Art Greenlaw to coach MA Lynx football team

LINCOLN – Art Greenlaw, who guided Stearns High of Millinocket to four state championships and five LTC titles during an 18-year tenure, has been named the new head football coach at Mattanawcook Academy.

Greenlaw, a retired educator who served as an assistant coach for the Lynx last fall, was approved for his new post by the SAD 67 board of directors Thursday night, according to MA athletic director Rick Sinclair.

Greenlaw replaces Mike Bisson, who coached Mattanawcook to a 6-3 regular-season record and a berth in the LTC semifinals last fall but resigned this spring after being named principal of the Ella P. Burr Elementary School in Lincoln and the Dr. Carl E. Troutt School in Mattawamkeag.

“Certainly Mike did a great job last year, and we’re very fortunate to be able to find a coach like Mr. Greenlaw,” said Sinclair. “Coach Greenlaw has been in the program, and the kids all think a lot of him as a man and as a coach.”

Bisson was an assistant coach under Greenlaw at Stearns in 1995, when the Minutemen won the last of their four state championships under his leadership.

Greenlaw, 57, was the head coach at Stearns from 1976 to 1990, and from 1995 to 1997. He guided the Minutemen to an overall record of 111-59-5, good for a .649 winning percentage. Greenlaw’s teams won state championships in 1982, 1984, 1987 and 1995 and won LTC titles in 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987 and 1995.

Before entering the teaching and coaching ranks, the Belfast native played football at Belfast High and later at Southern Connecticut State University.

He graduated from SCSU in 1970 and went on to have a 33-year career in education, initially at Skowhegan High where he taught and served as athletic director. He moved to Millinocket in 1976 to begin a 27-year career in the Magic City as a teacher, football coach, track coach, assistant principal at Stearns High, and principal at Millinocket Middle School, where he served from 1991 to 2003, when he retired.

Greenlaw, a former president of the Maine Principals’ Association, recently was named a consultant to the University of Maine’s Sports Done Right initiative. In that capacity, he will work as a part-time liaison with the 12 schools named as pilot sites for Sports Done Right, as well as assisting other Maine communities in implementing the initiative’s model.