A Hoosier finds home Down East New Shead principal has Indiana hoop ties

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When new Shead of Eastport principal Terry Lux attended the Tigerettes’ season-opening basketball game Saturday, she found it difficult to just watch instead of coach, which is what she had done for 25 years before retiring to Maine this summer.

“It’s hard for me to sit on the sidelines and keep quiet,” she said with a laugh. “The coach in me wants to come out.”

Lux sees a lot of similarities to basketball here and in Indiana, where she grew up and attended school. She grew up in a small town there, and now works in a small town.

But in Indiana, there’s no such thing as small when it comes to basketball. And Lux has met some big-time basketball names.

As a high schooler in Greensburg, Ind., Lux’s driver’s education teacher was legendary basketball coach Marvin Wood. Wood was the boys basketball coach at nearby Milan High School, whose team was the subject of the movie “Hoosiers.”

Lux went on to play basketball at Vincennes University in Vincennes, Ind., and Bethel College in Mishawaka, Ind. She then went for a master’s degree in administration from Indiana University in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was there she took a class in basketball coaching.

So who was the professor?

Just a guy named Bobby Knight, who had led the Hoosiers to a national championship in 1976 and would coach the team to another title in 1981 and again in 1987.

Lux said she remembers Knight’s renowned temper – not that it was ever directed at her, she added.

“Even as graduate students he would say to us, how do you think you’re going to become a basketball coach if you can’t understand [a play],” she recalled.

Lux said Knight was a history buff and named his basketball plays after events like ancient Greek wars.

But she picked up a lot from Knight, and was able to use that knowledge when she became the girls basketball coach at Rossville High School.

Using strategies like a switching man-to-man defense, which wasn’t often seen then in small schools, were things she picked up from Knight’s class.

“He had an attitude about him, but we had a lot of respect for him because he had a great coaching mind,” Lux said.

Lux later moved to Florida, where she served as an administrator and coached a variety of sports including cross country, swimming, gymnastics, track, softball and volleyball.

Lux had spent summers in Maine for the past 10 years, and bought a piece of land on Rocky Lake between East Machias and Whiting with the intention of retiring there. She did retire, but took over the principal position at Shead this fall.

The school was looking for a basketball coach this summer to replace longtime coach Bob Davis, who resigned after last season, but Lux, who is also finishing up a doctoral program, said she felt she wouldn’t have time to coach.

The school went on to hire former Tigerette player Joni Kinney.

Lux also has some connections to current University of Maine coach and Indiana native Sharon Versyp, who is from Mishawaka. Versyp played basketball at Purdue in West Lafayette, which is where Lux was born.

Indians have all-star coaches

Old Town swimmers and divers won’t have to look too far to get some inspiration this year. Both the boys and girls teams have new coaches who were stars in their own right.

Zach Gasaway, a 1998 Old Town graduate, will take over the boys team this year while ex-UMaine star Krystal Fogler will handle the girls team. And current UMaine standout Justin Alley of Bangor is now coaching the divers.

He was the 1998 Class B boys Swimmer of the Year and the Swimmer of the Meet in helping the Indians to the Class B state title that year.

Gasaway was also a baseball all-star for Old Town High and Orono’s American Legion team.

Fogler was named the Most Outstanding Performer at America East championship meets in 2000 and 2001. She held America East records in the 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke and has the best times in UMaine history in the 100 and 200 free.

The Old Town boys were the Class B state runners-up in 2004 and Class B champs in 2003. The Old Town girls finished ninth in the 2004 championship meet.

Alley, who dives for the University of Maine, finished eighth in the 1-meter event and seventh in the 3-meter event at the America East Championships last year. He was a former diving all-star for Bangor, placing third in the Class A state championships in his junior and senior years.

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