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OLD TOWN – A familiar face is coming home to guide the fortunes of the Old Town High School football team.
Dan Baker, a former All-Little Ten Conference and All-State player for the Indians between 1989 and 1991, has been named the Indians’ third head coach in as many years. He replaces Keith Holland, who resigned after one season to take a job out of state.
A 1992 OTHS graduate, Baker played linebacker and offensive guard and center on Indian teams that won the LTC championship and was the state Class B runner-up in 1991 and reached the conference championship game in both 1989 and 1990 under coach Jim Walsh.
He went on to play in the 1992 Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic.
Baker, 29, also has considerable coaching experience within the Old Town program. He was a four-year varsity assistant from 1997 to 2000 under former head coach Ian Braun, and before that was head freshman coach for one year and head eighth-grade coach for a year.
Baker faces a rebuilding job with the Indians, who were 0-9 a year ago.
“Most programs have good stretches and bad stretches,” he said. “The key is to get kids out, get them in the weight room and get them excited about football.
“Once you’re winning, it’s easier to keep it rolling. The challenge is to get it to that point.”
The Indians will field a young team in the new Pine Tree Conference Class B ranks this fall.
“We’ll stress fundamentals,” Baker said. “[They say] Xs and Os don’t mean anything if you can’t block and tackle. We’ll run a few things and work to run them well.”
“You look at programs like Belfast and Winslow that have been successful, they’ve run the same schemes and system for years, and they run them very well.”
The University of Maine graduate, who taught social studies at Nokomis Regional High School in Newport during the past school year, will teach social studies at OTHS – a job he got before landing the football post.
He and his wife also expect to close on a house in Old Town this week.
Watson gets Mount Ararat post
Former Orono High School boys basketball coach Aaron Watson has been named to a similar post at Mount Ararat School in Topsham.
“I’m really looking forward to getting going,” said Watson, who also will teach physical education at Mount Ararat.
With the move the 30-year-old Watson returns to his high school basketball roots in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference. He is a 1991 graduate of Oxford Hills High School in South Paris, where he played under current Vikings coach Scott Graffam.
“I think I’ll fit in with the KVAC,” said Watson. “When I played at Oxford Hills, we played an uptempo, fullcourt pressure style, which a lot of the KVAC teams use. I’m used to that style, but we couldn’t do that at Orono because we were so big.”
A physical education teacher for the last six years at the Asa Adams Elementary School in Orono, Watson also served as director of basketball operations for the University of Maine men’s basketball program last winter and as a volunteer assistant baseball coach at Hampden Academy last spring.
Watson was the boys varsity basketball coach Orono during the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 seasons, and before that served for two years as the Red Riots’ junior varsity coach. He also was Orono’s varsity baseball coach for four seasons, and has coached junior varsity girls soccer and outdoor track.
The 1996 graduate of the University of Maine also was the top assistant basketball coach at Thomas College in Waterville for two years.
Watson’s reason for relocating to southern Maine had little to do with basketball. His wife, Nicole, has a job with Hannaford Brothers based in Scarborough that requires considerable travel.
“She has to travel a lot, and the extra two hours from here to Scarborough was a lot to ask,” he said.
Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net
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