“Belief in each other.”

University of Maine football coach Joe Harasymiak calls that a fundamental component of his program and as “Coach H” gets ready to kick off his second year as Black Bear boss, he and his staff believe they’re prepared to make continued progress this season after doubling the team’s win total last year.

One of the most overused cliches in sports is “this team is a family”. Every team seems to throw that out there but it rarely rings true. However, this past weekend I got to see an example of not only a team, but a program that truly is a family.

The 2017 baseball season has begun - and not a moment too soon, as far as I’m concerned. 

This week we look at the second part of our Red Sox season preview featuring the offense, which must deal with the loss of the big bat and bigger presence of David Ortiz.

With the month of February making up for a tame early winter, we all can use a little sunshine and green grass, even if it come to us vicariously, as the Red Sox report to spring training in Ft. Myers, Florida. 

Things change quickly these days. High schoolers can recall a time when there was no such thing as Snapchat. Gen-X types may remember a distant past before cellphones or at least have memories of the days when they were the size of a shoebox. 

From somewhere around the time Shawn Walsh led the Maine Black Bear hockey team to their first Frozen Four in Lake Placid, New York in the late 1980s, the ice hockey program has been the crown jewel of University of Maine athletics. 

I’ve never been big on New Year’s resolutions. They seem to be a public admission of our failures and too often have the staying power of a Kardashian marriage. I respect those who see the start of a new year as a chance to better themselves, but do you really need to tell the rest of us for it to count?

I was either 10 or 11 the Christmas I got my best sports-related present ever. 

Some of the greatest duos in entertainment history had careers together that were all too brief. Martin & Lewis, Simon & Garfunkel, Calvin & Hobbes, Britney & K-Fed - OK, I might have reached too far for that one, but you get the point.