Final game ‘special’ for coaches’ sons Lobster Bowl set for Friday

WATERVILLE – Nick Arthers and Josh Withee first met about a decade ago, passing the football back and forth while their dads were busy coaching the older kids.

The occasion was a practice for the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl.

“That was a long time ago,” said Withee of his initial encounter with Arthers. “We were probably about 7 or 8 back then.”

Today, Arthers and Withee are back at the Lobster Bowl, only now they’re the older kids, two recent high school graduates who will share quarterbacking duties when the East all-stars square off against the West at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Waterhouse Field in Biddeford.

Though they haven’t seen a lot of each other since that first game of toss, they are roommates this week as the team gets ready for the game with a series of practices at Colby College. And as they reminisce about their football careers, they have similar stories to tell.

Both were coached in high school by their fathers, Butch Arthers of Belfast and Paul Withee of Foxcroft Academy.

Both helped their teams win Eastern Maine titles as juniors, Arthers in Class B and Withee in Class C. And both capped off their senior seasons by quarterbacking their teams to state championships last fall.

It is success rooted in physical talent, leadership skills and football acumen, the last trait a residual effect of being the son of the boss.

“It’s definitely helped having Dad as a coach,” said Arthers, who will attend the University of Maine this fall. “He’s always been right there to help.”

“Both are very knowledgeable about football,” added Paul Withee, “because they’ve grown up around it since they were 5 years old.”

For each, an athletic adolescence spent developing under the watchful eye of their fathers ends with one final game at one of the state’s most hallowed high school football venues.

Sure, there’s no gold ball at stake. In some ways, this may be more personal.

“It’s going to be real special,” said Josh Withee, who passed for more than 1,000 yards with 14 touchdowns and just one interception while leading Foxcroft to a 12-0 season in 2003. “It’s going to be tough, because this is the last time. We had the state championship game before this, and that was the last game, but we had a pretty good feeling that I’d get the chance to play in the Lobster Bowl and that he would want to coach in it.”

Both quarterbacks have been busy in the early stages of practice week learning the East offense as devised by head coach Dick Leavitt of Brunswick, offensive coordinator Ted Moccia of Oxford Hills of South Paris and the rest of the East staff, including Butch Arthers and Paul Withee.

There’s also the matter of learning their new teammates, many of whom they had read and heard about but just met recently.

“This is different,” said Nick Arthers, who fought off two shoulder injuries midway through the 2003 season to average 7.8 yards per rushing attempt for the Lions. “It’s a completely different team, but there’s a lot of great players.”

Seemingly that getting-to-know-you process is going smoothly, given the early progress the East made in installing its offense, progress guided by coaches and quarterbacks alike.

“Both are good athletes,” said Butch Arthers, “but one thing I’ve seen already this week is how Josh and Nick are helping the other kids get to know the offense.”

No doubt those instincts relate directly to the football backgrounds of Nick Arthers and Josh Withee.

But there’s also the general competitor within them, and the fact that a key component of their football success has been an unwillingness to accept defeat.

Therein lies one challenge of the Lobster Bowl for the two East quarterbacks. In the first 14 years of the event, the West has dominated, holding a 12-2 lead in the rivalry. But the East won in dominant fashion (55-8) last year, and the Springfield College-bound Withee, for one, sees one more opportunity to do something that hasn’t been done before.

“To be the first team to bring back-to-back wins to the East would be special,” he said.