On hand to watch their younger brothers play in last Saturday’s Class A football championship game were two members of last year’s Bonny Eagle championship football squad, Ryan Bernaiche and Josh Avery.

Bernaiche, who spent the fall as a red shirt member of Mansfield University’s (in Pennsylvania) football team, is part of a rebuilding project. The team won only once this fall, but had an 8-3 season two years ago before a change of coaches.

“But we were second in our conference in offense this season and most of those guys are coming back,” said Ryan, who traveled with the team this year and hopes to work into the system next season as a wide receiver.

The main difference between Bonny Eagle and college football?

“The talent level is impressive here,” he said. “It’s the best of the best from area high schools. And I think football is a lot more competitive here (in Pennsylvania) than in Maine.

His younger brother, Justin, a junior, was a wide receiver/ linebacker on this year’s Scots.

Josh, meanwhile, got to see younger brother Dan, also a junior, starting at his old position of center.

Dan took over the starting job as the team’s snapper midway through the season, a move that was a key to the offense’s production down the stretch.

“He’s always been the little brother, so it’s great to see him prospering,” said Josh, who is now wrestling for Northeastern this fall. “He’s playing really well on a team that’s playing really well, so that’s nice to see,” he said before the Scots’ championship victory over Mt. Blue.

Josh, a valedictorian at Bonny Eagle, is wrestling at 197 pounds for Northeastern University.

There are plenty of local high school athletes who took their skills to the next level. Among them…

Bonny Eagle grad Courtney Boardman just completed her junior season playing lacrosse for Franklin Pierce and was named to the All-Conference (Northeast-10) squad for the third time. The junior is the only player in school history to make All-Conference in women’s lacrosse and is the school’s all-time leading scorer.

Former Scot Mikki Wiechman, a shot put and discus athlete and former high school state champion, is now a sophomore on the University of Maine indoor track team and is gearing up for the winter season in the throwing events. Also former Scots Kathleen Nugent is a senior on the track team at Bates College and Dan Steller is a senior on the University of Chicago wrestling team.

From Windham, Matt Duffy is a freshman defenseman for the 9-4 University of Maine hockey team. Duffy, a standout defenseman for the Junior Monarchs in New Hampshire for two seasons and a former baseball shortstop at Windham High School, has played in 12 games and contributed with a pair of assists.

Duffy appears to be taking on a role of an enforcer, leading the team in penalty minutes with 29.

Also at the University of Maine, and a member of the UM soccer team, is former Windham High athlete Jason Jacobe, now a junior back for the Black Bears.

Jacobe has started all 15 games for the 2-11-2 Black Bears and has a goal and two assists for the season.

Windham grad Kristi Morrell is playing basketball for the SMCC Seawolves. The strong-shooting point guard missed the second half of last season with an injury, and was counted on heavily for leadership on this year’s squad. The team is off to a good start, now 4-1 after winning its first four games.

Also at SMCC is Windham’s Dayne Varney and Lake Region’s Nate Dougherty, both on the soccer team. Nate is a goal keeper. Dayne is a midfielder.

Windham’s Ben Goodwin is a member of the University of Maine, Presque Isle, club hockey team. Abby Wakefield just completed her volleyball season at Phillips Exeter Academy, where she served as a team captain on a team that went 8-7.

Peter Cekutis, Windham’s quarterback last year, just finished a fall playing QB for Saint Anselm College.

Windham grad Shawn Warren, a junior, is now one of the veterans on the senior-less Marshall University golf team, which completed a fall season at the Xavier Invitational in Cincinnati, Ohio, in mid October. Warren was the Herd’s low finisher in that tournament as well, finishing 55th in the large field.

Warren was the low man on the team through the fall, averaging 74.25. Their season picks back up again Feb. 20, with a tournament in San Antonio, Texas..

A top scorer on last season’s Windham boys basketball team, Scott Miele is six months into his two-year Morman mission work, according to his mother, Linda.

Miele isn’t able to communicate much with his family – they are expecting a phone call over Christmas – but he has e-mailed that he’s enjoying his service in Wyoming, and is able to get into some pickup basketball and a little bowling during his down time. His missionary travels take him across Wyoming and into Utah.

Brother Adam, 25, and a former Windham High soccer player who graduated in 1999, had already completed his mission work – in Peru – and is now working as an audio engineer in New York.

Also from Lake Region, Lauren Gillespie just completed her freshman field hockey season at the University of Massachusetts.

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