Hampden fills indoor track, soccer coaching slots

HAMPDEN – Dick Balentine tries to run five miles each day, both for personal fitness and perhaps to serve as an example for the many student-athletes he coaches at Hampden Academy.

As the Broncos’ cross country coach for the past 24 years, he has overseen a program that has become one of the largest in the state – 58 boys and girls were on the team last fall.

Now Balentine will take on additional duties during the winter months. He has been approved as Hampden’s new head coach of boys and girls indoor track by the SAD 23 board of directors.

In that capacity, Balentine replaces David King, who retired from coaching earlier this year after nearly three decades of guiding the Hampden track and field fortunes.

“I helped Dave with the indoor program last year, and for the last three years I’ve been an assistant with the outdoor program,” said Balentine, a biology teacher at Hampden Academy.

“When Dave decided to get done he pushed for me to take over the program.”

The indoor track position was one of three varsity coaching vacancies filled recently at HA, according to SAD 23 Superintendent Rick Lyons.

Dewey Martin, a longtime official and youth sports coach in the area, has been named to succeed Kurt Mathies as girls varsity soccer coach.

Martin was one of the founders of the Hampden Soccer Club travel team program in 1991, and currently serves as president of the Hampden Little League. He also has coached numerous youth teams in soccer, basketball, baseball, softball and track, and has led soccer and basketball teams to berths in national tournaments.

Martin has five years of experience as an assistant soccer coach at the varsity level. He was an assistant boys coach at Hampden in 1993, 1995 and 1996, and assisted the Broncos’ girls team in 1998 and 1999.

An accountant by profession, he also has been active as an official in several sports, including soccer and basketball.

“I’ve done a lot of things with the Hampden Academy kids, and this seemed like the right time for this,” he said. “I love coaching. ”

Martin, who holds a coaching certificate from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, inherits a junior-laden squad with 11 players back from the 2002 team that finished 15-1 and reached the Eastern Maine Class A semifinals.

Ryan Shaw, who has served as the school’s boys junior varsity soccer coach for the past three years, has been elevated to the varsity position.

Shaw replaces Andy Frace, who stepped down this spring after eight years on the job. The Broncos finished 5-9 last fall, but the program has had considerable success during the last decade, winning Eastern Maine Class A championships in 1995 and 1998.

Doran new Gardiner hoop coach

Dana Doran, the 1991 Maine Gatorade Player of the Year for boys basketball while attending Messalonskee High School in Oakland, will make his head coaching debut next season at Gardiner Area High School.

Doran will replace Gary Verhille, who took over on an interim basis last winter after Duffy McAllister suffered a stroke.

The 6-foot-9-inch Doran, a Belgrade native, spent one year at the University of Maine before transferring to Lafayette College, where he played three years for the Leopards.

Doran, 30, later developed an interest in coaching while serving as a graduate assistant at the University of Connecticut.

Gardiner finished 1-17 in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference last winter, and is 8-46 over the last three seasons.