He was always a University of Maine hockey fan. Now, Lewiston native Jamie Dumont has a chance to lead the Black Bears.
Dumont, who spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at Bowdoin College under head coach Terry Meagher, will fill the position of volunteer assistant coach with Maine.
“We finally are getting rid of him,” Meagher joked when asked about Dumont. “Seriously, though, Jamie’s excited for the opportunity and we’re excited for him. I’ve always said that you’re only as good as the people you work around, and it’s been a win-win situation for both sides for the last three years.”
Last year, Dumont was in charge of the defense, video coordination and recruiting for the Polar Bears, who went 17-6-3 and earned a spot in the NESCAC Championship game. In the 2002-03 season, his first, Bowdoin reached as high as third in the national Division III rankings.
“The biggest winner in his time here was the team, the kids,” said Meagher. “He is great on the ice as a coach and great off the ice as a friend and a mentor. We had our break-up dinner the other night and it got pretty emotional.”
“I consider (Meagher) a friend and a mentor,” said Dumont. “He’s just a great guy who has taught me more about hockey and more importantly about life than any other coach I’ve worked with. He’s certainly been a good influence.”
Dumont was also active locally, helping to coach the Maine State Select Teams with USA Hockey, and participating in numerous camps throughout the region. It was at one of these camps, at the University of Maine last Winter, that Dumont first came into contact with Maine coach Tim Whitehead.
“He expressed interest then,” said Whitehead. “It was a great opportunity to meet him at that point, being at the camp, and we got a chance to see a little bit of what he can do on the ice.”
Whitehead also consulted Meagher, an old friend, who spoke highly of his assistant at Bowdoin.
“He spoke so well of him,” said Whitehead. “Put that together with the fact that he wants to come here, he’s just such a great fit for us.”
“We were down at a coaches’ convention in Florida a couple of weeks back,” said Dumont. “I had a pretty good interview down there and the rest worked itself out.”
At the University of Maine, the volunteer assistant position used to be known as the graduate assistant, but under recent NCAA regulation changes, the school is no longer allowed to pay for graduate school, but they are allowed to have a volunteer coach.
“This is a great opportunity for him to get the experience he needs if he wants to continue in coaching,” said Whitehead. “And it gives us an opportunity to have an exciting young coach helping us out.”
“I look at it like I am going from a high-level Division III school to an even higher-level Division I school,” said Dumont. “I can’t be more blessed to go from one to another and to be able to do that and stay in my home state, that’s just great.”
Dumont played youth hockey in Lewiston before playing high school hockey for Mount St. Charles in Woonsocket, R.I. He helped the Mounties continue their string of consecutive state titles, which ended in 2004 after 26 championship titles, the longest such streak in United States high school hockey history.
From there, Dumont played for four years at Oswego State University, where he lettered and helped his team to the playoffs each year. He began his coaching career at Oswego State and helped guide the Lakers to the NCAA quarterfinals in 1998. He then went to Hobart College for two years, and then accepted a position as the hockey and coaching director for the Wyoming Amateur Hockey Association.
In 2000 and through 2001, Dumont served as a scout for the Chicago Freeze of the North American Hockey League, then coached by current Maine women’s coach Guy Perron. From there he landed the job at Bowdoin under Meagher.
“He’s a home-grown product and we think he has a great upside,” agreed Meagher. “Where he’s at his best is on the ice and when he is teaching the players. He is very loyal, and a young man of great character, one of the best I have ever worked with.”
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