Pending school committee approval, Steve Van Dolman will become the third man to call himself Brewer High School’s varsity hockey coach in the last four years.

The 31-year-old Van Dolman, who served as head JV coach and varsity assistant to Paul Henderson last season, has received the recommendation from athletic director Dennis Kiah to succeed Henderson.

“The plan was for me to be Paul’s understudy a few years, so this is kind of a surprise, but I’m excited about it,” said Van Dolman, who has been active as a coach in the Bangor Youth Hockey program for the last five years. “I’m very excited about the season, even though our schedule’s tougher and I’ve got to find an assistant now. We hardly lost anyone and we did very well with the summer hockey program.”

Van Dolman ran the summer program, in which the Witches went 11-1, despite having three players either move or transfer in the offseason.

Henderson resigned his post after two seasons as he and wife Linda will be moving to Lowell, Mass., where she has taken a new job. Henderson, who commuted to Brewer from his home in Ripley, is a retired firefighter who worked in Chelmsford, Mass., for 31 years.

The Witches were 16-21 in Henderson’s two seasons behind the bench, but were 11-9 last season with a sophomore-laden lineup.

Van Dolman’s recommendation will come before the committee in the second week of November. Hockey’s preseason begins Nov. 19.

“Steve was basically the only one I interviewed,” said Kiah. “He knows the system, he knows the kids, he even knows the kids who aren’t even in high school yet and he’s a young, up-and-coming coach.”

Van Dolman has been an educational technician at Brewer, but this year is working in academic support for grades 9-12 at the high school. He said he’ll still try to remain active in youth hockey as a volunteer, but plans to shift his efforts from Bangor’s program to Brewer’s.

New pigskin playoff frontier

It’s time to unveil the new playoff system put into effect in the Pine Tree Conference and LTC as Eastern Maine football teams either start postseason play this Friday or next.

The PTC is up first as conference officials traded a shortened regular season schedule for an extra playoff round. This year, eight teams make the playoff field – which match the top four teams from each PTC division (Northeast and Southeast).

The new system matches the top teams in each division against the No. 4 teams in the opposite division and the No. 2 seeds against the opposing division’s No. 3’s. This year, the top team from the Northeast (unbeaten Bangor) will host the No. 4 team in the Southeast (Edward Little of Auburn). The predetermined semifinal round will match the 1-4 winners against the 2-3 winners (the Bangor-Edward Little winner vs. Messalonskee-Lewiston winner).

Another change is the way the playoff teams were decided, the Crabtree point system – which involves calculating a team’s winning percentage (wins divided by total games played) and its opponents’ total winning percentage (as a group), adding the two together, adding 100, and then multiplying that figure by 100 – has been put into use. It’s a better way to evaluate teams playing a low number of games and rewards teams for playing tougher competition, according to LTC statistician Mike Archer.

When the LTC begins its playoffs next week, the top four teams, regardless of division affiliation will play each other. For example, in LTC Class B, Winslow, Brewer, Belfast and Morse of Bath have all clinched playoff spots. The winner of Saturday’s Winslow-Brewer game will secure the No. 1 spot, home field advantage, and a semifinal date with Morse. The loser will play Belfast.

PVC track looking for direction

Brewer’s Kiah and representatives of the other 14 members of the Penobscot Valley Conference’s indoor (formerly Eastern Maine Indoor Track League) and spring track and field association are looking for a league director to replace Rod White, who found that trying to do that job and be head coach for Old Town’s cross country, indoor, and spring track teams was just too much to handle.

The paid position involves supervising the PVC and its 1,000 athletes as well as lining up workers and volunteers to officiate, organize and/or help run all league meets (10 indoor and five outdoor).

Interested candidates can call Kiah at 989-4140 before 3 p.m.

Andrew Neff’s High School Report is published each Wednesday. He can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net.