The man charged with turning around a Mt. Blue varsity boys’ basketball program that has been in turmoil since Jim Bessey retired in 2012 knows it will take some time to make the Cougars championship caliber.
But as a former member of the Chicago Cubs organization, Kevin Main knows that when it comes to rebuilding, it’s all relative.
Main is the new varsity boys’ basketball coach at Mt. Blue, replacing David Pepin, whose contract was not renewed after one season.
Main is the Cougars’ third coach in as many years. Mt. Blue went to the Eastern A championship in the final year of Bessey’s long tenure as head coach. A big and talented senior nucleus left with him and the Cougars slid to 1-17 the following year under Josh Bishop. They finished 2-16 last year under Pepin.
Mt. Blue graduated four seniors but “we’re young in terms of varsity experience. We’ve just got to keep working hard and trying to improve every day,” Main said.
Now immersed in summer basketball, Main said he is prepared for the rebuilding process to take a couple of years before the Cougars are ready to compete again in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference. A social studies teacher who has been at Mt. Blue for 18 years, he said it helps that he is already familiar with many of the players.
“That is nice. They’re comfortable with me and I know them. I think that will add some stability to the program,” he said.
“I want to instill a hard work ethic. I want to focus on fundamentals and just get the kids to compete,” he said. “Wins and losses will take care of themselves as long as the kids are working hard and competing.”
Main lives in Belgrade with his wife and two sons. His oldest son, Garrett, will be a junior next year and plays basketball at Messalonskee, one of Mt. Blue’s KVAC rivals.
“We’re in the same conference, so I’m going to play him twice a year. It’s a little friendly rivalry. We’ve already talked about it. I have to hide my playbook around the house,” Kevin Main said with a laugh.
Main coached eighth grade and freshman basketball and junior varsity baseball for Mt. Blue over a decade ago. When his sons started playing sports, he stepped away to coach them at the youth level.
“About 10 years later,they’re all up in high school and middle school. I’m really not coaching them much anymore. I missed high school basketball and decided it would be a good time to get back into it,” Main said.
Main grew up in Oakland and attended Messalonskee, where he played basketball and baseball.
He graduated in 1985. That summer, a Chicago Cubs scout saw him pitching in American Legion baseball and signed him as a free agent.
After a couple of months pitching in the low minors, Main needed to find off-season employment and was hired as the girls’ junior varsity coach at his alma mater.
“That kind of got me into coaching,” he said.
Main, a finesse righthander, spent one more year in Class A baseball before being released by the Cubs.
He enrolled at the University of Maine at Farmington to become a teacher and took the boys’ freshman basketball job at Messalonskee. He also coached boys’ JV basketball and varsity baseball at Messalonskee in the early 1990s.
Pepin resigns from baseball
Mt. Blue Regional School District Superintendent Dr. Tom Ward said Pepin was given the choice to resign or not have his coaching contract renewed this past spring. Pepin chose to resign. That included his role as varsity baseball coach after his second at that helm.
“He made a poor choice during the baseball season for someone that is supposed to be a role model for our athletes,” Ward said in an email to the Sun Journal.
Asked if he could elaborate, Ward declined.
Athletic director Todd Demmons declined comment, but did say the school has not yet hired a new baseball coach.
Pepin said his departure stems from a disagreement over playing time in basketball and how he communicated with players’ parents.
“(Ward) wanted me to have an open door to parents about playing time, which I don’t discuss,” Pepin said. “I would not discuss playing time or someone else’s kid, but anything else, I would discuss with them.”
Pepin said he met with Demmons but did not meet with Ward, although others encouraged him to meet with the superintendent. He said he decided to step down as basketball coach because of the commute, then made the decision to also resign as baseball coach midway through the season.
“I wasn’t going to go in there and play the political game,” said Pepin, who said he hopes to coach again closer to home in the Newport area. “I put my heart and soul into that program. I respect Dr. Ward, but at that time I just felt like I’d had enough.”
Mt. Blue finished 4-12 in 2013 under Pepin. This spring, the Cougars were the No. 5 seed in Eastern A. They reached the regional quarterfinals before being eliminated by Cony and finished with an 8-9 record.
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