Bill Ashby, who guided Husson College to its first NAIA District 5 men’s soccer playoff berth since 1988 last fall, has resigned to become the head coach at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.

He will succeed Charlie Gross at MMA. Gross, who was also the head basketball coach, left to take the same position at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.

“It seems that Maine Maritime Academy is more dedicated to the athletic establishment and the success of its soccer program (than Husson). And MMA has made it financially possible for me to devote 100 percent of my time to coaching soccer,” said the 31-year-old Ashby. “That will make it a lot easier to recruit and it will be a lot quicker to build a program, too.”

Ashby made $2,950 as the part-time coach at Husson of Bangor. His income at MMA will be more than four times higher.

Ashby, a Lubec native who was a player-coach and head coach at the University of Maine-Machias before coming to Husson, guided his Braves teams to a 22-31-2 record. Husson’s record improved every year from 2-12-1 to 8-12 to last fall’s 12-7-1 mark.

Ashby was the Western Maine Athletic Conference Coach of the Year this past season.

“I feel real bad about losing Bill,” said Husson Athletic Director Pam Hennessey. “He’s a great guy who did a great job. The kids really liked him. Professionally, this is the right move for him. The money is better and, within a year or two, he could be full time at MMA.

“There is nothing we could do here for him,” added Hennessey. “Everybody is in part-time situations and there was nothing (a full-time job) here to combine with his coaching position.”

The Mariners are an NCAA Division III institution and they aren’t in a league, so it would take an exceptional overall record to qualify for the ECAC Division III or the NCAA Division III playoffs.

“It’s probably going to take two or three years to be able to compete against teams like Colby, Bates and Bowdoin,” said Ashby. “It’s going to be a good challenge for me. I’d like to be at least .500 next year.”

Ashby intends to bring in as many recruits as possible for next season “because I want to get the numbers up first.”

He said there is a nice recruiting budget at MMA and he will look everywhere for players, beginning in New England.

Ashby said he was impressed with the administration at MMA.

“They want the soccer program to succeed on the field and off the field,” said Ashby.

He was satisfied with the job he did at Husson.

“We made steady improvement and I left the program in much better shape than it was in when I got there,” said Ashby. “There are nine starters back, including three all-district players, and they should have a great season next fall.”

Hennessey said she will begin the search for a successor to Ashby soon and hopes to have a new coach no later than Aug. 1.