Faulkner returns to coach Hodgdon> Veteran boys boss to direct Hawk girls

Veteran boys basketball coach Phil Faulkner will see what life’s like on the girls’ side when he takes over as the Hodgdon girls coach next winter.

Faulkner, whose Katahdin of Sherman Station squads compiled a 290-130 record, six Eastern Maine Class C titles, and two state championships in 1977 and 1985 in 23 years, will step in for eight-year coach Mark Scott.

After stepping down as the Katahdin coach in 1993, Faulkner served two more years as the Cougars’ athletic director before retiring in 1995.

But Faulkner’s retirement seems to be fairly restless. He still substitutes in SAD 25’s schools, pumps gas at an Island Falls convenience store, and did color for high school basketball games broadcast by WHOU (100.1 FM) in Houlton this winter.

Coaching the Katahdin Junior High boys to an undefeated season this winter, Faulkner has found it tough to shake the coaching bug after 27 years.

“I retired from teaching two years ago and found the winters quite long,” he said. “This job opened up and I thought it would be a challenge.”

Scott resigned near the end of the season after wrestling with the issue for more than a year.

“I decided I have my own team at home and I needed to spend more time with them,” said Scott, whose five children are between the ages of seven years and six months. “I wasn’t retiring, just resigning, and maybe I’ll be back sometime.”

Scott’s teams tallied a 74-71 record over eight seasons and made three trips to the Bangor Auditorium, including the 1996 regional Class C final.

“I told [the team] and then I went into the coaches’ room and bawled like a baby,” Scott said. “It was like I had lost my best friend. I knew it was the right decision but it just hurt so much.

“I had kind of envisioned myself being in it for 20 years,” he said.

Rob Moran replaces Galen Tidd as the Hodgdon softball coach, Hawks athletic director Clark Rafford said.

Tidd is working in North Carolina as a paint supervisor, a move which allowed Moran to get the job six weeks ago.

A 1985 Houlton grad, Moran works at a group home in Danforth and was the Hodgdon JV boys basketball coach this winter.

Bangor High School’s baseball team has earned preseason recognition with a sixth-place spot in the New England Sports Network’s Top Ten High School Baseball rankings for April 17.

Bangor, which has grabbed three consecutive Class A state titles, was the only Maine high school team recognized for baseball or softball only Maine high school team recognized for baseball or softball by the Boston-based network.

Megan Edgar of Guilford was named “Gould All-American” at Gould Academy of Bethel’s annual winter sports banquet.

The senior alpine skier earned that status by excelling in her sport and earning at least an 80 average in the winter trimester.