A familiar face will be back on the sidelines at East Grand School in Danforth this winter, as Troy Cilley will return as the Vikings’ boys varsity basketball coach after a one-year absence.

Cilley, a Princeton native, compiled a 93-30 record in six years at East Grand and led the Vikings to the 2001 Eastern Maine Class D championship before the local school board opted not to renew his coaching contract after the 2003-04 season.

Cilley was replaced by Jerry Adams, who resigned before coaching a game last winter. He was replaced by Scott Hanington, who guided the Vikings to a 4-14 record.

“I thought about it long and hard, and I like to coach,” said Cilley. “This is a chance to get back involved in coaching.”

The Vikings had unprecedented success during Cilley’s first tenure at East Grand. The Vikings made the tournament in each of Cilley’s last five seasons between 2000 and 2004, including the 2004 season when East Grand reached the regional semifinals before falling to eventual state champion Calvary Chapel of Orrington.

Cilley’s teams won at least 14 games for five straight years between 2000 and 2004. Between 1964 and 1999, East Grand won as many as 13 regular-season games only once (in 1971) and won 10 or more games only four times (1966, 1971, 1991, and 1996).

Cilley said the Vikings, who will begin formal practices on Nov. 21 and open their season against Lubec in early December before back-to-back matchups against Downeast Athletic Conference powers Calais and Woodland, will field a relatively young, inexperienced squad this season.

Cilley plans to address that inexperience not only this winter, but by reinstating a summer basketball program at the school next year.

Steve Gray, who was the junior varsity coach when Cilley began his first stint at East Grand, will return in that capacity this winter.

MBR hosting basketball clinics

The MBR AAU Basketball Club will be running clinics for boys and girls on Oct. 29-30 in southern Maine.

The clinic for girls in grades 7-8 will be held 9-11 a.m. at Greely Middle School in Cumberland Center on Saturday and Southern Maine Community College in South Portland Sunday. For boys in the same age group, the clinics will be held 11a.m.-1 p.m. in the same locations.

The clinics for high school girls will be held 2-4 p.m. at Greely High Saturday and SMCC Sunday. High school boys will be 4-6 p.m. in the same locations.

Players may come to one or two days. The cost is $25 per day, plus another $14 for AAU membership if the player isn’t already registered for the 2006 season, which started Sept. 1.

For more information go to www.mbrbasketball.com.