Sawyer answers call for Narraguagus baseball

When first-year Narraguagus High School of Harrington baseball coach John DeRaps looked around the gymnasium the first night of tryouts, he realized one thing: He needed help.

Not at shortstop; not at pitcher; not even in the outfield; but at coach. DeRaps, considered by all who know him to be a real school person – he took the baseball job when NHS athletic director Lucille Willey had difficulty finding applicants for the position – who would perform any school function necessary if asked.

DeRaps, the former Sumner Memorial High School of East Sullivan star athlete, decided to call John Sawyer, principal of Cherryfield Elementary School, to help give his program a lift.

Enter the lanky former left-handed pitcher, who was not only the former baseball coach at ‘Guagus whose teams were perennial contenders in the Class C ranks – the Knights won a state crown in 1986 – but also a former star hard-baller at Messalonskee High School in Oakland and the University of Maine in Orono.

In fact, in 1976, Sawyer pitched for coach John Winkin’s Black Bears in the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, against Eastern Michigan and Arizona State.

“John has been a tremendous help,” said DeRaps, who is also the girls varsity hoop boss at NHS, “especially with our pitchers.” One of those young hurlers, senior fire-baller Cory Worcester, has benefited the most from the elder statesman of the staff’s expertise, according to DeRaps.

Sawyer, in his quiet, unassuming style, calls the whole enterprise “fine-tuning,” not coaching.

I first met the likeable school administrator in 1989 when I applied for the vacant boys varsity basketball job at Narraguagus. I was on the rebound from a bad fall, and I had a final interview scheduled for a Monday morning at the famous Red Barn restaurant in Milbridge with John, who was the high school’s athletic director at the time.

I never made it.

As luck would have it, my appendix decided to burst at 2 a.m. on the same day, and off to the hospital I went. John had already hired young Larry Worcester to be the boys soccer coach and junior varsity boys basketball coach at the high school. I was excited about the possibility of having a former player on my coaching staff. (Larry played for me briefly at Penquis Valley High School in Milo.) This time, however, it just wasn’t meant to be.

Larry came to see me the following day in the hospital, and true to his character, he spoke with school officials before making the drive down from his Aroostook County home. At the time, he was coaching girls junior varsity basketball at Easton High School.

“They (Narraguagus) want to wait and see how you’re feeling before they do anything else with the job,” Larry said at my bedside. That sympathetic philosophy had emanated, of course, from Sawyer’s office. I put a halt to that thinking fast.

“Listen, Larry,” I said. “You’re a good kid. Call John and tell him you want the varsity job. I’m going to be on the shelf here for a while.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Getting your foot in the door as a head coach in basketball is often not the easiest thing in the world to do,” I concluded.

Larry took my advice and landed his first head coaching hoop job at Narraguagus High School in Harrington.

These days, Larry Worcester hangs his coaching hat at Washburn District High School, but he gives his former boss John Sawyer full credit for any success he’s had in the profession.

“John is one of a kind,” John DeRaps said the other day after practice. “The kids love him, and Shawn Hatt, my volunteer assistant coach, and I are thrilled every time John can make a practice to help us out.”

Today, Sawyer is not only regarded as a top school administrator, but he keeps his hand in athletics as a member in good standing with Downeast referee Board Number 18, a group he serves as a highly regarded high school basketball official. John has been blowing the whistle for 27 years, and he is considered one of the top refs in the state.

The winners, of course, in all of this are the youngsters at Narraguagus High School. I can speak firsthand about the quality of educators there. Add gentlemen such as John DeRaps and John Sawyer to an impressive education equation which includes the likes of NHS guidance counselor Elliott Noyes, the longtime former softball coach, principal Peter Doak, one of the top guys in the profession, and the aforementioned AD Lucille Willey, and you have the makings of solid school life downeast.

John Sawyer has had the time of his life. “I’ve enjoyed every minute of it,” he said. “It makes me feel like a kid again.”

NEWS columnist Ron Brown, a retired high school basketball coach, can be reached at bdnsports@bangordailynews.net