Dave Day knew he had a big challenge on his hands when he agreed to coach the Hodgdon boys soccer team this year.

The program was coming back from a yearlong hiatus due to lack of interest last year. Jump-starting the team was hard enough. Then tragedy struck when the Hawks lost senior Erik Tash, who was killed in a car accident Aug. 7.

Despite the setbacks – the kind of things that might have ruined a season – Day said it’s been the best coaching experience of his career even though Hodgdon hasn’t won a game yet.

“I’ve coached and played on baseball and soccer teams and basketball, hockey, and this by far is the best experience I’ve ever had,” he said after a 9-1 loss to Central Aroostook in Mars Hill. “I’ve never had a more dedicated bunch of kids. They’re working hard at practice, not giving me any grief.”

Day has had to jump-start the team after the Hawks couldn’t find more than nine or 10 players early last season. The boys decided they didn’t want to compete without a full complement of 11, so the school decided to call off the season.

Day said Steve Fitzpatrick, the former Hodgdon principal who is now the superintendent of SAD 29 in neighboring Houlton, got the program restarted before he left for his new job. Day agreed to come on board after coach Wendy Ivey decided not to return to the team.

“That was basically the last thing [Fitzpatrick] did before he left, he got the program going because he didn’t want to see it gone,” Day said. “If we had lost it for two years we would have lost it for good.”

But the Hawks still only had six or seven players when school started in August, so the more experienced players started calling around to recruit kids from inside school. They picked up enough for a complete team but occasionally play with just 10 players because Jesse Lane is a golfer, too, and has permission to play both sports.

And then Tash, a senior forward, was killed in the car accident. The crash occurred as he was approaching the intersection of the Skedgell Road and U.S. Route 1 in Cary, according to Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department. Tash, 17, lost control of the 1997 Jeep Wrangler he was operating and died of head trauma.

He was wearing a seat belt and the sheriff’s department said neither speed nor alcohol appeared to be factors.

The Hawks take turns wearing Tash’s No. 15 jersey during games to commemorate their teammate.

Inexperience has been the biggest on-field struggle for Hodgdon – about half of the team had never played soccer in high school – but Day likes his team’s work ethic despite the winless record.

“I’ve been on some undefeated teams and you get attitudes and egos,” said Day, who is the Hodgdon baseball coach and works in a nursing home in Presque Isle. “But these guys, they work hard from the freshmen to the seniors.”