With the high school winter sports season just weeks away the coaching carousel continues around Eastern Maine.

Several boys’ basketball coaches have resigned while Tim Toothaker returns to the varsity basketball coaching scene at Southern Aroostook High School in Dyer Brook.

“I like the whole arena. I missed it,” Toothaker said.

Toothaker replaces Dave Gordon, who stepped down for business reasons.

Toothaker coached the Warriors from 1995-1999, with the team reaching the Eastern Maine Class D finals in his final year. He has the advantage of going into the job knowing what he has.

Toothaker has been in the school district for approximately 20 years as an elementary school physical education teacher. He has coached the boys in a number of sports including girls varsity basketball and junior high school basketball and soccer.”I’ve known most of them since they were in kindergarten,” Toothaker said.

Southern Aroostook athletic director Murray Putnam said Toothaker was a natural choice for the job.

“Tim has been a member of our staff, has worked for the district for around 20 years. This is his second stint as the boys basketball coach, so he’s not a stranger to our system.”

Ashland boys coach Joel Hall has decided to take the year off from coaching for family reasons.

“We have a 1-year-old at home and my wife is pregnant. We’re looking at having a baby in the middle of the basketball season. So, I’m taking a year off,” Hall said.

Hall has coached the Hornets’ varsity boys team for three years after coaching their JV team for one year.

“We built the program to last year, making the playoffs for the first time in six or seven years,” Hall said.

Ashland athletic director Ron Grover said the job will be posted and that there has been one in-house applicant.

Hall said that he would miss his time away from the game.

“There is a talented senior class there. And some good kids. They have a chance to get back to the playoffs. I’m going to miss it some.”

Also stepping down is Hodgdon boys basketball coach Rob Moran, who said he needs to focus on his job as a nursing home administrator and that he wants to spend more time with his 4-year-old daughter Jillian.

“This year something had to go and it wasn’t going to be my job or my daughter,” Moran said.

Moran has been coaching for 22 years and last season led the Hawks to an 18-0 record before losing to Calais in the Eastern Maine Class C quarterfinals. In four years under Moran, the Hawks were 53-19 and had qualified for the Eastern Maine tourney the last three years.

“It was a very difficult situation. I still think they can be a tournament contender again this year. I want to coach again at some level. It doesn’t have to be varsity,” Moran said.

Hodgdon athletic director Marty Bouchard said the job has been posted and that “two or three” people have applied. He said that he hopes the interview process will begin by the end of the week and that a coach would be approved at the November SAD 70 board meeting.

“Rob, he was a strong coach. He ran a nice program and was very committed to the kids,” Bouchard said.

All dressed up …

When the Bangor football team charged through the gate and onto the field at Cameron Stadium last Friday night for its game with Messalonskee of Oakland, the Rams just kept coming, and coming and coming.

“We do it for homecoming,” Bangor coach Mark Hackett said. “We dress both the varsity and the freshmen.”

So, 114 players (77 varsity and 37 freshmen) roared onto the field.

“It was pretty impressive,” Messalonskee coach John Hersom said. “It’s a definite sign they have a heck of a program.”

Hersom said that he and his staff had prepared his team for it so that they wouldn’t be intimidated.

Still, more than a few Eagles stood on their sideline watching Bangor’s entrance.

The 114 Bangor players in uniform were more than the entire enrollment at schools such as East Grand of Danforth, Easton and Greenville.

Don Perryman can be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or dperryman@bangordailynews.net