WELLS — When Michael Wrigley thinks about the amount of athletic success he’s experienced during his senior year at Wells High, “it’s crazy.”
Wells teams have already won state titles in football and wrestling and have been the runner-up in boys’ basketball and boys’ outdoor track and field.
Now Wrigley – the quarterback on the football team and an individual state champion wrestler – and his teammates are looking to bring Wells its first baseball state title since the 1980 Class C crown.
“You know my football coach (Tim Roche) always says the state game isn’t something that’s supposed to be common,” said Wrigley, a strong-armed, four-year starter at catcher. “In football, we won. Then in wrestling, we won. And now we’re back again in baseball. I mean, all three sports for me this year have ended in a state game. It’s great.
“Our whole school, we’re just winning everything right now.”
That success has come during a year when the school and community grappled with whether or not to keep the Native American-themed imagery associated with its Warrior mascot.
“If anything, it really brought us together,” Wrigley said, “but I wouldn’t say that it had a huge effect. You can’t focus on outside things when you’re competing, but it definitely added to that team mentality of all sports.”
On Wednesday, the school committee voted unanimously to remove all Native American images from school district items. Less than an hour later, the baseball team scored six runs in the first inning of its 8-3 Class B South final win against Greely.
Wells (17-2) will face Brewer (14-5) at 11 a.m. Saturday at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor.
Wrigley is the “ring” leader. He’s been on four state championship teams – two in football, two in wrestling.
Cam Cousins, who pitched a complete game against Greely to improve to 10-0, had starring roles on two straight regional championship basketball teams.
“I’m happy with (regional titles), but I’m not like satisfied. I want to get to the last point,” Cousins said.
First baseman/outfielder Tyler Bridge, a junior, was a 1,000-yard rusher in football and a starter in basketball. Sophomore outfielder Matt Tufts also played football (defensive end/kicker) and filled a sixth-man role as a shooting guard in basketball.
“I just think in every sport, we’re motivated to try to go out and produce for the community,” Tufts said.
Wells Coach Todd Day, a middle school teacher in Portland, is in his sixth season at Wells. He said the success of the baseball team has been “building over time.”
Last season, Wells finished third in the Heal point standings, won a playoff game, and knew it would be returning most of its core players.
Day started a summer program after taking over, first at the Junior Legion level, then senior American Legion. Wells qualified for the Legion state tournament the past two summers.
In Wrigley, Cousins and senior shortstop Liam Bell, the Warriors have three two-year captains who are four-year varsity starters.
But the Warriors also have had key contributions from baseball-first players, most notably the slick-fielding Bell, who played soccer in the fall and missed the last quarter of the basketball season because of an injury.
“For baseball, what we’ve been able to put together in my final season has been amazing because we’ve come up short in the playoffs the past three years,” Bell said. “We’ve built up our confidence and our skill, together, over these past three or four years.”
Sophomore outfielder Covy Dufort, junior second baseman Gary Andrews, freshman third baseman Hayden Barker and sophomore Tyler Carpenter – Saturday’s likely starting pitcher – are other key players who will be in the state championship spotlight for the first time.
Day said there are many underlying reasons for the school’s multi-sport success: a supportive community and the character of the athletes.
“I believe we should have won the (MPA) Sportsmanship Award the last five years because they’re that wonderful a group of young men,” Day said. “That’s why I’m so pleased of this group.”
Steve Craig can be reached at 791-6413 or:
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