Chris Roberts likes to win, so she keeps coming back for more. Matty Reid misses the thrill that comes with playing in front of a crowd, so he too will continue coming back to Cape Elizabeth High School for the annual alumni basketball games.
Roberts, who graduated from Cape in 1996, led the women’s alums with 13 points in a 34-18 win over the girls varsity team. Reid, an ’04 grad, had 25 points in a 78-60 loss to the boys varsity. A total of 19 former Cape athletes showed up for the two games, which were played Saturday night.
“I think, out of the last 10 years, I’ve played in like eight of them,” said Roberts. “We’ve never lost. We never lost when we were in high school. We always beat them and we’ve never lost now that I’m out.”
The Capers went to the state tournament every year that Roberts was on the team and they went to the Western Maine finals twice. Basketball isn’t such a big part of her life these days, though. She doesn’t get a chance to play much at all, actually.
That’s what happens when you’re studying for the bar exam while working for a sports marketing firm (Octagon) that represents Olympic athletes (Michael Phelps and Ian Crocker).
Roberts played basketball at Colby for two and a half years before graduating in ’00. She graduated from UMaine Law School this past spring and has been working for Octagon since then.
“I’m sort of tapering off now because I’m studying for the bar, which I take in February,” said Roberts, who is living in Cape.
Shannon Baillie, class of ’00, had been living in town as well until last February when she got a job at Fidelity Investments in Boston. Baillie, who graduated from Colgate University in ’04 with a degree in sociology and anthropology, took a long-term substitute teaching position at Cape and also coached soccer before moving to Boston.
“I know I don’t want to do for the rest of my life what I’m doing right now,” said Baillie. “But I know I want to get back into teaching.”
Class of ’03 grad Christina Foley is already thinking she’d like to get into coaching when her field hockey-playing days are over at Northwestern. That’s still a few years away, though. Foley, a junior majoring in communications at Northwestern, still has two years of eligibility remaining.
“I’m thinking right now that I might try and find a coaching job for a little while just to see how I like that, just because field hockey’s been my life and just completely cutting it out would be a big step,” said Foley, who also played softball and basketball at Cape.
She prepared for the big alumnae game by playing some pick-up with her field hockey teammates back at school.
“It’s great coming back and playing with the girls that are older like Chrissy and Shannon,” said Foley. “We had limited years or none with them so it’s fun to come back and play with them.”
In the men’s game, Reid, a sophomore at the University of Southern Maine, got to play with some former teammates and also against some.
“It’s good seeing all those guys again because those seniors now I played with my senior year, so it’s nice to see them develop, get better,” he said.
Reid toyed with the idea of trying out for the team at USM, but ultimately he decided to focus his attention elsewhere. He’s majoring in English and also enrolled in the teaching program at USM. On top of that, he coaches Cape’s seventh grade basketball team and also the middle school tennis team.
He does miss the action, though.
“I really do,” said Reid, who played golf, basketball and tennis in high school. “I was actually talking to my dad about that the other day – definitely basketball, but just competitive sports in general. Intramurals and stuff are fun, but it’s not the same.”
Pat Mileski, class of ’03, is still playing competitively at St. Joseph’s, but that didn’t stop him from coming back for the alumni game – even if it meant driving an hour after a full practice in Standish.
“It’s just fun seeing people, seeing coach (Jim Ray), talking to him, catching up,” he said.
Also playing in the men’s game were: Zach Donahue (’05), Brian Wissley (’02), Nick Welch (’04), Jimmy Ranaghan (’00), Drew Bagin (’00) and Andrew Braziel (’00).
Roberts, Baillie and Foley were joined by Danielle Speckman (’99), Tricia Lyons (’05), Diana Getchel (’03), Margie Reid (’03), Meghan Culver (’04), Emily Thompson (’01), Allie Hill (’05) and Molly Thompson (’00).
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