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The last thing the University of Maine Athletics needed this year was more scandal involving one of its sports teams. However, that’s exactly what they got in the past week when one of the football team’s assistant coaches resigned, and a player on the squad was summonsed to court on an unrelated assault charge.
A UMaine Athletics press release sent out on Wednesday, Sept. 26, stated that Mike Winslow, an assistant coach on the Black Bear football team had resigned from his position for “personal reasons.” Winslow had been in his second season with the team and was primarily the wide receiver’s coach.
Rumors began to surface that Winslow had been arrested for operating under the influence. A call to Orono police Friday afternoon confirmed the rumors.
An Orono police officer stopped Winslow’s car in the Big Apple parking lot after it made a wide turn onto Main Street in Orono and appeared to be behaving erratically, according to Orono police Sgt. Scott Scripture. The officer approached the vehicle and talked to Winslow, who stumbled and seemed confused as he passed the officer his identification. The officer smelled alcohol on Winslow’s breath and asked him to step out of the car. The former coach seemed unsteady on his feet, according to Scripture. The officer arrested Winslow and charged him with OUI. At the police station, Winslow took a Breathalyzer test and had a .19 blood-alcohol content, more than twice the legal limit. The officer then transported Winslow to Penobscot County Jail.
UMaine Assistant Director of Media Relations Doug DeBiase said the university would not comment on former employees. “Mike resigned for personal reasons and both parties thought it was in the best interest of the program,” DeBiase said.
UMaine senior fullback and standout Anthony Cotrone has also fallen into trouble. According to Orono police, Cotrone and a small group of people were walking by Margarita’s around 12:40 a.m. Friday when Cotrone punched another man, knocking him unconscious. A police officer drove by the scene a few moments later and Cotrone was gone, but others identified Cotrone, who was found at an area apartment and was issued a summons for assault, according to Sgt. Scripture.
The UMaine Athletics Department had not heard about the incident when contacted Friday evening. “This is news to me. This is the first it’s been brought to my attention,” DeBiase said.
DeBiase contacted Athletic Director Blake James over the weekend. In response to the assault, the university suspended Cotrone for one game, citing violations of the student conduct code.
These events are reminders of other controversial happenings in UMaine athletics over the past year or so. In November of last year, women’s basketball assistant coach Kathy Karlsson was arrested for OUI with a blood alcohol content of 0.15 percent. Then-head coach Ann McInerney was also in the vehicle and gave the officer a false name. McInerney resigned four months later after her second consecutive losing season.
In September 2006 Rashard Turner, a former guard with the UMaine basketball team, transferred schools a few days after he was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend at what was then the Ushuaia Nightclub.
In November 2005, several members of the UMaine men’s ice hockey team showed up at the apartment of one of the members of the UMaine baseball squad wanting to pick a fight over a former girlfriend. A fight between members of the two teams broke out and resulted in the suspension of two hockey players.
Most recently, three members of the UMaine softball team were suspended and the team was placed on probation for alleged hazing activities at off-campus parties in 2005 and 2006.
