Seniors Eden Likibi, left, and Isaac Bellemore stand Thursday on the Lewiston athletic field. Both key players for the Lewiston soccer team, were profoundly affected by the events of Oct. 25, 2023. Bellemore, who personally knew several victims, struggled with the loss of familiar faces from the bowling alley. Likibi was shaken as the team’s victory that night turned to fear during their drive to another game when they saw police cars rush past. They found support in their teammates, who helped each other through their grief, and they took comfort in the familiarity of their practices. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

A year since Maine’s deadliest mass shooting took place in Lewiston, the memories of that night and the days that followed remain fresh in the minds of Edward Little and Lewiston athletes, coaches and administrators.

Friday’s football game

Who: Brunswick at Lewiston

When: Friday, 7 p.m.

Where: Don Roux Field

Info: Lewiston High School is hosting “A Night to Honor Those Who Serve.” All military members, first responders and their families will receive free entry to the game.

The one-year mark particularly hits home for Lewiston boys soccer player Isaac Bellemore. He knew one of the victims, Bob Violette, and often played for or practiced with Violette on Wednesday youth bowling nights at Just-In-Time Recreation, one of the two locations where shooting occurred on Oct. 25, 2023.

“I knew quite a bit of people that died that night at the bowling alley,” Bellemore, a senior, said. “I know that family, and I knew that day — it was a Wednesday; Bob Violette, he did youth practice, so we’d have kids (there) and we’d practice. It’s just hard to think about them passing like that.”

Many are still finding ways to cope as they seek peace and closure from the night 18 lives were lost and others forever altered by what happened at Just-In-Time and Schemengees Bar and Grille. Some still don’t want to talk about it.

Sports were part of the healing process in the days and weeks that followed, and they remain so a year later.

‘THERE’S A SHOOTING’

Lewiston Athletic Director Jason Fuller was cleaning up Don Roux Field after the boys soccer team’s 1-0 overtime win over Mt. Blue in a regional quarterfinal. Members of the soccer team were headed to Topsham to scout the matchup between Edward Little and Mt. Ararat, since the winner would be the Blue Devils’ next opponent.

Meanwhile, the Edward Little field hockey team was on the bus, returning from a playoff game against Brewer High School. Anaya Egge said the Red Eddies were riding an emotional high after making a comeback against the Witches, scoring three goals in eight minutes and winning the Class A North field hockey quarterfinal.

“Then I remember one of our teammates started crying and nobody knew why,” Egge said. “We started checking social media, and the first way that we found out was through Snapchat, because it wasn’t on any news yet. People were posting on their Snapchat stories to shelter in place, and like stuff that that you don’t normally see on social media.”

Edward Little’s Anaya Egge and Lewiston’s Jasmine Connor-Schade chase the ball up the field during a field hockey game in Auburn in September 2023. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Egge and fellow senior Nora Condit said the devastating news was confirmed during the bus ride when said numerous police, ambulance and fire trucks were spotted flying down the road en route to Lewiston.

Condit said the bus had to pull over at a park and ride outside of town, because it was not safe to drive back to Auburn.

The Lewiston boys soccer team felt the same emotional high quickly evaporate and turn into fear and uncertainty. Blue Devils coach Dan Gish said word of the shooting spread quickly as soon as the first sirens were heard flying past the high school. Gish said he knew it was serious when a state trooper passed him on his commute home.

“My wife calls me, and she’s going by Spare Time (Recreation),” Gish said, referring to the previous name of Just-In-Time Recreation, “and she’s like, ‘Dan, I just tried to drive by Spare Time, a police officer told me to turn around, get out of here now, there’s a shooter, leave quickly as you can.”

Fuller said that he had bumped the start time of that evening’s quarterfinal against Mt. Blue to an hour earlier, which ended up being a lucky coincidence. Members of the soccer team, getting ready to leave for Topsham, began hearing people shout in the parking lot about a shooting.

“We just kept hearing people saying, ‘There’s a shooting, there’s a shooting, there’s a shooting.’ And we just kept hearing different locations,” Lewiston boys soccer player Eden Likibi said. “As we’re driving up to (watch) EL, we just kept seeing multiple police cars drive by us.”

The loss to Lewiston ended Mt. Blue’s season, and before the long bus ride back to Farmington, the Cougars stopped to grab dinner at the Chipotle on Center Street in Auburn.

“We actually got told halfway through our order that there was an active shooter and that we had to leave,” Mt. Blue coach Zac Conlogue said. “So we sprinted out of Chipotle and got on the bus, and then the whole way home, we just saw sirens coming from all the way from Farmington through there. We probably saw 50 cops on the way there.”

Lewiston’s Chloe Tremblay had wrapped up her junior season of field hockey about a week earlier, and had just gotten home from a swim practice in Lewiston.

“I just remember being really stressed out and counting, I think, at least 18 ambulances and cars went by my house, and how stressful that was,” Tremblay, now a senior, said. “My sisters were at dance at the time, so they ended up going to my dad’s house because it’s closer. We ended up being separated for the night, which was really stressful.”

BONDING TOGETHER

News of the shooting was followed the news that the shooter had yet to be found. Through the fear and unknown, teammates turned to each other.

“I just remember everyone from the field hockey team, and with my swim team, too, we were all texting each other,” Tremblay said. “The coaches were texting and emailing us to make sure that everyone was OK.”

Likibi said that when the Lewiston boys soccer players heard about the shooting, they began getting in contact with coaches to confirm they were in a safe location, calling parents and telling them to get inside, and finding places to stay for the night. Likibi stayed with former teammate Obed Antonio because the active manhunt made it unsafe for him to travel to his own home.

Fuller, though, couldn’t go home. His night became vastly different the moment Blue Devils game ticket distributor Katie Krantz texted him asking if he had heard of the news. He went from cleaning up the field and bleachers to helping state police set up a command center at the high school.

“I had this responsibility at the school that I had to take care of, yet my daughter and my wife and my kids were someplace else,” Fuller said. “So, that was this mixed emotion for me. I wanted to go home right now, but I knew I had a responsibility to the community to take care of the school.”

Fuller sprang into action, calling all of the Lewiston coaches to ensure every student-athlete on their respective teams was accounted for. He also locked down the building and assisted the setup of an on-site command center.

Lewiston boys soccer coach Dan Gish runs varsity soccer practice Thursday in Lewiston. When sports resumed after last year’s shooting, Gish treated the Blue Devils’ first practice as a way for the team to come together again and support each other. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

COPING METHODS

The search for the shooter lasted about 48 hours. During that time, a shelter-in-place order was issued, which Gish said was hard for members of the Lewiston soccer team.

“They were going stir crazy, and they still hopped the fence and managed to play a little pickup soccer with each other,” Gish said. “I think that’s honestly their way of coping, because they were concerned and scared, too, they don’t know where this person is.”

Egge said the Edward Little field hockey team’s first practice after the shooting at Ingersoll Park in Auburn became a space for hugs, tears and support sessions.

“That was a lot of people, who I hadn’t seen necessarily show emotion, showed emotion,” Egge said. “We are definitely bonded from that moment — to experience something that traumatic with all those people.”

While Bellemore was grieving his personal loss, he said the Blue Devils all supported one another, from underclassmen to upperclassmen, and treated every day like another day “just coming to practice.”

“(Having teammates) made the process somehow easy,” Likibi said. “It was still a pretty hard time, but they made sure we were comfortable. We each we tried to lift each other up, and it was a pretty hard time.”

Gish planned a fun, low-key practice the day sports were able to resume at Lewiston, and treated it as a way to bring the team together again after tragedy and loss.

A year later, coping is still needed at times.

For Condit, coping includes team dinners, dancing and singing together in the silly moments outside of practice and games, and team togetherness. Condit, a senior, wasn’t able to play field hockey this season because of a torn ACL. That made team cohesion an even more vital to her.

Egge said that practice is not longer an obligation to her, but a privilege.

“I feel like we’re fortunate enough to have friends who will talk about how we’re feeling, and coaches who, if we need help, are always there for us,” Egge said. “They’re always offering, so that’s been a very easy outlet, just to talk about it.”

Driving, for Likibi, once held memories of swarming police cars, but has become a way for him to cope and calm emotions surrounding the tragic night.

Meanwhile, Fuller said the network of support in the Lewiston-Auburn area is more active than ever. He has lived in Lewiston nearly his entire life, and the past year has showed a sense of resiliency he’s proud to attribute to the Twin Cities.

“Part of my emotions in this whole thing is, I love this community, it’s treated me unbelievably since I was a little kid,” Fuller said. “I think our communities, both Lewiston and Auburn, came together and showed what we’re really about.”

UNITY REIGNS ON

“I would want people to know that the city of Lewiston is very strong,” Likibi said. “They’re very connected. After the shooting happened, everybody would try to make fundraisers for the families, everybody tried to motivate each other and help each other. People were giving out free food, people were being counselors for people to try to talk to them, make sure they’re OK, letting them know that everything was going to be OK.”

In the face of tragedy, coaches and players yearned for community through sports — not for the wins, losses and titles, but for the feeling of sharing space over a common love.

“We play sports, and they’re important and all that, but we’ve got to remember there’s a human on each side of it, whether they’re kids, adults, parents or coaches,” Fuller said. “It became more about the community, it became more about their athletes and the human side of things.”

Muntasir Haroun, left, and Nathan Dimandya run through a drill during Thursday’s Lewiston boys soccer practice. After the mass shooting on October 25, 2023, the team found strength in their shared routines. A few weeks later, the Blue Devils won a state championship that they dedicated to their city. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Sports also became a way to honor the victims of last year’s shooting. Many teams sported “Lewiston Strong” warmup shirts, hairbows and temporary tattoos. Moments of silence were held at games throughout the state, and Lewiston held a tribute to first responders prior to the Edward Little-Lewiston high school football game a week after the shooting.

Some teams are still honoring the victims and their families. Tremblay was wearing a blue long-sleeve Lewiston Strong warmup shirt after last week’s field hockey game against Edward Little. The shirts, she said, serve as a “good reminder of everything that happened.”

Conlogue said that while Farmington was not directly affected, Oct. 25, 2023, put into perspective for Mt. Blue players that they never know when their last game will be.

Julian Reynolds, a senior on the Mt. Blue boys soccer team, said the shooting still does not come up casually in conversation, but the lasting impacts are felt by the entire team. He said that night created within the team more of an emphasis on communication, sportsmanship and familial love.

Members of the Lewiston and Edward Little teams said the most important thing they want the community to know is that the names of those whose lives were lost will never be forgotten.

A few weeks after the shooting, the Lewiston boys soccer team won its fourth Class A state championship. A few months later, the school’s cheerleaders and boys hockey team also earned state titles. The athletes on those teams took time to recognize what their hometown had been through and express hope that their successes would help the healing process.

“The line that gets me every time, one of the young men said was, ‘We’ve cried because of the situation, but the next cry, we cry tears of joy,’” Fuller said. “I just think they understood it.”