Things seem to be settled in the Hodgdon High athletic department now that Dave Minzy has been installed as the school’s new athletic director and Jill Pisano has been hired to coach the varsity girls basketball team.

Minzy, who just started in the athletic director-vice principal position last Thursday, spent this past fall as an assistant coach for the University of Maine-Fort Kent men’s soccer team after 18 years as the Fort Kent High boys head soccer coach.

After performing some administrative duties at UMFK, Minzy said he realized he wanted to go that route.

“This is a career change for me,” he said. “I had always wanted to get into the administrative side of things. There was a need for someone here, too. I knew about the job here and it’s a chance for me to stay in the County so I decided to go for it.”

There definitely was a need for an AD at Hodgdon after Marty Bouchard left the post last year to became the principal at neighboring Houlton High.

Minzy is still living in Fort Kent now because he has a daughter who is a junior at the high school there. He plans to make the 184-mile round trip from Fort Kent to Hodgdon until she graduates.

Minzy could be a potential replacement for girls soccer coach Brian Fitzpatrick, who retired at the end of the season after almost 20 years of coaching the Hawks.

Minzy didn’t rule it out, but pointed out that the dual AD-VP jobs might not leave him enough time to coach.

“I don’t know how I could do three jobs,” he said. “There would have to be a juggling of schedules.”

Minzy wasn’t at the school in time to play a role in Pisano’s hiring.

Pisano is the physical education teacher at Hodgdon High. She takes over for former Hodgdon star Wendy Ivey, who left Maine for Texas to pursue a degree in counseling. Ivey coached the Hawks to a 29-12 record and two semifinal appearances at the Eastern Maine basketball tournament.

Pisano, whose maiden name is Jill Mathers, was a third-team All-Maine basketball player at Southern Aroostook High in nearby Dyer Brook. Pisano said she recalled playing against Ivey, who was two years behind her in school. The two spent a day together this fall going over the Hodgdon program.

After graduating from SAHS in 1994, Pisano attended Springfield College (Mass.), where she played basketball for three years. She moved back to Maine this year.

“It was unbelievable, actually,” she said. “It was lots of luck that both positions opened up at the same time.”

In her senior year at SAHS Pisano averaged 12.4 points, 6.2 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 3.1 steals, and was named a McDonald’s senior all-star and a member of the Class D all-tourney team. The Warriors fell to Jonesport-Beals in the Eastern Maine final that year.

The winter season doesn’t open until Nov. 22, the first day of practices and tryouts, so Pisano isn’t sure exactly who she’ll have on the team. Hodgdon graduated three starters from last season’s Class D tournament semifinalist.

Guard Collette Sloat, an all-tourney honorable mention, is a senior this year. She scored 17 points in the semifinal as the Hawks nearly knocked off eventual Eastern Maine champ Lee before losing 43-42.

Gaw takes over PCHS girls

Brian Gaw, the son of longtime Piscataquis High coach and athletic director Dave Gaw, was named the new coach of the girls basketball team.

It’s the first varsity basketball head coaching job for Gaw, who has served as the head soccer coach at Narraguagus of Harrington and Carrabec of North Anson – all told about 15 years of coaching soccer, he figures. An avid golfer who played almost 95 times this summer, Gaw was the head coach of the Foxcroft Academy golf team this fall.

Gaw also coached junior varsity boys basketball at PCHS, Narraguagus and Carrabec.

The SAD 4 board approved his hiring in a meeting last week, Piscataquis athletic director Larry Holmquist said. Gaw replaces Gary Sinclair, who coached the Pirates to a 7-29 record in two years.

Sinclair was also the girls soccer coach this fall but was removed during the regular season and replaced n an interim basis by Holmquist and assistant principal Sandy Emerson.

Holmquist said Sinclair had been suspended from coaching the girls soccer team but can reapply for the post next year. Holmquist declined to elaborate on the reason for Sinclair’s suspension.

Gaw is a health and physical education teacher at Piscataquis. He graduated from the school in 1984 after a career in which he played soccer, golf, basketball and baseball.

“To be perfectly honest I didn’t come here with the intention of coaching varsity basketball,” Gaw said. “They already had two established varsity basketball coaches. I was actually thinking about an offer [to coach at another school] when this came up.”

Gaw takes over a very young squad that won just three games last year. Right now, he said, there are only four seniors and no juniors signed up to play, and the rest of the team will likely be made up of freshmen and sophomores.

“One of Gary’s strengths was that he always got a lot of kids to come out and play,” Gaw said. “So if we can continue to do that at the lower levels, eventually it will pay off.”

Plus, the Pirates will face a tough schedule of teams like defending Class C state champion Dexter, Eastern Maine runner-up Central of Corinth, always tough Stearns of Millinocket, and dangerous teams like Mattanawcook of Lincoln, Penquis of Milo and Penobscot Valley of Howland.

Gaw plans to institute a new system that will involve more full-court pressure.

“It’s going to be quite a different system,” he said.

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