Rivals Nemer, Hews resign soccer positions

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Like any coach, Bill Nemer wanted badly for his Ashland girls soccer team to beat Brian Hews’ Van Buren girls in an Oct. 21 Eastern Maine Class D quarterfinal.

He wanted it for his daughter, senior goalie Ashley Nemer. He wanted it for his team.

And in a way, Nemer wanted it for himself. The 24-year coach knew he planned to resign once the Hornets were knocked out of the playoffs, and he was one win shy of his 200th career coaching victory.

Nemer and the Ashland girls got a 2-1 win to advance to the semis. The Hornets came up against Lee in that round, where they were knocked out by the eventual state champion Pandas.

And so, with his 200-win career, Nemer has stepped down.

As it turns out, the game wasn’t only remarkable for the fact that it was a milestone for the Nemer.

It was also Hews’ final game as the Crusaders coach after 19 years. He’s stepping down as one of most successful coaches in Eastern Maine, with one Class C state championship, two Class D state titles, and three more Eastern Maine Class D crowns.

The two coaches have had among the longest tenures in Eastern Maine.

Nemer’s 200th win wasn’t the driving force in his resignation.

For the past 15 years, Nemer planned to resign to watch his son Carl, now an Ashland freshman, play the rest of his career.

“My son has always taken a backseat to my daughter,” Bill Nemer said. “He’s a freshman now and I told the girls, I made my mind up 15 years ago that if he was any good in soccer, when Ashley was a senior that would be it.”

It turns out both his kids are pretty good soccer players. Goalie Ashley Nemer logged 30 career shutouts and Carl Nemer was a key scorer on the boys team.

Bill Nemer, who first came to Ashland in 1982 and wound up coaching the school’s last field hockey team after serving as an assistant football coach at Skowhegan, isn’t done with coaching.

Last month the school board appointed him to his second stint as the girls varsity basketball coach.

Nemer first skippered the Hornets from 1986-96, guiding them to a 16-2 regular season record in 1991 and a 52-50 win over Monmouth in the Class D state championship game.

Ashland qualified for the tournament nine of his 11 seasons.

“That was the plan all along, to get the [basketball] job back at some point,” he said. “Sometimes you just have to wait a little longer.”

He takes over for Ben Lothrop, who relinquished the coaching position when he became the school’s athletic administrator this fall.

Lothrop is currently the baseball coach. He has asked Nemer to serve as his assistant – by the way, Nemer had two five-year stints as the Hornets’ baseball coach – but Nemer could be in position to replace Lothrop again if Lothrop has to give up that coaching post, too.

“Benny played baseball for me,” Nemer said. “He’s still a close personal friend of mine.”

Not only does Nemer have his 200 soccer wins, but also more than 100 basketball wins and 99 baseball wins.

He keeps scrapbooks and meticulous records for his teams.

“I told the girls the other night at the banquet, if you blow your nose three times in a half, it’s going to be in the book,” he said.

Hews, meanwhile, plans to compile a history for the Van Buren girls.

The recreation director for the town of Van Buren, Hews won 204 games in his career.

“It’s just time to be done,” he said. “I’ve been around soccer 30 of the past 31 years of my life. It’s a lot. We had some good teams and good kids. … I think more credit ought to go to the kids. Ultimately, they’re the ones who decide wins or losses.

Hews figures he and Nemer have coached against each other at least 40 times over the years.

“He got the best of me,” Hews said of the final game against Nemer. “I told him he got the last laugh.”