Schoolboy soccer at Greenville High School will have a decidedly different look next fall, as Steve Lizotte has stepped down as the Lakers’ head coach after 27 seasons.

The 52-year-old Lizotte wants to be able to watch his son Jonah, an All-Western Maine Class D forward, play collegiate soccer beginning next fall, most likely at a school in Massachusetts.

“It’s been a good run, but the time was right,” said Lizotte, a physical education and health teacher in the Greenville school system for the past 29 years. “Jonah is heading off to college, and we want to follow him, so it just seemed like the right time to step aside.”

Lizotte, a 1971 Greenville High graduate, capped off his soccer coaching career with the Lakers in impressive fashion this fall. He guided the Lakers to the No. 1 seed in Western Maine Class D and a berth in the regional final, where they fell to Richmond 4-3 in penalty kicks after scoring twice in the last three minutes of regulation play to force overtime.

“We had a great effort this year,” said Lizotte, whose team finished with a 14-2 record. “It just wasn’t meant to be.”

Lizotte compiled a career record of 230-155-28 with the Lakers, reaching postseason play in 23 of his 27 years on the sideline, including every year from 1989 through 2005.

Greenville won the Eastern D championship in 1995, and was the Eastern C runner-up in 1982 and the Eastern D runner-up in 1994 in addition to being the Western D runner-up this year.

Lizotte’s Greenville teams won five East-West Conference championships, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005, and he was named the Maine Soccer Coaches Association coach of the year in 1995.

Lizotte will continue as Greenville’s track and field coach, a post he has held for more than two decades.

No replacement has yet been named to fill the boys’ soccer coaching vacancy, according to Greenville athletic director Jeff Stafford.

Shires face grueling schedule

Check this out for early season candidate for toughest boys basketball schedule of the year.

The Houlton Shiretowners were 0-7 entering Tuesday night’s play – but all of their losses were to teams that were unbeaten at the time.

In fact, all of those opponents were still unbeaten entering Tuesday’s nights play, save for Madawaska, which was undefeated until dropping a 57-51 decision to Calais on Saturday.

Coach Sean Callahan’s Houlton club has had a unique early schedule, in that with more than half of its games still remaining the Shiretowners already have played Presque Isle, Schenck of East Millinocket and Madawaska twice, along with Calais once.

Presque Isle is 7-0 and ranked No. 2 in Eastern Maine Class B, Calais was 7-0 and ranked No. 1 in Eastern C entering a home game against Machias on Tuesday, Madawaska was 6-1 and No. 5 in Eastern C heading into a game against Class D unbeaten Van Buren on Tuesday, while Schenck is 6-0 and ranked No. 2 in Eastern D.

That’s a combined 26-1 opponents’ record for Houlton, which will seek its first win Thursday against 3-3 Hodgdon.

Then comes games against Caribou (5-2 and rated fifth in Class B) and Central of Corinth (5-1 and ranked second in Class C).

It doesn’t get any easier for the Shiretowners.

‘Jammers, Tigers taste success

Camden Hills of Rockport and Dexter each earned a healthy dose of midseason momentum with top finishes at major holiday wrestling meets.

Camden Hills, the six-time defending Class B state champion, upended eight-time Class A champ Noble of North Berwick and the rest of a field of more than 30 teams to win the 24th Noble Invitational tournament at North Berwick.

The Camden Hills A squad scored 244 points to win by a comfortable margin over second-place Noble. Belfast (sixth) and Foxcroft Academy (eighth) were other Eastern Maine teams to earn top-10 finishes at the prestigious meet, which included teams from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Camden Hills crowned individual champions in Joe McGowan (125 pounds), Jacob Berry (140) and Cody Laite (145), and picked up second-place finishes from Murphy McGowan at 112, Hank Simpkins at 152 and Harry Pearson at 171.

Belfast was led by champions Tony Gilmore at 130 pounds and Logan Kelley at 171, while Foxcroft also had two first-place finishers in James McPhee (215) and Josh Pelletier (275).

At Hermon, Dexter tied Class A Erskine Academy of South China for first place at the Hermon Holiday Tournament, each with 198 points.

Dexter, which placed second in last year’s Class C state meet, crowned seven individual champions, led by All-American and two-time state champion Jeremiah Barkac, winner at 112 pounds. Other champs for the Tigers were Brian O’Connor (103 pounds), Ron Harvey (119), Josh Harvey (135), Chad Richardson (140), Billy Greene (145) and Lee Morgan (160). Jacob Martin of Dexter placed second at 125, while teammate Dave Richardson was second at 152.

Host Hermon placed third in the meet with 91 points. The Hawks got wins from Eric Cole at 171 pounds and P.J. Richards at 189 and a second from Tristan Taggart at 130.

Mount Desert Island A, led by champion Chris Fernald at 215 and runners-up Sally Swift at 103 and James Fineman at 135, was fourth among the 18 competing teams with 76 points, while Calais and Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln tied for fifth with 44.