Lisbon football coach Chris Kates goes over a drill with a few of his players during a recent practice. The Greyhounds open Kates’ second season as their leader on Aug. 31 at Fryeburg Academy. (Bob Conn/Brunswick Times Record)
LISBON — When former Lisbon High School standout quarterback Chris Kates realized a dream last season, he ran with it.
Kates, who took over as the head coach of the Greyhounds prior to the start of the 2017 campaign, led his team to a 7-1 regular-season mark in his rookie season.
He replaced the legendary Dick Mynahan, Kates’ coach when he played and later worked for as a Greyhound assistant football coach.
Replacing the successful and well-liked Mynahan might have been a difficult task. Fans were likely going to make comparisons, ask questions. That is the nature of the job, and Kates expected it.
“With last year’s team, it is tough to move on from the other coach,” said Kates. “They have habits from the other coach. But, I was in the program for so many years, so it was not like I was coming in new with a different culture.
“I do things a bit differently than Dick did, but for the most part, we run practices the same way, organized and holding the kids accountable. I have added some new wrinkles this year, but it was a pretty smooth transition, with solid leadership on this team from our seniors.”
“Coach Kates had been coaching with Coach Mynahan, so the transition was pretty good,” said 6-foot-5 senior lineman Hunter Job. “Coach Kates does a really good job and knows what he is doing. Having Coach Mynahan as the head coach for a little while for me was great. There is a different style. Coach Kates has his own way, and we are working pretty hard.”
Last season certainly went well for Kates. His team’s only regular-season loss came on the road against Wells, and the Greyhounds entered the postseason as the No. 3 seed in Class D South and home against rival Winthrop/Monmouth.
In that quarterfinal, the Greyhounds had a flat day, falling to the Ramblers and ending Kates’ first campaign on a sour note.
“We were disappointed with how last season ended. We ran into a buzz-saw with Winthrop last year, and you could tell that they had started slow but were coming on at the end with their younger players. It was a perfect storm for them, a team peaking heading into the playoffs,” said Kates.
On Wednesday, Kates worked with his backs during the morning practice, stopping several times to iron out kinks as his squad donned shoulder pads and helmets. On one side of the field, linemen cracked pads for the first time, while receivers and defensive backs battled it out.
“I think we have had some good practices, but we, like most of the teams in the state, are pretty rusty right now,” said Kates. “We have some new kids out, and it is exciting to see what they can do.”
Lobster Bowl
As a player, Kates played in the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic. This year, he was on the West’s coaching staff, one more time assisting Mynahan. Over that week of practices and finally the game at Thornton Academy in Saco, Kates came to appreciate the hard work that goes into preparing a gameplan from scratch.
“The whole experience of that week is amazing,” Kates said. “I got to experience it as a player. From the other side of it now, you learn how much work goes into it, with a lot of personalities on that team. It was a great pleasure to coach with Dick again, with coach (John) Murphy as well, who I had never coached with at Lisbon. And Stacen Doucette from Oak Hill, who coached here, was with us. It was great to get the whole cast together again. It was an exciting experience.”
This year’s version of the Greyhounds, according to Kates, is focused, working hard after the disappointing end to the 2017 season, and with a difficult schedule approaching, the coach feels his team will need to be ready to go right out of the gates.
“We don’t have an easy game this entire season,” Kates said. “We scrimmage Oak Hill (Monday), which is always tough, and stepping up a class up to face Morse (at Bath, Aug. 24) in a preseason game. Then we go on the road to open the season at Fryeburg Academy (Aug. 31), a Class C school that had a lot of success last year. I think we have set our schedule up to be competitive every single week. We will get a lot of experience from those games, which will benefit us in the end.
“This (senior) class is ready to avenge that loss and get back to work, with hopefully a better result.”
“As a junior, I have thought about my senior year, my last year of football, and there is a sense of respect that I have for Winthrop, but when it comes time, we will show them what is up and how we are prepared this season,” said Job, who has circled the Oct. 6 home matchup with the Ramblers on his calendar.
Lisbon entertains Mountain Valley in its home opener on Sept. 8 at 1:30 p.m.
Chris Kates, head coach of the Lisbon Greyhounds football team. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal File Photo)
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