#CoachConversations

‘Teach others things you know and are good at’
Freedom’s Chris Bryant discusses coaching ascent, provides advice
Mon, 06/22/2020 - 1:30pm

BANGOR — Chris Bryant spent 15 years climbing the basketball coaching ranks, first with coaching fifth graders, before getting his opportunity to be a college basketball coach. The Freedom native and Mount View High School alumnus recently completed his fourth season on the staff at Husson University, where he holds several titles — assistant coach, director of day clinics and camps, academic officer, and recruiting coordinator — on the men’s basketball coaching staff. Before accepting a...
Karl Henrikson continues to build legacy as a basketball coach
Tue, 05/26/2020 - 11:45am

GORHAM — Having coached extensively throughout Maine, around New England and even in Europe, Karl Henrikson has amassed an impressive coaching career brimming with success. After establishing his legacy first as a player, now as a coach, Henrikson has settled down, for the last nearly two decades, at the helm of the University of Southern Maine men’s basketball program. Henrikson’s ties to the University of Southern Maine began after his playing days at Georges Valley High School in Thomaston...
‘I wanted to give young adults the same opportunities I was provided through sport’
Knox native Adrienne Shibles prospering as Bowdoin women’s basketball coach
Thu, 04/30/2020 - 1:30pm

BRUNSWICK — Since her time sprinting up and down Midcoast basketball courts, Knox native Adrienne Shibles has built an impressive legacy for herself in the world of coaching, namely, as the head coach of the women’s basketball program at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. Bowdoin, the 2020 New England Small College Athletic Conference champions, sported a 27-2 record this season and was slated to challenge Indiana’s Trine University in the third round of the NCAA Division III playoffs until the...
MIT field hockey head coach Sarah Shute talks about coaching
Mon, 04/20/2020 - 8:00pm

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Sarah Shute, a Lincolnville native and alumna of Somers High School in Lincolndale, New York, has made her mark on the game of field hockey in Massachusetts, first as a player at Boston University, then as an assistant collegiate coach at her collegiate alma mater and now as the newly named head coach of the field hockey program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Shute, in her collegiate playing career, amassed 45 goals, third on the Terriers’ all-time scoring list...
Rockland native has 100-plus collegiate coaching wins
Greg Harjula discusses life as a Lasell College baseball coach
Mon, 02/04/2019 - 8:30pm

NEWTON, MASS. — When Greg Harjula graduated from Rockland District High School in 2001, he envisioned himself as either a professional baseball player or an engineer when he enrolled at Eastern Nazarene University, where he was a four-year starter and captain senior year before graduating in 2005. “I always dreamed about playing professional baseball,” Harjula recalled. After his first season of collegiate baseball, however, he realized there were numerous players significantly better than him...
‘The moment we stop learning, we stop growing’
Cheerleading shapes way of life for Rockland native Andrew Weiss
Thu, 01/03/2019 - 5:15am

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Andrew Weiss, a 2008 Rockland District High School graduate, knew since his early high school days he would be a coach following his playing days as coaching has been a passion for the man who got his start in high school as a coach for the Rockland Tiger Cubs pee-wee football team and instructor for the annual Rockland pee-wee football camp. What he did not know in his early high school days was that he would become a cheerleading coach, not to mention a collegiate...
From Olympic gold medalist to collegiate coach
Anna Goodale shares life experiences, rowing knowledge as Ohio State University coach
Fri, 12/28/2018 - 12:30pm

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Rowing has taken Camden native Anna Goodale around the world and opened numerous doors for her through the years. One door, however, the Olympic gold medalist never thought she would venture into would be the world of coaching. “I never thought I would be interested in coaching (or any good at it for that matter),” Goodale said. “A lot of parts of coaching are out of my comfort zone and it’s been a huge growth opportunity for me.” Goodale , a 2001 graduate of...
‘The transition in the beginning was quite drastic’
Football Fervor: Weiss, Young driven by passion to play, coach football in Germany
Mon, 12/10/2018 - 8:30am

MARBURG and COTTBUS, Germany — Believe it or not, the sport of football is present, even popular, in Germany. Even more surprising is that two people involved with the gridiron sport in Germany are from Knox County. Sam Weiss attended Rockland District High School until his junior year and spent his final year of high school at Pope John XXIII Regional High School in New Jersey, where he graduated in 2010. Alex Young, also a 2010 graduate, spent his high school years at Rockland District. Both...
College women’s basketball legend provides insight, advice
Warren native LaHaye presides as Randolph-Macon College women’s basketball coach
Wed, 10/31/2018 - 9:45pm

ASHLAND, VA — When one hears about the accomplishments and accolades collected by Randolph-Macon College women’s basketball head coach Carroll LaHaye, one is likely to assume coaching has always been the intentional plan for LaHaye, a Warren native and Medomak Valley graduate. However, what ultimately turned into a coaching legacy was anything but intentional. LaHaye is entering her 37th season at the helm of the Yellow Jackets and became the 59th NCAA coach across all women’s basketball...
‘Maine was always home, and I wanted to come home and show my kids and wife the best life possible’
Neil Willey talks strength and conditioning, working for athletic powerhouse
Mon, 10/29/2018 - 9:30am

BRUNSWICK — Neil Willey went from being an athlete at Medomak Valley and the University of Maine to being a strength and conditioning coach for the University of Arizona, a NCAA Division I athletic powerhouse at the top-rung level of collegiate athletics. Now, Willey is in his sixth full academic year at Brunswick’s Bowdoin College, a NCAA Division III institution. There is, of course, a significant difference between the average Division I and Division III athlete — the Arizona football roster...
‘It’s been intimidating at times, especially when I have to deliver criticism’
Jackson, Garrett thriving as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute coaches
Mon, 10/01/2018 - 11:30pm

TROY, N.Y. — Many people may not be as familiar with Troy, New York, compared to other parts of the state, but it is home to two former Midcoast residents — Jamie Jackson and Michaela Garrett — who are thriving as athletic coaches for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a NCAA Division III university. Jackson, a Belfast native and Belfast Area graduate, was tabbed in the summer of 2017 to be the university golf program’s head coach after spending the 2016 season as an assistant coach with the...
‘I feel like my greatest strength and certainly my passion is in player development’
Medomak Valley grad Matt MacKenzie enjoying success as Husson women’s basketball assistant
Wed, 09/26/2018 - 2:00pm

BANGOR — Warren native Matt MacKenzie starred on the basketball court as a player, and now the Medomak Valley graduate is shining on the court as an assistant coach with the Husson University women’s basketball program in Bangor. MacKenzie, who graduated from Husson in 2010 with a bachelor of science degree in physical education and is pursuing a master’s degree in athletic administration from the University of Arkansas, was a four-year letter winner with the Eagles men’s basketball team as a...