Buck named Norfolk coach UM grad joins Arenafootball2

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Former University of Maine star quarterback Mike Buck will make his debut as a head football coach next Friday when his winless Norfolk (Va.) Nighthawks travel to Roanoke for an Arenafootball2 League game.

Deatrich Wise was fired earlier this week and Buck, who was the offensive coordinator for league member Pensacola (Fla.) last season, was named the head coach and director of player personnel by owner and general manager Ken Easley, a former NFL safety.

The other owner is NFL defensive lineman Bruce Smith.

“This is just what I wanted,” said the 34-year-old Buck who inherits an 0-4 team. “I coached in the league last year and I loved it. I found out how much I really missed football and I enjoyed the coaching.”

He said the league is a dream come true for an ex-quarterback because opposing defenses “play man-to-man [defense], there’s no safety and they can’t blitz.”

The Pensacola Barracudas averaged 45.2 points per game a year ago. But the Nighthawks are averaging just 27.8 ppg which is 24th among 28 teams.

“There’s a lot of pressure on us. We need to score some points. The hardest part for me is I’ll have only three days of practice with the guys before our game. This weekend is our bye week and the former coach let them go until Sunday night,” said Buck. “We’re going to have to simplify the offense. I don’t want to confuse them. Hopefully, I’ll put them in a good situation.

“We had a lot of guys going in an out of Pensacola last year so I spent a lot of time teaching. I had to simplify the offense. That will help.”

Eventually, he will implement more aspects of his offense as he becomes familiar with his players and they become more comfortable with him and his system.

For the time being, he is watching films and evaluating his players.

Buck, who played six seasons in the NFL for New Orleans, Arizona and Miami, had been led to believe he would be the next head coach of the Barracudas after Kevin Porter left to become the coach in Macon, Ga.

“But when push came to shove, they weren’t there for me,” said Buck, who hadn’t applied for other coaching jobs in anticipation of receiving the job.

He spent a week with the XFL’s Las Vegas Outlaws as a back-up quarterback but things didn’t work out.

“If they had wanted me to come in and help coach, I would have done it. They wanted me to play and I wanted to coach. I didn’t like it. It was like being back in the NFL. We had 12-14-16-hour days. I’m not scared of working that many hours but when you don’t have any input, it makes for a long day,” said Buck.

Buck was offered the offensive coordinator’s job in Macon by Porter but turned it down because he and his wife Alaine have a catering and delivery company in Florida and his salary as an assistant coach wouldn’t have justified the move.

His wife and three-year-old son Cole will remain in Florida for the time being.

The team has already begun marketing Buck’s name.

“At our next home game, if they mention my name at the ticket window, they’ll get a buck off,” said Buck, who also learned at a press conference that the president of the Nighthawks boosters club is a University of Maine alum.

“Charlie Chapman, Class of ’61,” said Buck, who has retained two members of the staff and hired close friend Ed Cunningham to coach the lines.

Snow retains sense of humor

Former University of Maine goalie Garth Snow hasn’t lost his sense of humor despite being relegated to the backup role for the Pittsburgh Penguins due to a lingering groin injury and the tremendous play of Johan Hedberg.

“I’m just glad I won the ‘Travel with the Penguins’ raffle. I can’t believe how nice the guys are. They aren’t nearly as big without their uniforms on,” joked Snow. “I think they just got sick of me stuffing the ballot box.”

Snow had been having a decent season when he suffered the groin injury against the Philadelphia Flyers. He wound up the regular season with a 14-15-4 record, a 2.99 goals-against average and a .900 save percentage.

“I’m still not 100 percent but it feels better than it did and I could play if I had to,” said Snow, who will be a free agent after this season.

His Penguins have a 1-0 lead over Buffalo in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series and Hedberg has been sensational. He is 5-2, 1.38 and .946 in the playoffs after a 7-2-1, 2.48, .910 regular season.

“That’s the best goaltending I’ve seen in the playoffs in a long time. I’ve never seen anybody come in and play as well as he has. And he’s a great kid. He has really worked hard to get this far. You like to see guys like him do well,” said Snow, who is in his seventh full season in the NHL and has a career 3.17 GAA and a 91-95-31 record.

Despite the frustration caused by the injury, Snow still puts things in perspective.

“It beats working for a living,” said the Wrentham, Mass., native.

UMF plays 14 in 7 days

What’s it like to play doubleheaders on seven consecutive days? Just ask University of Maine-Farmington catcher Nick Potts, whose Beavers did just that recently.

“It’s rough. You have bumps and bruises and aches everywhere. It’s hard to play through it. But you’ve got to try to battle every day and play hard every day,” said Potts.

Coach Dick Meader said it was evident that his everyday players were leg-weary by the end of the stretch.

UMF was on school vacation that week and went a respectable 6-8 in the stretch.

“We were fortunate this year because we have a number of guys who can throw strikes,” said Meader.