So, Cindy Blodgett is gone – gone from her alma mater, fired from her job as head coach of the University of Maine women’s basketball team. The greatest female basketball player that Maine has ever had – and one of the greatest players in any sport ever produced by the state of Maine – discovered that, as a coach, you can’t teach greatness.

To be a great player, you must will yourself to greatness. And, as a player, that’s what Cindy did. For her, basketball wasn’t just her sport, it was her art. And she brought to that art the same consuming passion all great artists bring to their art.

It is misleading to say she had a “great work ethic.” Playing basketball wasn’t work to Cindy; it was creation. She didn’t just play basketball; she performed it.

But, as a coach, she couldn’t perform her players’ art anymore. She could no longer run, pass, dribble, defend, shoot, score and will her team to multiple conference championships and NCAA tournament berths; she had to get other players to do it – to will themselves to greatness.

And that she could not do. Genius has its limits and cannot be handed on.

Ironically, Cindy’s playing career was a rocket-boost for her coach’s coaching career. Joanne McCallie now coaches at prestigious Duke, and one wonders where she would have been had Cindy Blodgett not turned down offers from basketball powers and chosen instead to stay and play in her native state.

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In basketball, one great player can make a good coach look great. Whatever Cindy’s flaws as a coach might have been, the real reason her teams lost was that Cindy Blodgett couldn’t find another Cindy Blodgett to play for her. Great artists come by rarely – and they don’t stay long.

Dudley Gann

Cape Elizabeth 

Governor on vacation? Let him stay away for good

Is anyone else stunnned by the fact that Gov. LePage is on what I assume to be a paid vacation after just three months on the job? Seems like typical fiscal responsibility from a big business perspective, and please believe that big business is now controlling this state.

It’s fiscal austerity and a lowered standard of living for the backbone of society – teachers, firemen, police and all workers – while the status quo remains for those at the top. Profits rise while extraordinary salaries, bonuses and Jamaican vacations continue.

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If they are also successful in their attack on health care, our standard of dying will also continue to decline and the CEOs of our biggest insurance companies will still make tens, if not hundreds of millions per year.

Don Parks

Westbrook

I was relieved to hear that Gov. LePage was taking a well deserved break after working so hard in his first 12 weeks of office.

At least he will not continue to wreak havoc on our state with his ugly political agenda. I am embarrassed to be a resident of Maine.

I am also ashamed to be a member of the Democratic Party, which has shown no resistance to his bullying.

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William F. Frank, M.D.

Sanford

I just love this opportunity! Gov. LePage just announced he is leaving for a weeklong vacation in Jamaica.

Quick, let’s change the immigration laws to prevent him from coming back.

While we are it, let’s send the Republican Congress in Washington on a far distant junket and prevent them from coming back as well.

These people are destroying our country!

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Ron Vincent

Sanford

The Press Herald was very critical of Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, for going to Wisconsin to protest what she saw as an injustice to teachers and state employees (“Lawmaker goes AWOL, ends up in Wisconsin,” Our View, Feb. 24). Our governor also was critical of her leaving the state.

Rep. Russell missed a committee meeting, which is not unusual for representatives, and sometimes they have two meetings scheduled at the same time. The work can be made up.

Will there be any criticism of the governor for leaving the country for a week’s vacation? Is he neglecting his job that 38 percent of the people of Maine elected him to do?

Nancy Willard

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Bryant Pond

Portland wise to be hospitable to establishing local hostels

If Richard Schirrmann were still alive, there’s no question that he would be smiling on the city of Portland.

Schirrmann is credited with establishing the first hostel in Germany in 1907, when he was a schoolteacher and his students needed a place to stay while hiking.

The international hostel movement has come a long way since Schirrmann’s time. It was certainly exciting to read Dennis Hoey’s March 2 article on the interest of the Portland City Council’s Housing Committee’s to allow hostels to operate in Portland.

Our family has traveled extensively throughout Ireland and stayed in more than 100 hostels.

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We volunteered to share profiles of over 85 of these hostels on a website (www.uniqueirishhostels.com) simply so others can learn about all the amenities and cultural opportunities that hostels provide.

There was mention in Hoey’s article that hostels would appeal to “younger travelers, people on road trips, or people attending summer festivals.”

There are many misconceptions about the type of accommodations that hostels offer and the type of people attracted to hostels. Our family has learned firsthand that hostels do not only appeal to young backpackers.

Throughout Ireland we had the oppportunity to visit with many other families, middle-aged adults, senior citizens and various groups and clubs who were choosing to stay in hostels.

If the proposal for allowing hostels in Portland is approved, then there will be an opportunity for a handful of hostels to become established. Hopefully, other locations throughout Maine will follow Portland’s lead in considering hostels.

Once you have had the opportunity to stay in a hostel, you soon learn that they are a “hidden gem” in the world of budget travel.

Mary Quinn Doyle

West Newfield


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