Back in 1988, Mike Corneil had a chance to apply for a head football coaching position at Hampden Academy. Instead, the young coach decided to sit on his assistant varsity job.

But a few years later the prospect of being the boss started to intrigue him. Corneil gets that chance this fall, when he takes over the Hampden football program.

“I think I got older, wiser, I got more confident and more of an understanding of the game,” he said. “I got to the point where I wanted to be the head coach and not the assistant.”

Corneil, a math teacher at Hampden for the past 15 years, has been involved in the Bronco football program for 11, five as an assistant varsity coach and the past six as the freshman coach.

“I’ve coached almost all of those kids, all the kids who have gone up through freshman football,” he said.

An Orono High graduate who played football, basketball, and baseball, Corneil spent three seasons coaching the Bangor Christian girls basketball team and had coached freshman and junior high teams at Orono.

He has also skippered varsity softball at Orono and Hampden.

Corneil also officiates basketball in the winter (“my hobby,” he said) which he said he may have to cut back on but won’t cut out entirely.

Corneil takes over for Bob Sinclair, who had coached the Broncos for the last 11 seasons. Sinclair took an assistant principal position at Bucksport High in March.

Sinclair guided Hampden to a 42-70 record. The Broncos have advanced to the playoffs in each of the last four seasons and they won the Eastern Maine Class B title in 1993.

Frost named golf All-American

Calais High graduate and Blue Devil golfer James Frost Jr. has been named a National High School Coaches Association 2001 All-American based on his play at the National Golf Championship June 25-27 at the Orange County National Golf Center in Orlando, Fla.

Frost, who will begin his freshman year at Campbell University in Buies Creek, N.C., this fall, finished 24th overall (the top 25 golfers are named to the All-America team). He shot a 226, with a 72 on the first day at the par-72 Panther Lake course and 76-78 on the par-72 Crooked Cat course the next two days.

Last year Frost finished in a tie for 11th place.

Martin wears milk mustache

Edward Little of Auburn’s Anne Martin was recently named one of 25 Scholar-Athlete Milk Mustache of the Year award winners for her efforts in the classroom and as a cross country and track star for the Red Eddies.

The mustachioed Martin and the rest of the award winners appeared in the July 2-9 double issue of Sports Illustrated.

Martin, a distance standout who is headed to Yale, helped Edward Little win its second straight Class A outdoor track and field title last month.

Each student-athlete receives a $7,500 college scholarship and an invitation to the awards weekend at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla.

Judging is based on academic and athletic performance, leadership, and community service.