Ray Katsiaficas resigned as Ellsworth’s boys varsity basketball coach Tuesday, athletic director Tim Thornton confirmed Friday.

“That is correct. He verbally resigned Tuesday, but hasn’t turned in his official resignation yet,” said Thornton.

Thornton said Katsiaficas pointed to the demands of his other jobs as a primary reason for the move.

“He’s got a new business he’s working in and has so many things going already, plus he wanted to still have some time to spend with his family,” Thornton said, adding that the school would place a classified ad in the NEWS for the position in a week or two.

“He sells real estate, works at the Eagles Lodge in Ellsworth, and works with Excel, a phone company, so he’s pretty busy,” Thornton added.

Katsiaficas compiled a record of 9-27 during his past two seasons.

Mark Savage has resigned as girls’ soccer coach at Brewer.

The program’s coach since its inception in 1987, Savage’s teams made the Eastern Maine Class A playoffs each year.

But Savage decided to give up the job because he couldn’t devote the time the program deserved.

“It has been difficult, I wrestled with [this decision] for over a year,” he said. “You start something, and you put a lot of time into it, and you get a certain sense of ownership.”

A physical and outdoor education teacher at Brewer and boys varsity basketball coach, Savage will keep both positions.

“It’s got to the point in today’s high school athletics, where to put the time in and to do justice to the program, it’s very dificult to put any time in with your family life,” Savage said. “I wasn’t doing justice to the soccer program in the summer. I should have been doing more to promote the sport and I couldn’t do it.”

Members of the Old Town varsity baseball team and school officials are holding out hope the team may be able to play at least one game on its home field before the season ends.

The Indians have been unable to play at home so far this season due to construction taking place on their field.

“Our best-case scenario is if we could have our final game of the season at home on May 28 and then the playoffs, if we make it and have a home game,” said athletic director Garry Spencer.

The project involves putting in new backstops, new cement dugouts, and new fencing, and also includes patch-up work in the infield area and around the basepaths, plus work on the grass between the backstop and home plate, where crusher dust may replace the turf for better drainage.

The project is running about two to four weeks behind schedule due to the late snowstorms and a week’s worth of rain earlier last month.

“They were going to pour cement today, but with the rain, we’ll have to wait until Monday,” said Spencer. “We’ve got three weeks of the season left and it’s going to be very close whether we get any [here] in or not.”

Spencer, who said most of the work has been done by parents and the Old Town school department maintenance crew, credited other schools on Old Town’s schedule and the Old Town Middle School for their cooperation.