The Midcoast Sports Hall of Fame has announced seven individuals will be inducted in Class for 2024. The seven will be honored at the 17th annual induction banquet on Saturday, Oct. 19, at the Rockland Elks Lodge. The awards banquet starts at 5 p.m.
For ticket information contact Dave Ames at 789-5118 or damesref@tidewater.net.
The 2024 honorees are: Angel Tibbetts Ames, Melissa Hodgdon, Patrick Kelly, Matthew Lash, Leon Oliver, Christopher Perry, and Paula Roberts.
Angel Tibbetts Ames
Angel Tibbetts Ames is a 1990 graduate of Boothbay Region High School, where she was an outstanding track and field athlete. Tibbetts Ames won 55 individual events during her high school career. She won six Mid-Maine Conference championships, including three in the discus, two in the shot put, and one in the javelin, and five Class C state championships, including three in the discus and two in the shot put.
She was an All State champion in the discus. In that meet she set a state record for the event that stood for 25 years. An injury while playing basketball her senior year ended her throwing career.
Tibbetts Ames continued to support Boothbay track and field by serving as a volunteer coach. Most recently, she has been hired as a paid assistant coach.
Melissa Hodgdon
Melissa Hodgdon is a 1987 graduate of Boothbay Region High School, where she excelled in field hockey and basketball. She was selected All State in field hockey in 1986. Her most notable sport was basketball.
She was the first Boothbay player, male or female, to score 1,000 points in the school’s history. She was a member of the 1983-84 Class C state girls basketball championship team and her team won the Mid Maine Conference championship in 1986-87. That same year she was team captain and voted the team’s most valuable player; was a MacDonald’s All Star, and earned All State honorable mention.
Hodgdon went on to Springfield College where she lettered all four years on the women’s basketball team. She still holds the single game assist record and she was voted captain and team MVP twizce.
Her greatest contribution to the game may have been as a coach. She hzas worked as an assistant coach at the collegiate level, including stints at Framingham State, Niagara University, Holy Cross, and the University of New Hampshire. She was a head coach at Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Wheaton College.
At Wheaton, where Hodgdon was head coach from 2003 to 2019, she holds the school record for most career wins with 214. Twice she was voted conference coach of the year. In 2019 Hodgdon took the top assistant coaching job at the University of Hartford, and was the interim head coach in 2021-22.
Patrick Kelly
Patrick Kelly is a 1982 graduate of Camden-Rockport High School where he was an outstanding member of the wrestling team. He accumulated a 94-4 record during his four year high school career, including undefeated seasons his sophomore and senior years, going 22-0 and 28-0 respectively. He placed second in the state in his junior year and won both the regional and state Class A championship his senior year.
Kelly went on to the University of Maine where he captained the Black Bear Wrestling Club. He was a four time All Academic athletic scholar, compiling a 122-20 record for his collegiate career. His junior year he placed first in the NCAA Northeast Championships and second during his senior year.
Kelly has been the wrestling coach at Camden Hills Regional High School for 19 years. During that time, his teams have accumulated 453 wins versus 39 losses, winning seven state titles, nine regional titles, and 11 KVAC Championships.
Individually, his wrestlers have won 31 state championships, three all-state championships, five New England placements, and one individual New England champion.
In 2007 Kelly was inducted into the Maine Amateur Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame.
Matthew Lash
Matt Lash is a 1993 graduate of Medomak Valley High School where he was a varsity letter winner in basketball and track. He went on to the University of Maine at Machias where he was a four year letter winner in basketball, being selected as team captain his senior year.
He graduated from Machias in 1997. He was assistant men’s basketball coach in 1998-99 and head men’s basketball coach from 2000 to 2003. In 2003 he took over as the athletic administrator at Medomak Valley High School and has been in that position ever since.
In 2009 he was chosen KVAC Athletic Administrator of the Year. He has received the Maine Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Past President Special Achievement Award, the guest speaker award, the president of MIAAA award, the leadership award, and the 20-year service award.
Lash has served on the Maine Principal’s Association wrestling committee as chairman and also on the basketball tournament committee. Lash is the longest serving athletic administrator in MVHS history.
Leon Oliver
Leon Oliver is a 1982 graduate of Lincoln Academy, where he was a varsity letter winner in cross country, golf, and basketball. In basketball he scored 40 points in a game on two occasions. During his junior year he was the second leading scorer in the Mid Maine Conference.
Most of Oliver’s accomplishments came in golf. He qualified for states three out of four years in high school. At age 15 he was the youngest ever Wawenock Golf Club champion. He won three other Wawenock Club titles before turning pro at age 20. Oliver holds four course record scores at Lemon Bay, Wawenock, Bat, and Sheepscot Links.
He has won two Maine Chapter Golf Championships in 1998 & 1999, two Maine Pro Championships in 1994 & 2004, was Maine Chapter Player of the Year in 2017, three Pro Senior Championships. In 2022
he was inducted into the Lincoln Academy Sports Hall of Fame and the Maine Golf Hall of Fame.
Oliver has coached the golf teams at Lincoln Academy, Morse and Wiscasset High Schools. He is a 25 year member of the PGA and presently is the owner of Sheepscot Links Golf Course.
Christopher Perry
Chris Perry is a 1984 graduate of Lincoln Academy. He won 12 varsity letters in soccer, wrestling and baseball. In wrestling he won four regional titles, one state runner-up award, and two state wrestling titles.
Perry went on to Springfield College where he was a four year letter winner in wrestling. Twice he was Northeast runner-up. After graduation from Springfield in 1988 Chris embarked on an exemplary teaching and coaching career. In 1990 he became the physical education teacher and athletic administrator at Bristol Consolidated School where he has coached various sports for the past 35 years.
He has coached coed soccer, baseball, jump rope demonstration team, wrestling and basketball in Bristol and at Lincoln Academy. In 2012 Perry was inducted into the first class of the Lincoln Academy Sports Hall of Fame .
Paula Flagg Roberts
Paula Flagg Roberts is a 1975 graduate of Lincoln Academy. She was on the field hockey, basketball, gymnastics and softball teams. Graduating from Springfield College in 1979, where she played college field hockey. Roberts returned to Lincoln Academy as the field hockey coach, a position she held for 11 years.
Her teams accumulated 106 wins, 45 losses, and 13 ties. In 1987, her team won the Eastern Maine Class B title and state Class B championship. Her teams also won the Mid Maine Conference championship in 1985 and 1989
Roberts may be best known as the sports reporter and photographer for The Lincoln County News. In that role she has covered Lincoln County Sports for over 25 years, being totally dedicated to the faithful and comprehensive coverage of sports in that area.
Roberts was inducted into the Lincoln Academy Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2011, she was presented with the Lincoln Academy Alumni Service Award.
Roberts has served as president of Lincoln Academy Alumni Council, and she currently serves on the Lincoln Academy Sports Hall of Fame committee. She is a past CLC YMCA Volunteer of the Year recipient. She is a past president of Willow Grange in Jefferson and the current president of Lincoln Pomona Grange.
Roberts and her husband Chris Roberts were inducted into the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame in 2022.
Midcoast Sports Hall of Fame Legends
In 2023 the Midcoast Sports Hall of Fame initiated a Legends category, recognizing individuals that have done a lot through sports for their community. This year, four more individuals will be recognized, including Kevin Burnham, Leigh Campbell (posthumous), Gene Drinkwater (posthumous), and Bill Stuart.
Kevin Burnham
Kevin Burnham is a 1975 graduate of Boothbay Region High School where he participated in football, basketball, and track and field. He has covered Boothbay area sports for the Boothbay Register for over 30 years. His dedication to local sports has preserved the history of sport for the area.
He also has served as the timekeeper for the high school field hockey program and coached girls basketball for BRHS. Burnham is currently the editor for the Boothbay Register.
Leigh Campbell (posthumous)
Leigh Campbell was a graduate of Wiscasset High School. He was always an avid follower of local sports teams and players. Campbell served for 39 years as director of financial aid at Bates College.
He was a lifelong fan of basketball, serving as the official scorer for the MPA tournament in Augusta for many years. He was also the official scorer for Bates men’s basketball for nearly 50 years. Campbell was inducted into the Bates College Scholar/Athlete Society in 2012, and in 2019 was recognized by the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame as a Legend in 2019. Leigh passed away in 2020.
Gene Drinkwater (posthumous)
Gene Drinkwater was a 1971 graduate of Georges Valley High School. He was a lifelong lobsterman. For over 40 years he was a fixture in youth sports in the Rockland area. He helped coach football at the junior high and high school level in Rockland and was instrumental in getting the Pee Wee football program started there. He also coached youth softball. His team won the Busline League championship his second year coaching them.
Drinkwater knew coaching was not all about Xs and Os. He worked diligently to positively affect the lives of each and every player. He was known to be a positive mentor to the players, helping them keep their grades up or providing equipment for ones that could not afford it. Even as his health failed he continued to coach, providing a very positive image for those he touched. Drinkwater passed away in 2015.
Bill Stuart
Bill Stuart has been a lifelong resident of the Tenants Harbor/St George area. He played sports as a youth. He is most noted for his dedication and commitment to youth sports in that area as a coach, volunteer, and mentor. Stuart has been a sports official for many years in soccer, basketball and baseball, serving numerous schools in the Midcoast area.
He also ran the B.J. Stuart Memorial Scholarship program that was a fundraiser to help send local youth to summer sports camps. Stuart has served as president of the Little League program and coached St George Middle School basketball.
