Old Town girls basketball coach Garry Spencer spent the last eight years wondering when he would make the decision.

The Indians’ 14-year coach, former athletic director and current physical education instructor has worked part-time on his masters degree during those years with plans to pursue an administrative position. Such a position wouldn’t allow enough time for coaching.

This spring, Spencer will finish his masters degree. So he finally made that hard decision and chose to step down as the Indians’ coach.

“When I first started, I thought this is what I wanted to do, to be a varsity coach and make the tournament,” said Spencer, who has been to Eastern Maine basketball’s big event 10 times. “You stay in education and learn that some can stay in teaching, it’s a wonderful job, but it’s easy to become stagnant. Being an athletic director gave me a taste what an administrative position would be like.”

What made Spencer’s decision all the more difficult was the fact he coached his daughter Lisa, who graduated last year, and would have coached his other two daughters, Kasey, a freshman, and Darcy, a sixth-grader.

“In talking about it with my family, I realized there is no good time,” Spencer said. “But I’ve been going to school nights, they know I’m finishing up [my degree].”

Of course, leaving will be tough. Spencer compiled an overall 170-104 record, the most wins ever by an Old Town basketball coach.

Out of his 14 years at Old Town, Spencer made it to the tournament nine consecutive times since 1991. His teams have been Big East Conference champions six times.

Spencer has been named McDonald’s East-West All Star Coach four times, Big East Conference Coach of the Year three times, and Eastern Maine Coach of the Year in 1992. Old Town also won the Eastern Maine Sportsmanship Award in 1992 and 1993.

His teams represented consistency, not only in terms of wins and losses, but also in terms of desire.

Just one team – his 1998 squad – made it to the Eastern Maine final, and one player – University of Maine freshman Andrea Pardilla – went on to play in Division I, but Spencer’s list of players who have gone on to play basketball at Division II or III schools or to coach is long.

“That’s the thing I’m most proud of,” Spencer said after rattling off a list of former players like Shannon Field, who just finished up a 1,000-point career at St. Joseph’s College, and Kristy St. Peter, Old Town’s freshman coach for the past five years.

“That all those players want to go on and get involved in basketball says they had a pretty good experience. To me, that’s what it’s all about. Maybe more important than wins and losses.”

After six trips to the tournament in eight seasons, a Class A state championship, three straight Eastern Maine semifinal appearances, Skowhegan basketball coach Mike Nelson has decided to resign to pursue a lifelong ambition.

Nelson is enrolling in a program at the U.S. Sports Academy in Daphne, Ala., to pursue a master’s degree in sports sciences. He will concentrate on sports coaching. The other options for the program are sports medicine, administration, management and fitness.

“I’ve been thinking about this for awhile,” Nelson said. “It opens a lot of doors,” Nelson said. “I’m 31 and I have to go out and do it now.

“I’m at the age where I can’t wait much longer. I could be perfectly happy staying at Skowhegan, but I’m always telling kids not to sell themselves short.”

Skowhegan’s most successful boys coach will go through a 14-week program: seven weeks of course work/studies this summer and seven weeks as an understudy next year, possibly at University of Maine-Farmington, Nelson’s alma mater, or Colby College.

Nelson, who will stay on as history teacher next fall, said he wouldn’t mind coaching at the Division I level someday.

“If it leads there, I’m certainly not opposed to it. I just want to find out if I’m cut out for it,” he said. “I want to go to the highest level I’m capable of and this’ll help me find that out. I want to test my limits.”

Nelson’s wife of two years, Renee, is also embarking on a career change, going from a paralegal to enrolling in a nursing program at UM-Augusta. The Nelsons don’t have any children.

“We don’t have kids yet and that’s exactly why we decided to do this now,” said Nelson.

But he still had to say goodbye to his surrogate `kids.’

“I told the players last week and it was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done, but they understood why I’m doing this and they wished me well,” Nelson said.