Team discord causes Brewer’s Gott to quit

For Lauree Gott, coaching basketball again in the Bangor area might be a possibility in the future.

But for now, the former Brewer High girls coach wants to take some time to reflect on the events that led to her resignation three weeks ago and let the players she would have coached get on with the rest of their high school careers.

Gott, who had coached the Witches to a 38-70 record in her six seasons at Brewer, said the team started to drift apart when three parents voiced their negative opinions about her coaching.

“Some parents felt strongly that I didn’t know enough to be coaching their kids. They didn’t approach me and that was the key issue. I never heard a thing from them,” said Gott, who was a standout as a player at the University of Maine and Old Town High School.

“Basically I had a different philosophy than a few of the parents. I felt that it was important to not tear the team apart, so I decided to resign, let the wounds heal and let the team get back together.”

Gott declined to specify what the three parents did, but she said the discord on the team started in the days after the Witches lost to Bangor in the quarterfinals of the Eastern Maine Class A basketball tournament in March, when the “very close” squad began to fight.

She resigned about three months later.

Brewer athletic director Dennis Kiah said Gott’s resignation was not prompted by the school.

“Lauree did resign and there is an opening,” Kiah said. “It wasn’t from us at all.”

Gott, who teaches science at the John R. Graham School in Veazie, was an first-team Bangor Daily News All-Maine selection out of Old Town High School in 1982 before starring at UMaine. She scored 1,393 points and grabbed 781 rebounds for the Black Bears from 1982-87.

Before her stint with the Witches, Gott was an assistant coach at Northeastern for four seasons. In 1988, she was hired as the head coach at Husson College in Bangor and directed the Braves to a 26-2 record and was named the NAIA District 5 Coach of the Year and the Converse NAIA Coach of the Year.

The Witches made three Eastern Maine tournament appearances under Gott, losing each time in the quarterfinals.

“I really enjoyed Brewer and I had a lot of support from the parents, up until this year,” Gott said. “It was a perfect fit for me. I went through some seasons of 0-18 with kids who understood what it was all about and learned to be successful. Working with Dennis [Kiah] and the administration, they supported me.”

Kiah said the school has started searching for a new coach.

“I’d like to get it done real quick,” he said. “We have a summer basketball league coming up. I’d like to try to find someone but if no one qualified applies, we’ll do it slowly.”

Gott said she is open to coaching again, but faces some conflicts – she wants to stay in this area, but doesn’t want to coach against Brewer. That means, she said, it may be a few years until she gets back into coaching a high school program.

“I’m going to take some time off and see where things stand,” Gott said. “I want to support these kids and I don’t want to hurt them.”

Youth sports camp plans season

The National Youth Sports Program (NYSP) will open its seventh season at UMaine on June 28.

The day camp includes swimming, soccer, tennis, track and field and math and science lab activities.

The camp is for children ages 10-16 whose families meet Department of Health and Human Services income guidelines. There is no cost to participants for the program, which includes a sports physical examination, a breakfast snack and lunch.

For more information, call the UMaine NYSP office at 581-2466.

Athletic Directors Institute set

Maine athletic directors will have a chance to hear about issues such as curbing violence in sports, promoting athletic programs and communication with parents at the second annual Athletic Directors Institute, which will be held Aug. 3-5 at the University of Maine.

National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators’ Association training sessions will also be available at the institute, which is sponsored by the Maine Interscholastic Athletic Administrators’ Association and the Maine Center for Coaching Education at UMaine.

To register, call the MCCE before July 1 at 581-2443.