Veteran basketball coach Jerry Adams will return to the sidelines at East Grand of Danforth next winter, but as head coach of the boys varsity squad after guiding the girls team last season.

Adams, a Houlton resident, also has been named the school’s athletic director.

“I’m excited about both jobs,” said Adams. “Last year I had the chance to coach the girls and get familiar with East Grand, and I had a great working relationship with the administration, the faculty, and the kids. They really make you feel welcome.”

Adams replaces six-year coach Troy Cilley, whose coaching contract was not renewed for next season despite compiling a 93-30 record and leading the Vikings to the 2001 Eastern Maine Class D championship.

“The school board felt it was time for a change,” said SAD 14 superintendent of schools William Dobbins.

Cilley also had served as East Grand’s athletic director, but he stepped down this spring, citing a job conflict and the travel required from his home in Princeton, 40 miles south of Danforth on Route 1.

“I’ve always wanted to be an AD,” said Adams. “Having officiated for 26 years and having been a coach, there’s a myriad of experiences I want to bring to East Grand as athletic director,” Adams said. “I want to be an AD who stands behind his coaches. There are too many coaches leaving today because of parental involvement, and that’s got to stop.”

This actually will be Adams’ second stint as East Grand’s boys varsity coach. He coached the Vikings in 1978, compiling a 3-13 record.

Adams has a 102-60 regular-season record as a varsity coach since 1995, leading his teams to postseason play in eight of his last nine years at the high school level.

He spent the 1995 season at Ashland, then led Central Aroostook of Mars Hill to the Class D state championship in 1996. Adams was the boys coach at Houlton for six seasons, from 1997 through 2002, and amassed a 70-38 regular-season record. The Shiretowners reached the Eastern B final in 1998 and 1999 before falling to Camden-Rockport, which won the state title in 1999.

Adams’ tenure at Houlton ended in some controversy, including a game at Ellsworth High School in which some Houlton players overreacted to taunting from the crowd and were assessed technical fouls. Several players were either removed or suspended from the team after that game.

“I live in Houlton, so I was familiar with that situation,” said Dobbins. “But that didn’t come into play at all as far as the decision at East Grand.”

Adams coached at Northern Maine Community College during the 2002-03 season, and last winter he coached the East Grand girls, who finished 5-13 and qualified for the Eastern D preliminary round.

The East Grand boys team graduated just four seniors off the 2003-04 team, among them standout guard Darius Parker.

“With the success Troy had here, he’s really established a good foundation,” Adams said. “We’re a small school with not a lot of kids, but most of them play basketball. Troy did a nice job here.”

Cilley, who interviewed to retain his coaching job, was surprised when he learned he wouldn’t be the Vikings’ coach next winter.

“I’m kind of disappointed that it ended this way,” said Cilley. “I thought I was in good standing. We’d made the tournament the last five years, made it to two finals and won it once, and lost the last three years to the team that won the Eastern Maine championship.”

The Vikings made the tournament in each of Cilley’s last five seasons, including last winter when East Grand reached the regional semifinals before falling to eventual state champion Calvary Chapel of Orrington.

Cilley’s teams won at least 14 games in each of the last five regular seasons. Between 1964 and 1999, East Grand won as many as 13 regular-season games only once (in 1971) and won 10 or more games only four times (1966, 1971, 1991, and 1996).

“I had such a great time coaching there and met so many wonderful people, both the fans who supported the team, the people in the community, and the players who played for me,” he said.

Cilley plans to return to coaching, though maybe not next winter.

“I really didn’t want to take this year off,” he said.

Perry’s Pottle 7th at Adidas meet

Helen Pottle of Perry and Shead High School placed seventh in the national high school one-mile racewalk at the recent Adidas Outdoor Track and Field Championships held at Raleigh, N.C.

Pottle, who finished second in the same event at the Class C state championship meet on June 5, was the second-fastest Mainer in the race. Lauren Forgues of Boothbay, who defeated Pottle by 0.22 seconds at the state meet, placed sixth out of 18 competitors at the Adidas race.

Caribou’s Marisa Hessert finished 10th in the Raleigh race.

In the boys division, Troy Clark of Lisbon, the three-time Class C state champion, placed second in the national high school one-mile racewalk, while Padric Gleason of Dresden was fourth and Justin Cornell of Lisbon placed sixth. David McLeod of Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield was eighth.

Cornell, incidentally, went from the Raleigh race to Nebraska to participate in the Friendship Series wrestling exchange between teams from Maine and Nebraska that began Tuesday night.

Maine is sending five racewalkers to the USATF Junior National Track and Field Championships at College Station, Texas, this weekend in an effort to land berths on the U.S. junior national team. Maine competitors in that 10-kilometer race will be Clark, Gleason, Danny Campbell of Caribou and St. Joseph’s College, Kate Dickinson of South Berwick and the University of Maine at Farmington, and Carly Lochala of New Sharon and Mt. Blue High School in Farmington.