Thirty-six Lady Dribblers bounced their way onto Porter Memorial Gymnasium at the Boothbay-Lisbon girls varsity basketball game at Boothbay Region High School Jan. 4, performing the first of four shows this season. The next is Jan. 10 during the girls’ varsity game. The Lady Dribblers will also perform at a University of Maine at Farmington women’s game. The Lady Dribblers’ organizer, Boothbay Region Elementary School physical education teacher Lauren Brown, has one other performance slated for later this season, during a girls’ high school game.

Brown began the group 11 years ago, when she was the Boothbay varsity girls basketball coach. She saw a group of young girls display their dribbling skills at a Scarborough High School girls varsity game. 

Brown was impressed by the skills displayed by the elementary school-age performers. “It was a bunch of girls practicing a skill that I value as a coach: Taking care of the ball. It also teaches them about being on a team and creates friendships. And the hope was getting a ball in their hand would encourage them to play basketball.”

In Maine, the all-girl dribbling shows began in the late 1970s with the Bouncing Bears. The group was the creation of former University of Maine women’s basketball coach Peter Gavett. The program disbanded before being revitalized in the 1990s by another former University of Maine women’s basketball coach, Joanne Palombo-McCallie. 

The current Boothbay girls varsity team includes several past Lady Dribblers. The program is for girls in grades one through five. Once a Lady Dribbler reaches sixth grade, she is eligible to become a student coach. The program begins in late October and ends by February.