Championship Saturday marks the official end of the school athletic calendar. But athletic directors around the region are still going to be busy into the summer working to fill coaching vacancies.
Edward Little has begun searching for new varsity coaches in three sports, while Telstar is looking for a new boys’ basketball coach after long-time coach Mark Thurlow stepped down and became the new coach at Buckfield.
The openings at Edward Little are in baseball, golf and indoor and outdoor track.
Scott Annear accepted an assistant principals’ position at Edward Little and resigned as varsity baseball coach at the end of the season. Annear spent 14 years as the Red Eddies’ coach (he took a one-year sabbatical in 2009), leading them to the Eastern A championship game in 2005.
Unlike many schools, Edward Little allows administrators to coach, but Annear felt he couldn’t devote the proper time and energy to both his new position and coaching.
“I was always grateful to have an opportunity to coach at my alma mater. I’ve always tried to be a good steward of the game,” he said. “I feel like the program’s in a good place.”
This spring, the Eddies finished 7-10 and were knocked out of the preliminary round of the Eastern A playoffs by Brunswick. They made regular playoff appearances under Annear, which started when EL was still a member of the SMAA.
“The competition was great and it got you fired up. But the part I really enjoyed and loved the most was all of the relationships I had with the kids,” he said. “The object was always to enhance their opportunities to feel real good about baseball and to love it. You want the wins, but you want it to be a great experience for the kids most of all.”
EL athletic director Dan Deshaies said applicants for the position are welcome but he doesn’t expect to begin interviewing potential replacements until September.
He said he also expects to wait until school is back in session to interview candidates to coach indoor and outdoor track coach. Calvin Hunter stepped down after two years to become an assistant coach at Bates College. He led the girls’ team to the KVAC outdoor title this spring and the boys to the conference title in 2013.
Deshaies said he hopes to fill the vacant varsity golf coach position in the near future.
Thurlow resigned as Telstar’s boys’ basketball coach in March. He spent two eight-year stints with the Rebels. They reached the prelim round four times in that second eight-year stint. They finished 3-15 last year and did not reach the Western Class C tournament.
“It was probably time for a different voice up to Telstar,” he said. “I only had 14 kids going out, and they were good kids. It was just time.”
Telstar has not filled the position yet, according to athletic director Gail Wight.
Thurlow said he heard about an opening in the Buckfield boys’ basketball program after he resigned from Telstar and was intrigued. While he grew up in Woodstock and attended schools in Bethel, Buckfield, he said, “is where my basketball roots are.”
“I can remember when I was eight or nine years old watching Paul Bessey play at the old Buckfield gym,” he said. “I learned basketball from Les Douglass, Porky Dunn and that bunch over there. I played in a men’s league with those guys.”
Thurlow inherits a Buckfield team that reached the prelim round in Class D West and finished 5-12 The Bucks could be one of the most improved teams in the East-West Conference next year, graduating three seniors but returning large sophomore and junior classes as well as leading scorer Jared Eastman, who will be a senior next year.
Thurlow and the Bucks open their summer basketball session with a tournament at Dirigo this weekend.
“It’s a feeling out process. They’ve got to get to know me and I’ve got to get to know them,” he said. “
Send questions/comments to the editors.
