One of the most successful coaching tenures in Maine high school golf history has ended after 28 years with Gary Rees’ decision not to return to Dexter High this fall.

The 60-year-old Rees, who coached teams at Dexter and Greely High in Cumberland Center to a combined nine state championships, cited health reasons and a job conflict for his decision.

“I hated to give it up, and I’m missing it already now that the season has started,” said Rees, who is recovering from throat cancer and currently is employed at Golf Country in Bangor. “I had an awful lot of good kids over the years. I probably benefited more from being around them than they did from being around me.”

The Sangerville native played golf at Husson College before beginning his coaching career at Foxcroft Academy in 1971. In 1979 he moved to southern Maine where he began a 23-year tenure at Greely that included six state championships.

He moved to Dexter in 1998 to be closer to his parents and to begin a seven-year run as golf pro at Dexter Municipal Golf Course, but he continued to coach golf at Greely for three more seasons.

“I didn’t mind it,” said Rees of his daily commute during golf season. “I had a Corvette, and I love to drive. But it got old after a while.”

Rees took the Dexter job in 2001 after Martha White retired, and guided the Tigers to state championships in 2001, 2002 and 2003.

During nearly 30 years as a golf coach, Rees’ teams compiled a 343-50-2 regular-season record, with nine undefeated seasons along the way.

Rees also was the first president of the Maine High School Golf Coaches Association and was elected to the Maine Golf Hall of Fame in 2004.

Rees has been replaced as Dexter’s varsity golf coach by Jim Costedio.

HA’s Meehan to join Terriers

Blaine Meehan, whose defensive presence in the Hampden Academy backcourt was a key element of the Broncos’ run to the 2005 Class A basketball state championship, will continue his playing career next winter at Thomas College in Waterville.

“I wanted to go to a smaller school with a good student-teacher ratio, and at Thomas it’s 10 to 1 or 11 to 1, which is much less than you get at a bigger school,” said the 18-year-old Meehan, a Winterport resident who plans to study business. “I also didn’t want to go that far away from home. I wanted to be close, but not live at home.”

The 5-foot-10 Meehan complemented the work of 6-10 center Jordan Cook at Hampden Academy last winter with his explosive moves to the basket and a defensive effort that shut down a succession of top-flight guards during postseason play as coach Russ Bartlett’s club won the school’s first state championship in boys basketball.

Meehan was selected to the Bangor Daily News Eastern Maine Class A all-tournament team after averaging 11.7 points per game and limiting the players he guarded to 28 percent shooting from the field. He also was a second-team All-Big East Conference choice.

Meehan expects to be shorter than most of the guards he’ll match up against in college, but hopes to compensate for that with his strength, which was one key to his success at the high school level.

“I’ve been doing a lot of lifting this summer,” he said.

Meehan was a three-sport athlete at Hampden, playing varsity baseball for four years and also competing on the Broncos’ football team as a junior and senior.

Meehan’s decision to attend Thomas sets up a potentially strong future backcourt situation for the Terriers, as he is joined in coach Dr. James Libby’s current recruiting class by Winslow High star Eric Lopez, a 6-2 guard seen as one of the top players coming out of central Maine this year.

Meehan envisions himself possibly playing point guard at Thomas, though he said he would be comfortable playing either backcourt position.

Thomas College competes in the North Atlantic Conference, a 13-member NCAA Division III league that also includes Husson College of Bangor, Maine Maritime Academy of Castine and the University of Maine-Farmington.

Ernie Clark can be reached at 990-8045, 800-310-8600 or via e-mail at eclark@bangordailynews.net