Weatherbee returns to Pandas; Graham takes Houlton post

Two more high schools have filled their vacant girls basketball positions.

As expected, Ron Weatherbee will take over the Lee Academy position, while Shawn Graham has been hired at Houlton High.

Weatherbee’s hiring doesn’t come as a surprise. He’s already the Lee softball coach and was the girls basketball coach from 1990-94 before leaving to coach the Mattanawcook Academy boys.

“It was a good situation there before. There was support from the parents, there was support from the fans and the administration,” Weatherbee said.

In a way, Weatherbee is replacing the coach who replaced him when he left Lee in 1994 with a 32-40 record.

Carrie Goodhue coached the Pandas from 1995 to the middle of the 2003-04 season. She resigned in January, and athletic director Randy Harris took over as interim coach through the rest of the season.

The Pandas won the Eastern Maine Class D title, but fell to Rangeley in the state final.

A number of starters return to Lee next year, including second-team NEWS All-Maine forward Shelby Pickering. And Weatherbee is encouraged with the future of the program, too.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “We’re gonna be in good shape, and it looks like we have some junior high girls who are ready to step in.”

The only drawback for Weatherbee will be the commute from his day job as a math teacher at Old Town High.

“It’s going to be similar to the spring,” he said. “When I leave school, I make a beeline for the road.”

Weatherbee was the girls coach at Old Town High this past season. He was replaced last week by former Hampden freshman coach Justin Page.

Weatherbee coached the Mattanawcook boys from 1995-2003.

While Weatherbee is a veteran varsity head coach, Graham was named to his first head coaching job. He replaces nine-year coach Jerry Tweedie, who resigned after the tournament this year.

Graham has coached the eighth-graders in Houlton for several years and the fifth- and sixth-graders before that, so he’s very familiar with the girls in the system.

“I’ve been looking forward to it,” said Graham, a 1989 graduate of Hodgdon High who played baseball at UMaine-Presque Isle. “I know all the girls.”

Tweedie coached the Shiretowners to a 13-8 record in Eastern Maine Class C this year, the school’s first in Class C. Houlton’s season ended in the semifinals with a 56-30 loss to eventual state champion Dexter.

Graham thought he would apply for the next junior varsity position that opened, but when Tweedie announced his resignation, Graham thought he’d try for the head position.

“I thought, I’ll try now because it might be a while [before anything else opens up],” he said.

Graham won’t be in the same position as Weatherbee – just one starter returns to the Houlton team. But that starter, Danielle Sewell, was one of the Shiretowners’ top players this year. The 5-foot-5 guard was a Penobscot Valley Conference Class C/D all-star and an Eastern Maine Class C all-tourney honorable mention in her sophomore season.

“I was extremely pleased with the group I had this year and the seventh-graders, too,” Graham said. “I’m kind of looking at the next year as a rebuilding year, but maybe by Danielle’s senior year we can get back to the Auditorium.”

Graham would also like to see the program’s numbers go up. There were nine players on the 2004 tourney roster.

“There are 14 or 15 [players] in the incoming class, so that should help,” he said.

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