With snow still measured in feet on the fields surrounding the school, and with temperatures outside still struggling to melt it, student-athletes and coaches around the state celebrated a small victory Monday: the first day of the spring sports season in Maine, when baseball and softball pitchers and catchers up to 10 deep can first congregate and participate in active drills.

“It’s always a mark of spring, when you’re in here, you get to throw the ball around, you hear that smack of leather on leather, it gets people excited,” Lisbon coach Randy Ridley said. “Hopefully the snow starts to go away and we can get on the field at some point before the season.”

Lisbon baseball’s first day of practice was buoyed by some surprising — and very welcome — news. As the players walked into the gym, Kyle Bourget walked with them. Without a limp.

One of the school’s top all-around athletes, Bourget hobbled off the football field in the Western Class D semifinals in November after an innocuous play on a punt. He’d torn his ACL.

Fewer than five months later, on Monday, Bourget strode up to Ridley with a white piece of paper, a form filled out with dotted i’s and crossed t’s.

Ridley smiled. He had to ask Bourget twice if he was kidding. (He wasn’t).

Bourget took his turn with the rest of the pitchers on Lisbon’s staff Monday, throwing to the team’s catchers.

“I am shocked,” Ridley admitted. “Thrilled, but shocked. I did not expect him until the middle of May, honestly. But here he is, and he’s mostly ready to go. We’re still going to take it slow and be careful, see how he feels. But he’s ready to go, and it’s nice to see.”

The Greyhounds figure to be among the top teams in the Mountain Valley Conference again this season, and with Bourget back, the team’s prospects are much greater. But even without him, Ridley said, the program is in a good place.

“We had to turn people away even,” Ridley said. “They understood, of course. We’re only allowed to have 10 for pitchers and catchers, so we had to ask a couple of people not to come. That’s great for the future, here, too.”

Another program with a strong pedigree, particularly in recent seasons, is Lewiston High School. There, the first day of pitchers and catchers was spent in part on the players and coaches getting to know each other. Dave Jordan left for rival Edward Little in the offseason, so the Blue Devils have turned to rookie head coach Andrew Cessario.

“I got hired just three weeks ago, and ever since then I’ve been nervous,” Cessario said. “I’ve been losing some sleep, thinking over and over again, ‘Is the stuff I’m going to do going to work?’ I’m very lucky to come into this program, coming off of what Coach Todd Cifelli and Coach Dave Jordan did before me. I’m coming into a program that has high expectations already, the same kind of expectations I’m going to have.”

Cessario played baseball at St. Joseph’s College. He used some of the pitching and catching drills he learned there right out of the gate, helping familiarize his players with his style of coaching.

“I come from a program that really believes, we really believe we need to get off to a fast start,” Cessario said. “We got after it today, did a few different things. I think this will help us in the long run. Little things like that, that will help us win ball games this season.”

The approach was a bit different for the Devils’ softball squad, which didn’t have as many players on hand. In all, the program’s numbers are down this spring, but Crowley is excited about those players she does have, particularly the team’s youth.

“We have five or six freshmen who are new to the program who are really good players,” Lewiston softball coach Erica Crowley said. “That’s really exciting for us.”

Baseball and softball teams are able to work out their pitchers and catchers this week on their own, the only sports in the spring season with an early roll call. Tennis, track and field and lacrosse teams can first assemble with the rest of the baseball and softball teams beginning Monday, March 30. 

Competition is slated to begin for all spring sports the week of April 13, with baseball and softball slated to begin on Friday, April 17.

jpelletier@sunjournal.com