‘Tough love’ approach helps Penquis’ Hamlin reach 300 wins

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MILO – Three hundred victories later, little has changed in how Tony Hamlin endeavors to get across the finer points of basketball to his players.

“If there is a difference, it’s that I’m a little less naive now,” said Hamlin, who earned coaching win No. 300 on Dec. 29 when Penquis Valley defeated Stearns of Millinocket. “Now I know how little I really know.”

Most of Hamlin’s players past and present know better, because whether they have come from Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield, Morse High in Bath, South Portland High or Penquis, in his hometown, Hamlin’s coaching lessons have been absorbed to good effect.

Seventeen of his 22 full seasons as a varsity coach have produced winning records, including 15 of the last 16 years. And with Penquis off to a 6-1 start this winter, another successful campaign looms.

Hamlin’s hard-nosed style has produced state championships in both Class A (South Portland, 1983) and Class C (Penquis, 2000), with additional regional titles in 1985 at South Portland and 1999 at Penquis.

“I’m not an easy guy to play for,” said Hamlin, whose team faces a major test Thursday at undefeated Dexter, “and probably anywhere other than Penquis, it would be difficult for me to coach now.”

Some might consider his approach one of tough love. Hamlin doesn’t disagree.

“I get after the kids, but they respond,” he said. “You can’t just yell and scream, you’ve got to know what you’re doing.”

One of his current standouts, senior forward Jordan Allen, spoke after a recent Penquis win of Hamlin having “to get in our grille like usual” during halftime. But Allen was speaking matter-of-factly, knowing his coach had the team’s success and his players’ ability to maximize their competitive potential at heart.

“I try to tell these guys that it’s not all about basketball, what we’re doing really has a broader perspective,” said Hamlin, who teaches and is the athletic director at Penquis as well as a Milo selectman. “It’s just that basketball happens to be the vehicle.”

What his players also know, through their parents and other relatives from the area, is that Hamlin speaks – and sometimes yells – from experience.

Hamlin was a star athlete at both Milo High School and Penquis, playing his first two years at Milo and his final two years at Penquis after SAD 41 was formed in the late 1960s.

Hamlin went on to become a four-year letterman at the University of Maine and captained the Black Bears in 1974.

He immediately went into the teaching and coaching ranks, initially for three years at MCI. He moved to Class A at Morse in 1978, spending four years there before moving to South Portland in 1982.

Hamlin left coaching in 1988, but after eight years away he returned – not only to the sidelines, but to his hometown and a Penquis program that had won only five postseason games and qualified for the Eastern Maine tournament just 12 times in the school’s first 28 years of existence.

His initial re-emergence was controversial, as Hamlin was hired to replace David Carey, who wasn’t rehired despite leading Penquis to a tournament berth the previous season.

In Hamlin’s first year at Penquis, the Patriots went 17-1 before being upset in the 1997 Eastern C quarterfinals by Hodgdon. In 1998, Penquis reached the regional final before falling to Washington Academy of East Machias.

But in 1999, Penquis won its first EM title, and a year later the Patriots – led by forwards Jeremy Allen and Matt Pokrywka and guard Mike Weston – upended favored Boothbay to bring the school its first gold ball.

“The 2000 championship was pretty special,” said Hamlin. “The school had never won one before, and it was kind of unexpected. We had lost to Falmouth the year before, and coming back I felt we had a shot. But Boothbay was so dominant that it didn’t seem like it mattered who won in Eastern Maine.”

Save for a 6-12 season in 2002, the Patriots have remained contenders ever since, and have amassed 146 victories during Hamlin’s 81/2 years in charge.

“You get that because the kids will respond to what you’re trying to do,” he said. “And what you realize as you go on is that it’s less about you than it is about the kids.”

Oxford Hills awaits Bangor visit

One of the more anticipated boys basketball games in Eastern Maine this season is set for Friday when Bangor visits Oxford Hills of South Paris.

Both teams were 3-0 entering games Tuesday night, Bangor at home against crosstown rival John Bapst and Oxford Hills at Brunswick.

Bangor is considered the best of the Big East Class A lot, while Oxford Hills was rated tops in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference preseason coaches’ poll.

“To say the least, people have been looking forward to this game,” said Oxford Hills coach Scott Graffam. “It’s a regular-season game, so it’s not the end of the world, but it will give us a chance to see where we stand.”

Both teams are coming off strong holiday tournament efforts.

Bangor won the Capital City Hoop Classic at the Augusta Civic Center, defeating Lewiston, Mountain Valley of Rumford, and Kennedy Catholic of Somers, N.J.

Oxford Hills placed second in the Maine Mall Holiday Classic tournament at the Portland Expo. The Vikings defeated Western A contenders Portland and Cheverus of Portland during that event before bowing to Linden, N.J., in the final.

Bangor is led by co-captains Aaron Gallant and Jordan Heath and junior forward Mark Socoby, who has averaged 15.7 points and 9.0 rebounds in his first three games since transferring from Houlton.

Oxford Hills returns four key seniors from the 2004 team that went 17-1 and then reached the Eastern A semifinals: 6-foot-3 twin forwards Leif and Thomas Kothe and guards Matt McDonnell and Josh Powell.

The teams split two games last season. Oxford Hills won a 57-46 regular-season clash in Bangor, but Bangor gained revenge with a 50-26 domination of the Vikings in the Eastern A semifinals.

In that game, Bangor spotted Oxford Hills a 2-0 lead, then blew out to a 26-8 halftime cushion.

“We just want to get to double digits by halftime and to 30 by the end of the game,” joked Graffam.