After resigning as the girls’ coach at Spruce Mountain High School after his teaching position was eliminated, he searched for a full-time career opportunity instead. The New England Basketball Hall of Famer watched the summer hoops season go by, and the thought of having a winter away from coaching for the first time in three decades crossed his mind.

That outlook changed Tuesday night when the SAD 9 school board confirmed Kane as the new girls’ varsity coach at Mt. Blue High School in Farmington.

“I could not imagine a year without coaching basketball, but I really had put my coaching career on the back burner,” Kane said. “I knew I would miss coaching tremendously, but at the time, I thought that I would at least be able to watch my own kids play all of their games. When the Mt. Blue basketball position opened, I was still without full time work and not much promise at that point for employment, so I applied.”

The job was enticing for Kane, who lives in nearby Wilton. It’s a Class A program at his alma mater. He has always been interested in returning to Mt. Blue as a coach. He’s had opportunity in recent years to apply for either the boys’ or girls’ positions, but didn’t feel the time was right. He applied for the Cougars’ boys’ basketball job in June, but withdrew because he was interviewing for a full-time administrative job in another district.

“I really look forward to coaching in the KVAC Class A ranks,” Kane said. “I know a fair amount about the teams in the conference as our Spruce teams have competed against many of them in summer and preseason games, along with having seen a number of KVAC games while watching my daughters play at Mt. Blue. I had scouted a couple of games for Coach (Tom) Philbrick as well, so I have a closer look at what those particular teams tendencies are. The conference has numerous quality teams and they have quality coaches throughout, many of whom I know very well. “

Kane will also have the chance to coach his daughters. Caitlin is a junior on the varsity team; Chelsea is a sophomore. Kane was only able to watch their games in recent years when his Spruce Mountain schedule didn’t conflict.

“I will say that coaching my own kids will certainly be a different experience,” Kane said. “Some parents have a strong desire to coach their own kids. I have never felt that way and have wanted our kids to enjoy playing under other coaches and I could just be dad.  I have always enjoyed going to their games and watching them play. One of the many positives with this situation now, in regards to my own kids, is that we will get to spend a lot more time together during the winter season as a family. When coaching elsewhere, we have often been going in different directions during basketball season, and it has pretty much been chaos trying to make our schedules work out.”

Kane replaces Philbrick, who resigned in July after five seasons. Philbrick cited issues with parents and administration in his resignation. The past three coaches at Mt. Blue have cited parental problems and administration issues among their reasons for leaving.

Taking this job in wake of that is awkward, Kane said. As a parent and coach, he tried to stay clear of some of the issues in recent seasons. Still, he’s aware that taking this job now creates some skeptics.

“I understand that sometimes parental issues arise,” Kane said. “There were many comments going on around the community for a while prior to, and after, Coach Philbrick resigned. I was very disappointed to find out that a couple of people brought my name into the mix. As a longtime coach, I would never speak to an administrator about my kid’s coaches unless something absolutely horrific was going on. I don’t operate that way. Sometimes people make assumptions or people look to lay blame on others and there isn’t much I can do about that.”

Kane said in a basketball setting, he’ll be a coach first, and the team and players will have equal expectations.

“As a staff we have a simple philosophy for the parents and players,” he said. “They will know that we will work as hard as any staff in the state, we will go the extra mile for the kids and the program, we have a great deal of confidence in what we can offer to the players, and most importantly, we will care tremendously about the kids.”

Kane left Spruce Mountain after three seasons. The Phoenix went 55-4 and overall and lost just one regular season game during that span. Spruce Mountain left the Mountain Valley Conference with a 45-game winning streak. The Phoenix went 18-0 last winter and lost to Wells in the Western B semifinals. He won his 500th career game with the Phoenix last February.

Having not coached during the summer, Kane is at a disadvantage, but he’s been around the program enough to be familiar with the players.

“I know most of these kids quite well from having watched them play in multiple sports with my daughters as they have grown up,” Kane said. “So that part of it will make for a fairly easy transition. The more challenging part will be to try to implement our defensive and offensive schemes, along with our overall philosophy during the preseason. We will have a lot of work to do in a short period of time. “

That transition has Kane circling the start of winter season on his calendar already. He’s been laying out plans for the preseason and scheduling scrimmages.

“I’m incredibly excited for this opportunity as I really was thinking until just recently that I might be going my first winter season in almost 30 years without coaching,” Kane said. “I am very much looking forward to working with this group of players. They are a hard working group and an intelligent group of kids. We play in a challenging conference, but I truly believe that if the players buy into our defensive philosophy from the start, then we will experience success. I believe this group of kids will be eager to learn and will be very enjoyable to coach.”

Kane will have some familiar faces to help him. Fred Conlogue will be coaching the JV team while Kane’s fellow coaches from his staff at Dirigo and Spruce Mountain — Matt Clark, Rebecca Fletcher and Greg Gagne — will be joining the cause.

“I am extremely pleased not only for myself as a head coach, but for the players as well, that it looks like we will be able to have our longtime staff remain together,” Kane said.  “Coach Conlogue will continue as the JV coach, which is very encouraging to me. The five of us having been doing this for a very long time and I know that the kids will have five coaches who will care about them greatly and who have a tremendous amount of experience to share with them.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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