When St. Dominic Academy and Scarborough face off for the state championship, a familiar face to the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, as well as Maine high school hockey all together, will be present on the Red Storm bench. 

It’s a face that’s been coaching hockey for more than 40 years and a face the Lewiston-Auburn area has seen both play and coach. It’s the face of Norm Gagne. 

The iconic coach is back in the state championship game for the first time since 2008 after guiding Scarborough to its first Western A title. Gagne is no stranger to title games as he is seeking his seventh championship ring. He won three titles with Gardiner (1981, 1983, 1985) in Class B and captured three more with Waterville (1991, 1996, 2001) in Class A. This will be his 17th appearance in a state title game. 

Coaching in four different decades, Gagne, 70, still finds ways to reach his players. 

“My philosophy hasn’t changed, but I think that my demeanor over the years has changed,” Gagne said. “I’m a little more tolerant of things today than I was maybe when I first started. I was probably a lot harder on my kids, and I’m still hard on my kids, but not nearly as hard as I was in my early years.” 

This won’t be the first time a Gagne-coached team has gone up against St. Dom’s in the state championship. With Waterville, Gagne battled the Saints in 1991, 1994 and 2000. The Purple Panthers won the first meeting before dropping the final two. St. Dom’s has not won a state title since its last championship showdown with Gagne. 

“At our coach’s meetings, Norm does command a lot of respect because of the fact he has been around for so long,” St. Dom’s coach Steve Ouellette said. “He remembers a lot of what was done through the different decades that he’s coached. He’s one of those iconic persons in Maine high school hockey. You know going against one of his teams, whether it was his days in Waterville or his days in Lewiston, they’re going to be ready, always prepared. There’s always a plan in place. They’re just going to be a solid team for 45 minutes.”

In his 41 seasons coaching, Gagne has spent 1,009 games behind the bench, amassing a career record of 687-292-30. His win total is third-most among the nation’s high school hockey coaches. He’s eight wins from tying Edward Burns, who coached in Arlington, Mass., for 49 years, for second on the all-time wins list. 

Despite all the victories, some stand out more than others in Gagne’s mind. One such memory came in the 1997 state semifinal game against St. Dom’s when Gagne was with Waterville. The Saints scored the first five goals and led 5-0 going into the third period. As he’s been able to do his whole career, Gagne motivated his players with one of his many locker-room speeches. 

“I went into the locker room and I looked at my team and said, ‘You have two choices right now: you can pack it in or you can decide that you want this game because the St. Dom’s team is over in the other locker room and they’ve already punched their ticket to the state championship. They’re going. In their minds, they’re there, there’s no way you’re coming back. This is what you have to do: you have to decide. If you don’t want it to be your last game, you have to play it like you don’t want it to be your last game,'” Gagne said. 

With seven minutes left, it was still 5-0. The Purple Panthers ended up winning that game, 6-5, in overtime. 

There were others. In the 1983 Class B state title game, his Gardiner team scored six goals in six minutes in the third period to rally against Cony for Gagne’s second championship. 

“I’ve always had the knack to motivate my players,” Gagne said. “Because of it, I’ve had success and a lot of my former players would tell you that.” 

Gagne was inducted into the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame in April 2013.

Before he was a coach, the Auburn native was a player. In fact, he was the Edward Little hockey program’s very first goaltender. A junior in high school, Gagne was approached by coach Linc Gordon and told him he’d have to choose between playing hockey and playing basketball. When told he’d be the starting goaltender if he chose the hockey route, Gagne did just that. Hockey’s been a part of his life ever since. 

Like his playing days, Gagne’s coaching career began in Auburn. Norm’s father, also named Norm, asked his son if he’d be interesting in being an assistant coach for his middle school team. He agreed and, more than a 1,000 games later, Gagne’s still at it. 

“I love to compete,” Gagne said. “I’ve always been a competitor. My parents taught me to be a competitor and not to like to lose. Since I was three years old I can remember my dad teaching me how to play hockey, or baseball, or whatever it was and he was really hard on me. I look back on it and it’s really made me stronger today. As a competitor, when I couldn’t compete anymore I found coaching just gives me a chance to go out and take these young men and teach them strategies on how to beat their opponent and to see them succeed. That’s been the biggest thrill I get.”

His first high school coaching gig came at Gardiner. He spent 13 years as a teacher and 12 years as the head coach, uprooting the program and building it into a three-time state champion during his tenure. In 1987, he left to coach at Waterville. 

That journey, and the three state titles it brought, almost didn’t happen. Gagne initially turned down the offer from athletic director Skip Hansen, only to have his phone ring off the hook from coaches at the school telling him why he should accept the job. But what ultimately swayed his decision was a visit to the Lewiston hospital to visit his father. He told him to take the job, citing the program’s rich tradition.

Gagne added three state titles in 17 seasons to a Waterville program that’s tied with Lewiston for the second-most state championships (20). Speaking of the Blue Devils, Gagne would eventually call the Colisee home. He left Waterville following the 2004 season to become a co-coach at Cheverus, but he resigned before the start of the year and became the coach at Gorham instead. A year later he was a Blue Devil. 

While he couldn’t bring a state title to Lewiston, which is in the midst of a 13-year title drought, he did coach them to championship game apperance in all three seasons. He finished 46-21-4 at Lewiston. 

When Gagne’s contract wasn’t renewed, Scarborough was quick to hire him in 2009 and now the Red Storm are 45 minutes from potentially winning their first state title. Scarborough has made the playoffs every year under Gagne. In his first three years, the Red Storm bowed out in the Western A quarterfinals. In 2012, they advanced to the regional semifinals. Scarborough has made the regional final the last three years, breaking through to the title game this season. 

Gagne has retired from teaching. As for when he might hang up the coach’s whistle? Not for the foreseeable future. 

“My friends all ask me, ‘When are you going to retire?’ and I said, ‘What am I going to do if I retire?’ If I can make these kids still listen to what I’m selling and I’m successful, I think I was put on this Earth to do what I do,” Gagne said. “As long as I can do that and teach these kids a little bit about life skills, I think that’s what I was put on this Earth to do and I love what I do, so why give it up?”

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