Ashland Community HS gym
to host final hoop event
Sports Reporter
ASHLAND – This Saturday will mark the end of the storied history of a local landmark as an alumni basketball event is planned to celebrate the 60-year anniversary of the Bobby Goding Gymnasium at Ashland Community High School.
The current school is being demolished this summer with the opening of the new community school this fall, so organizers have been busy sending invitations out to anybody who has played basketball in Ashland since 1950.
“It’s serving both as an alumni game and a get-together and a chance for people to reminisce about their playing days on this court,” said Bill Nemer, who served as the girls coach from 1985-1996 and from 2006-2008 and who has helped spearhead this weekend’s festivities. “We’re hoping to represent every decade since the gym was built. It should be a fun time.”
Ron Grover, the boys coach for the Hornets from 1970-1989, said plans are for players from over the years to be introduced, and that a few former cheerleaders have also vowed to be on hand. The well-regarded Bodacious Brass Band will provide musical entertainment during the event.
“We realize not everyone is going to want to actually play, but we wanted to give a final opportunity for people to at least step onto the court before it is torn down this summer,” Grover said.
The early history of the gymnasium, according to Nemer, reveals a very successful girls program beginning in the late 1950s.
“They never lost a game from 1955 to 1961,” said Nemer, who noted the coach during those years was Caroline Morris.
After that, it was the Bobby Goding era, according to Grover. Goding played from 1962-66 and “was the best player to come out of this place,” Grover said.
He scored 1,707 points during his career and was an all-state player. “He was phenomenal,” Grover recalled. “You could not stop the man. He was a great player.
“He got a scholarship to play in Gorham at what is now the University of Southern Maine,” Grover said. “He went down for a little while, but didn’t like it and came back home.”
Serving as a United States Marine three years after graduating from high school, Goding was killed in action during the Vietnam War in 1969. The gym was dedicated in his honor in 1986.
The facility had been refurbished in the early 1980s, with mats put up along both endlines, the floor sanded down and repainted, new bleachers installed and improvements made to lighting.
The length of the gym floor, between 76 and 78 feet – remained the same and was still shorter than the regulation size of 80 feet. However, the court’s dimensions made an impact on how Hornet teams were coached over the years and made the Ashland gym one of the more difficult places to play in for opposing teams.
Because of the court’s length, Ashland has always had to utilize restraining lines, which are actually extensions of out-of-bounds lines onto the actual playing floor.
“You are not allowed to step over it, but you are not allowed to step into it – it’s a dead zone, Grover explained. “The player with the ball out of bounds can go right up to the restraining line, but the defender can’t touch it. Plus you can’t bounce the ball between the end line and the restraining line.”
If all that is difficult to comprehend, think about the visiting teams not used to those regulations and the officials who had to enforce those additional rules during the course of a game.
“When you had this gym full back in the early days, this place was loud and it was hot,” Grover said. “I remember turning up the heat during practices to get our guys used to it and when there was a game, the opponents were gasping for air in the fourth quarter and we were still running in pretty good shape.”
Nemer said full-court pressure went along perfectly with the gym’s dimensions. “We just ran people down,” he said. “We’d use a 1-2-1-1 three-quarters court press, and if teams couldn’t break pressure and you’ve got the walls there, the restraining line, people screaming – it could be intimidating.”
The Ashland girls parlayed that into some successful seasons during the modern era, featuring a Class D state championship in 1991 and three other appearances in the Eastern Maine finals. Liz Coffin, the school’s all-time leading scorer, is the top girls player in Ashland’s school history. She went on to star at Division I University of Maine from 1984-88.
The Hornet boys weren’t quite as successful, but they did qualify for the post-season 13 out of Grover’s 19 years at the helm.
The gym featured 10 1,000-point scorers since records were kept beginning in 1960. Boys players reaching the mark were Mike Harold (1964), Goding (1966), Randy Grover (1986), Ryan Caron (1984), Paul Harold (1996) and Jeremy Tarr (2009). Girls players hitting the milestone were Coffin (1984), Kim Michaud (1990), Ashley Nemer (2006) and Mindy Chasse (2008).
Saturday’s “One More Time Down the Court” event will run from 4-7 p.m. For more information, contact ACHS at 435-3481.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
END OF AN ERA – Ron Grover, left, and Bill Nemer stand at center court of the Bobby Goding Gymnasium in Ashland. The two former coaches are spearheading Saturday’s alumni event.
