Old Town picks Cowan as new softball coach

OLD TOWN – New mascot, new players, new league – so why not a new coach, too?

The Old Town softball team will look different in a lot of ways. The high school squads will now be known as the Coyotes. There are only four seniors on the team. Old Town, like the rest of the local Eastern Maine Class A teams, is now playing in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.

And earlier this week, the Old Town school department approved the hiring of Lester Cowan to take over as coach.

Cowan, an education technician at the high school, was officially hired for his first varsity job at a school board meeting Tuesday night.

He takes over for Mike Thurston, who resigned last spring after five years with the program. The then-Indians went 50-30 under Thurston.

Cowan has coached baseball and also coached junior varsity softball in the 1980s at Livermore Falls High School. He took a hiatus from teaching in 1995 and coaching in schools, instead working at the Bangor YMCA and then the Old Town-Orono YMCA.

“Now I’m back teaching, and I just love coaching,” he said before practice Thursday. “This will be a good opportunity for me and it’ll be a challenge.”

He has also served as an assistant football coach at Orono High and John Bapst of Bangor.

Cowan’s got a young crew this year, with just four seniors. He’ll rely on players like shortstop Erin Reardon, third baseman Allison Gallant, outfielder Heather Kasserman and utility player Elizabeth Richard for leadership.

“We’ll look for the seniors to lead the way,” Cowan said.

He’s expecting nine juniors, six sophomores, and nine freshmen when full team tryouts begin Monday, March 27. Teams are allowed 10 pitchers and catchers this week.

“We’ll be very young, which will be a challenge,” Cowan said. “We’ll just work on the fundamentals and go from there. We have to develop some pitching. That’s what we’re doing now.”

The one thing the young Coyotes have going for them is speed.

“The softball game is speed and bunting, and from what I’m told we’ve got some kids who can bunt,” he said. “We’re gonna use the speed factor to score runs and put pressure on the other team.”