Earl Anderson, who stepped down as the girls basketball coach at Newport’s Nokomis High School in February after leading the Warriors to a 101-43 regular season record, a State Class A championship and two Eastern Maine A titles in nine seasons, will return to Nokomis.

Anderson said Nokomis Athletic Director Carl Parker told him he thought he was making a mistake by resigning “and he turned out to be right.

“I thought I was ready to step away from coaching but I wasn’t,” said the 47-year-old Anderson. “He knows me as well as anybody. He got me thinking about [returning]. Coaching has been such a big part of my life.”

So Anderson re-applied and was confirmed at a school board meeting on Tuesday night.

“There’s no other place I’d rather coach,” said the Orono native. “I can’t think of a better situation. I’m coaching great kids, they’ve got the best AD a coach could work for, a supportive administration and great fans.

“They love basketball in that district,” added Anderson, who teaches history and is the assistant athletic director at Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield.

Anderson has been coaching the Nokomis girls during the summer basketball season and will have eight letter-winners in uniform next winter.

The Nokomis girls went 9-10 last season and lost to Messalonskee of Oakland in the preliminary round of the Eastern Maine Class A tournament.

They had lost all five starters off their 2002-2003 EM Class A championship team.

“We’ll have a good, young group this season. I’m excited,” said Anderson, who has coached boys basketball at Orono and Hampden Academy.