who died in a car accident earlier this year.

“Most of us knew him and we have some people who were very, very close to him on our team, so it affected us and the baseball team greatly,” said senior pitcher Hannah Morin after Old Town swept a doubleheader from Presque Isle on Saturday.

Some Coyote players are wearing black armbands with “Hamm” inscribed, similar to the “Bates” armbands the Orono girls soccer team sported last fall.

Since Hamm was a drummer in Old Town’s jazz band, his bandmates ordered them, followed by his baseball teammates, and there were some left over for some softball players.

“Hopefully we’ll be getting them for the whole softball team,” said Coyotes’ senior catcher Amy Singer.

“Most of us were good friends with him. The first couple weeks of tryouts and everything were pretty rough, but we held it together,” Singer added.

Two softball players, Annie Cashon and Katelynn Ouellette, were in the jazz band along with Hamm.

“That affected us, we have our share of that up here,” said Cowan. “They were really close. The teams have all come together.”

Old Town is hoping that togetherness will pave the way for a deep postseason push. The Coyotes reached the Class B quarterfinals last spring before falling to Bucksport, and with all the top teams in the PVC returning their top pitcher — OT’s Morin, John Bapst’s Laura Jordan, Hermon’s Debbie Colpitts, Mattanawcook’s Tayla Trask and Bucksport’s Abby Yeo — this could be an interesting year.

“I told the girls everyone’s got their number one pitcher back in the league, you name it they got it,” Cowan said. “I’ll put my two pitchers up against anybody because they throw strikes and we can play defense.”

The Coyotes can also hit as they’ve scored 28 runs in their first three games entering today’s home contest with John Bapst.

“I feel like we’re a fairly strong team hitting-wise, and it’s a nice change because we haven’t always had that,” Morin said.