Sometimes we would rather hide under the bed than face the onslaught of bad news that pours from our newspapers, television and the Internet.

Much of it comes from stories involving awful things happening to our children. But this is not the time nor the place to hash over the flood of bad news.

“Why don’t you write about the good stuff, the good news,” Ms. Pigette asked me the other day when I stopped at her mailbox to pull her scarf up over her lovely nose. “I was just settling in for a nap on Saturday night when this caravan of cars and a fire engine roared past my post on Route 27 blasting my ears with the siren and air horn,” she said. "What was going on?”

“Well,” I replied. “You want good news? I got good news.”

The good news is that Ms. P and much of Boothbay Harbor lost sleep when a caravan of some 50 cars, led by volunteer firefighters, swooped into town after a group of Boothbay high school girls won the South Region’s Class C basketball championship at the Augusta Civic Center.

No one was prouder than Lesley Carter Blethen, a lobsterman’s daughter, who has been both coach and mother hen to a bunch of good kids who, over the last several years, worked hard, played hard and on Saturday, put themselves in position to become state champs.

“I am over the moon, I am so proud of those kids. We have coached them since they were in the third grade. I know how much time and hard work they put in. I just love them,” she said.

For the record, on March 2, in Bangor, the Seahawk girls will play Penobscot Valley for the state crown. It will be a tough game, and the team is already preparing for it.

Basketball is a team sport. Everyone contributes to a team’s success, but it sure helps to have a pair of outstanding players, like Boothbay’s Blethen sisters. Now, Faith, a 6’1” senior, and Glory, a “6’2” sophomore, were blessed with size. The Bangor Daily News calls them “twin towers.” But size alone doesn’t win ball games.

They were also blessed to be born into a family that loves God, America, Boothbay, and basketball, not necessarily in that order.

From the time they were tykes, you could find the Blethen sisters at the Boothbay Y or in the school gym. Whether alone or on age group teams, they learned the basics of the game from their mother, and their father, Brian, a Coast Guard veteran, who is now their coach. “They were always in the gym,” said one of their friends.

They grew up listening to their mother relate her memories of how, as a junior, she played on the 1984 Boothbay squad that won a state title. She always emphasized that teams, not individuals win championships.

So far, hard work has paid off for Faith who has signed a national letter of intent to attend and play Division 1 basketball at George Washington University. She has won a host of individual awards, including one from the Maine Association of Basketball Coaches that named her an all-star and one of the 10 finalists as Maine’s Miss Basketball. She was named to both the all-state academic team and a finalist in the state free throw contest.

But Faith is not the only Boothbay team player honored for individual achievements. Sister Glory was also named a first-team all-star. Senior co-captain Ashley Abbott was named a second-team all-star while junior Chloe Arsenault and sophomore Kylie Brown were named honorable mention all-stars.

Ironically, the Boothbay girls squad won the regional title by defeating North Yarmouth Academy, a highly ranked team that featured three starters who grew up in Boothbay playing together on the same team under the watchful eye of the Blethens.

“We traveled all over the state together when our seventh and eighth-grade teams were undefeated,” Lesley said.

It is not unusual for small-town basketball stars to get swelled heads. So far, the Boothbay girls have been able to avoid this ailment as they have worked hard at academics and as community volunteers. Recently, the team was honored for helping to raise more than $4,500 for the Taylor Memorial Fund, an organization supporting children who have lost their parents to domestic violence.

“We always told the kids if they work hard, good things will come to them, “ Lesley said.

She is right. Those who play by the rules and work hard, may not win every basketball game, but they stand a good chance at becoming winners in the game of life.

Go Seahawks. Win State.