Coaches fondly recall Eastman’s positive style Ex-Old Town star athlete dies in plane crash

Old Town High School hockey coach Gene Fadrigon was about to talk to the line that would start the second overtime period of their state Class B championship game against Yarmouth 10 years ago in Lewiston.

But it wasn’t necessary.

“The puck was dumped into the corner and I figured that was the end of the first overtime period. But Matt Eastman hustled into the corner and got the puck out to Cory [Thibodeau] and Cory scored with two seconds left. I don’t know how Matt got there. He was real fast,” recalled Fadrigon.

It was that fiercely competitive spirit and positive attitude that was a trademark of Eastman, who is presumed dead following a single-engine plane crash 10 miles off Grand Bahama Island on Saturday.

Five men were on the plane and three of the bodies were found but none of them was Eastman’s.

The search was called off on Sunday.

Eastman was 28.

“He was very popular. He was quite a character. Matt had a great sense of humor. He was always smiling. He was a practical joker,” said Fadrigon.

But game time was different.

“He played with a lot of intensity. He loved to win. He loved to compete. He practiced just as hard as he played in games,” said Fadrigon.

Dave Paul, who coached Eastman at Old Town High School and with the Orono-Old Town American Legion baseball team, concurred.

“Everything he did was 100 miles an hour. He was tremendously talented,” said Paul.

Eastman starred in football (defensive back) as well as baseball (shortstop) and hockey (right winger) at Old Town.

“He used to call [Legion teammate] Marc Halsted in the morning and see if he would go hit [baseballs] with him. Then he would give me a call at 2:00, when we’d have a 6:00 game, to see if I’d come to the field [right away] so he could get more work in,” recalled Paul. “He wanted to keep getting better and wanted everyone around him to get better.”

Eastman, a 1992 graduate of Old Town High School, played one year of baseball at Husson College in Bangor and was an All-Maine Athletic Conference selection that year (1994).

“He was a great person to be around. I loved having him on the team. He was a hard-nosed player who had a great knowledge of the game. And he worked hard,” said Husson coach John Kolasinski.

The recently married Eastman, the youngest of Reginald and Yvonne Eastman’s eight children, was the assistant golf pro at the Ibis Country Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., and had just given his first lesson as a teaching pro a week ago.