MacLean eager for challenge

The challenge is formidable – replace a basketball coach with more than 550 wins, nine state championships and 13 Eastern Maine titles.

Vinnie MacLean doesn’t expect to match the legacy carved out by his predecessor at Jonesport-Beals High School, Ordman Alley, who retired in September after a 39-year coaching career.

Heck, MacLean was part of that legacy, having started at point guard as a senior on the Royals’ 1983 state championship team.

But as just the second boys varsity basketball coach in Jonesport-Beals history, MacLean is focusing on the future.

“I look at this as something new, something new for me and something new for the school,” said MacLean this week. “It didn’t matter who came in here after Mr. Alley, they were big shoes to fill. Thank God I’ve got small feet.”

MacLean, 41, has spent most of his adult life on the sidelines, with eight years at Jonesport Elementary School and one year as boys junior varsity coach at Jonesport-Beals before getting his first varsity job at Narraguagus of Harrington.

In his first year there, MacLean guided Narraguagus to the 1997 Eastern C title, and he stayed for five more years until stepping down in 2002.

He took a year off, in part to help out several family members who were battling cancer, before becoming the girls varsity coach at his alma mater.

The return to coaching had therapeutic value for MacLean, who soon watched as his uncle, aunt and grandmother all died within a 118-day span in 2004.

“When something like that happens, it puts everything in perspective,” said MacLean.

MacLean coached the Jonesport-Beals girls varsity for the last two years. That team included one of his three daughters, but with his two younger teens also working their way up the ranks he wasn’t sure he wanted to put them through having their dad as their coach.

“I had thought about stepping down and not coaching anything, and just watching my girls play,” MacLean said.

He did reapply for the girls job, but with rumors rampant that Alley might step down, MacLean left open the possibility he might seek the boys job if it became available.

“I had thought to myself over the years that if someday the job opened up and I got the chance, I might apply,” he said.

When Alley retired, MacLean did apply, and got the job. “It’s bittersweet,” he said, “because I loved coaching the girls.”

MacLean’s first Jonesport-Beals boys team will feature the veteran nucleus of Joseph Libby, Ross Griffin, Peter Barton, Ben Ellis, Ralph Backman and Jonathan Alley.

“I want to try to get a lot of kids involved in the scoring,” MacLean said. “If only two players are doing the scoring, we’re going to be easy to guard.

“We’re also working very hard on the defensive end, that’s one thing we’re really focusing on.”

MacLean does have some long-range concerns, particularly how the school’s shrinking enrollment is affecting the program. Jonesport-Beals has just 82 students and is one of the smallest schools in Class D, which has an enrollment ceiling of 229 students.

“We’ve got only 19 kids in the program this year,” said MacLean, “and two of them have never played organized ball before.”

For now, there’s the chance to fulfill a coaching goal.

“It’s an honor really,” said MacLean. “I remember in 1971 when I was 7 years old and watching Jonesport-Beals win state championships. All I wanted was to be a Royal.”

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net