Of the five Class A baseball teams in the Penobscot Valley Conference, three have new head coaches this spring.

Only Bangor’s Jeff Fahey and Brewer’s David Morris are returning to the dugout, while Hampden Academy, Old Town and Nokomis of Newport will have first-year field generals.

At Hampden, athletic director David Shapiro takes over for Marc Halsted, who left after six seasons to move to Vermont. Dave Utterback steps in at Old Town for Ron Estes, who did not return this season, while L.D. Moore is the new boss at Nokomis, replacing Gene Crockett, now an assistant coach at the University of Maine after 10 years as the Warriors’ head man.

All three new coaches will benefit from having fairly experienced teams.

Hampden Academy returns its top two pitchers and several other starters from last year’s club that finished 12-6 after ranking eighth in Eastern A during the regular season. The Broncos defeated Lawrence of Fairfield in the preliminary round before falling to first-round draft pick Mark Rogers and Mount Ararat of Topsham 4-0 in the quarterfinals.

Shapiro inherits a veteran cast led by talented right-handers Pat Moran -who has signed to join the University of Maine baseball program next fall -and Chris Pease.

Shapiro has considerable coaching experience at the college and high school levels, including stints as an assistant at Springfield College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Saint Joseph’s of Maine.

“One thing you miss in being athletic director is that while you go to all the games and see the kids, you don’t have the same relationship you have with them as a coach or teacher, so this is a great opportunity for me,” said Shapiro.

Old Town went 2-14 last spring, but the Indians also have a solid returning nucleus including senior pitcher Jacob Lukas and junior righty Cory Estes, as well as good overall numbers – 42 of 45 players who signed up took part in tryouts, and 35 survived to earn spots on the varsity or junior varsity squads.

“We’ve got a pretty good foundation,” said Utterback.

Utterback, a physical education teacher at Old Town High, has coached for the last four years in the Bangor High system, most recently with the junior varsity. He also coached the 2004 Bangor Senior Little League All-Stars that played in the Senior League World Series, and was manager of the 2002 Bangor team that played in the first SLWS hosted at Mansfield stadium.

Nokomis relied heavily on sophomores last spring, and endured some growing pains during a 3-13 season. But Moore, for the last four years the junior varsity coach at Mount View of Thorndike, sees last year’s travails as this year’s motivation.

“I really think these guys took it personal last year, and that they don’t want to go through what they did last year again in terms of the bumps and bruises of the learning curve of varsity baseball,” he said. “I’ve got a hard-working group of guys who definitely want to close the gap.”

Nokomis has five seniors on its roster, but none with any significant varsity experience.

“The core of our team is comprised of juniors,” Moore said. “Most of them played varsity baseball as sophomores, and now hopefully we’ll be a more mature team as upperclassmen.”

Lee turns to Hainer

The Lee Academy boys sports program is on a pretty good roll. The Pandas are coming off a trip to the Eastern Maine Class D final in basketball, and have won two of the last three regional championships in baseball, including last spring.

There are pretty high expectations for the Lee baseball team again this year, with just three seniors lost to graduation and eight players back from the nucleus of the 2004 squad that defeated Shead of Eastport 14-4 in the EM final before falling to North Yarmouth Academy 7-3 in the state final.

The primary change is in the dugout, where Dave Hainer takes over as coach for Randy Harris, who stepped down after 20 years as the Pandas’ head man.

Hainer, a physical education and health teacher at Mattanawcook Academy in Lincoln, has been the assistant softball coach at Lee for the last two years.

“It’s not really that different,” said Hainer of coaching baseball and softball. “You do some different things, but the big difference is you’ve got to pay more attention to your pitchers.”

The Pandas return two of their top three pitchers from a year ago in senior Gerry Worster (5-2) and junior Charlie Boulrisse (5-0). Junior Tyler Thompson also will pitch, as well as being a defensive catalyst at shortstop and an offensive leader – he hit .530 as a sophomore. Junior Everett Houghton takes over at catcher this year, and Hainer expects him to be another force in the middle of the lineup.

Lee, 16-4 last spring, should field an explosive offensive club after scoring 10 or more runs 15 times in 2004 against a schedule consisting primarily of Class C teams.

There’s also the confidence that comes with success that should boost the Pandas as they seek to become the first Eastern Maine team to win the Class D state title in baseball since 1999.

“We’ve got some great leadership,” Hainer said. “Gerry Worster is a great leader for us, and Tyler is a great silent leader, because he’s always taking extra batting practice and the other guys see that and it rubs off.”