AUGUSTA – As the Winslow girls basketball team pursued its first-ever state championship Saturday night, the Black Raiders answered to two coaches.

But this was no power struggle, merely respect for one mentor who guided the Black Raiders from their youth to the brink of a gold ball, and a colleague who helped them get over the top.

The former is Jim Poulin, a coaching institution at Winslow who guided the Black Raiders girls basketball team for the last 11 years before stepping down after the 2004 season as he battles multiple sclerosis.

The latter is J.R. Richards, who stepped in this season and led Winslow to a 19-3 record capped off by Saturday night’s 45-34 victory over Yarmouth in the Class B title game.

Even Richards acknowledges Poulin’s influence over the champs.

“Jim Poulin has coached this program for 11 years,” said Richards. “It’s very unfortunate, because he’s a friend of mine and has been for a long time, that he’s not coaching right now. This is his team. They hired me for this year and hopefully for next year, just to make sure the gym’s open, and I’ll do my best with them. But this is definitely still Jim’s team, and we definitely play a lot of his style.”

Poulin was at the Augusta Civic Center to witness the state final, as he was in Bangor throughout the Black Raiders’ run to the Eastern Maine crown. He watched the game from his wheelchair at the end of press row, but when it came time for the Black Raiders to accept the spoils of their victory, the players – his players – made sure Poulin was front and center.

“We started playing basketball for coach Poulin in first grade,” said senior guard Amanda Byrne. “When we were little we’d always give him our championship trophies and go to him and say this is for you. But this one’s the biggest, because he always said someday when you guys are seniors you’re going to get it, and we got it.”

“He’s the one who really taught us how to dribble and how to shoot the ball, so it would be awful not to show him that we care, because we obviously do. We love him, so after every game we go give him a hug. It means so much to have him here.”

Raiders’ youth is served

Lin Richards wasn’t quite sure what to do.

The Winslow girls basketball team was trying to work the clock late in the Class B state final. But after getting a pass from teammate Amanda Byrne along the left baseline with 2:28 left, she was wide-open – for a moment.

If she shot, what would her dad think? He’s the coach, after all.

And Winslow, nursing a six-point lead, already had worked 39 seconds off the clock in the possession. By passing the ball back outside, the clock would keep ticking toward the Black Raiders’ first state title.

But a basket also would enhance those hopes, and instinct ultimately took over. Richards shot, and not only did it go in, but she was fouled and added the free throw to extend Winslow’s lead to an insurmountable 39-30.

“[Coach J.R. Richards] was actually telling us to hold the ball, so I was thinking I shouldn’t have shot that, but he seemed happy afterward,” she said. “I just caught the ball and I was looking and I didn’t see anybody open and I just shot it. Going up I felt like it was in slow motion, it took forever to hit the rim.”

Byrne had no qualms about passing the ball to the 5-foot-10 freshman in that situation.