Webb out as Hampden girls coach SAD 22 doesn’t renew contract despite Broncos’ basketball success

loading...

Non-action at a recent school board meeting and an ad in the Saturday newspaper mean Mike Webb is out as the girls basketball coach at Hampden Academy.

Maine School Administrative District 22, which encompasses Hampden, Winterport and Newburgh, advertised both the girls basketball position and the athletic director’s post last weekend.

Athletic director Tim Reed said Monday he resigned to take a position at Bangor High School, something he had been seeking for a while.

It’s a different case for Webb, who coached the Hampden girls for the past two years but was told by superintendent of schools Rick Lyons that his name would not be resubmitted for the basketball position.

Hampden Academy coaches have one-year contracts. Webb’s contract was not renewed at a July 10 school board meeting.

Webb said he didn’t believe his coaching style was the reason for his contract not being renewed, but was reluctant to discuss specifics because he plans to reapply for the job.

At the July 10 meeting, the SAD 22 board of directors approved a host of appointments for fall and winter coaching and teaching positions but the girls basketball position was not among them, said Lou Aurelio of Winterport, who is a member of the board of directors and the chairman of the board’s athletic committee.

Aurelio declined to comment on the situation because he said he cannot discuss personnel issues. Lyons has also declined to discuss Webb’s situation.

Webb has an idea of what the sticking point with Lyons is but declined to talk about his theories. Webb did say he was told last winter to add “four or five” girls who had been cut from the team back into the program.

Webb, who works for R.H. Foster in Hampden and has two children in the school system, was a basketball referee for 20 years before taking the coaching position in 2000. He doesn’t want to go back to officiating.

“I’d like to continue coaching right in Hampden,” he said. “… I’m very proud of the kids and the entire coaching staff. We conducted ourselves as professionals and we ran a first-class operation.”

Under Webb the Broncos went 31-11, including quarterfinal wins in the Eastern Maine Class A tournament both seasons.

There are two avenues Webb can pursue now. He can apply for the job, which he is considering. He can also try to regain his job through the school board.

Webb said Lyons called him July 12 and asked Webb if he would attend an Aug. 14 school board meeting, during which the board would go into executive session and hash out the problems.

“He calls me Friday, then puts the job in the paper Saturday,” Webb said. “That doesn’t make much sense.”

Aurelio said the process by which coaching contracts are approved starts with recommendations from the athletic director and then the principal. Both recommendations go to the superintendent, who passes the nomination on the to athletic committee. The nomination goes to the full school board, which votes to deny or approve the recommendation.

In Webb’s case the nomination never got past Lyons, so neither the athletic committee or the school board ever got a chance to consider rehiring the coach.

Webb has another obstacle in his way: his administrative support is gone. Reed is moving on to a new school, and principal Katie Donovan announced her resignation at the school board meeting last week.

Webb has said both administrators gave him positive recommendations.

“With the athletic director and principal gone, there goes that support,” he said.

Webb replaced Kim Haggan in 2000. At the time, Haggan said she resigned because she wanted to concentrate on her family and cited pressure from parents who didn’t support the program.

Reed heading to Bangor

Meanwhile, Tim Reed, who has served as an assistant principal and athletic director for 61/2 years, will move over to Bangor High to take an assistant principal post there.

Reed’s appointment was approved by the Bangor school committee Monday night. He replaces Paul Soucy, who is the new athletic director at Hermon High.

Reed said he’ll miss Hampden Academy and the people he worked with there, but is eager to begin working at Bangor. His wife, Tina, works at the Fairmount School in Bangor.

“I’ve been looking for an opportunity like this for a while,” he said. “This is my ideal job, and I got it.”

Reed served as an assistant principal and athletic director at Madawaska before he moved to Hampden.

Sparacio picked to coach Broncos

One Hampden coaching vacancy that has been straightened out is the varsity football position.

John Sparacio, who has served as an assistant football coach at the school, was tabbed to replace Mike Corneil.

Sparacio’s hiring was approved by the school board July 10, Reed said.

One of Reed last orders of business as AD will be the hiring of three assistant coaches, which he and Sparacio will start doing this week.

Corneil resigned earlier this summer to take a teaching job at Bangor High School.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.