Carl Parker is retiring from his full-time career in education in June, but don’t expect the veteran coach and administrator to fade away from the Eastern Maine sports scene.

Parker is leaving his post as athletic administrator and dean of students at Nokomis Regional High School in Newport for reasons that have little to do with the day-to-day interactions with student-athletes.

“There’s a lot about being an educator that causes people of my age [54] to contemplate if this is what you want to continue to do,” he said.

What Parker may continue to do as part of his life in retirement is a labor of love he’s enjoyed for some three decades decades: coaching.

“Coaching and being around kids in the athletic setting is what I enjoy,” he said. “For me athletics is about being with kids that have a common goal, and working with them to help them pursue those goals.”

Parker, a Lincoln native and resident of Bangor, is a former boys varsity basketball coach at Bangor High School and Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft, as well as an assistant coach for four years under Max Good with the Maine Central Institute postgraduate team.

He also has been one of the leaders of the state’s AAU basketball movement since helping to establish it in 1991. He has coached numerous teams to AAU national tournament appearances, and currently is coaching a pair of teams that features some of the state’s top high school players.

His success in the AAU ranks helped land Parker a berth as an assistant coach at the third annual USA Basketball Men’s Youth Development Festival in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2000.

Among the players he coached at that event was J.J. Redick, who recently won the 2006 Wooden Award symbolic of the top player in college basketball while playing for Duke University.

“Coaching AAU and working with Max afforded me some opportunities I probably wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t coached at that level,” said Parker.

Parker will leave Nokomis grateful for the opportunity he has been afforded there, having spent 13 years at the Newport school overall, the last seven in his current capacity.

“The people here have been fantastic,” said Parker, who also plans to spend more time with his three grandchildren. “They’ve been very supportive, very accepting. It’s the type of place I wish I had found earlier in my career.”

Fitzsimmons leaves WA hoop post

Chad Fitzsimmons has stepped down after six years as the boys varsity basketball coach at Washington Academy in East Machias.

Fitzsimmons, 33, recently has been studying to become a personal trainer, and he is scheduled to take the national examinations needed for certification next month. He hopes to turn that into at least a summer job in the future, and with that as a goal he said he couldn’t commit to the time it takes during the summer to maintain the basketball program at WA.

“I think last summer I started questioning the amount of time I had to put in,” said Fitzsimmons. “I went back and forth on it a couple of times during the season, but by the time we went to Bangor I pretty much knew this was going to be my last trip to the tournament.”

The decision to leave the coaching post was made before the death of his father, Charles Fitzsimmons, who collapsed and died suddenly while playing pickup basketball on April 2.

Chad Fitzsimmons, a WA graduate, coached the Raiders junior varsity for six years before replacing Donald “Buddy” Wood as head coach beginning with the 2000-01 season.

During his varsity tenure, Fitzsimmons guided WA to an 87-31 record and six straight Eastern Maine Class C tournament appearances. The Raiders reached the regional final in 2004 before losing to eventual state champion Houlton.

WA finished 11-7 last winter, falling to Madawaska in the Eastern C quarterfinals.

Fitzsimmons also coaches tennis at Washington Academy, as well as teaching history and serving as a dormitory monitor. He said he plans to continue teaching at the school.

Murphy honored by MIAAA

Jim Murphy, athletic administrator at George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill for the last 22 years, has been named the 2006 Bob Lahey MIAAA Athletic Administrator of the Year.

Murphy was honored during the Maine Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association’s 35th annual spring conference banquet held at the Samoset Resort Inn in Rockport.

Murphy, who also has coached basketball and baseball at George Stevens, was selected from a field of eight candidates nominated by the MIAAA membership for the award, which is named in memory of the former Old Town High School athletic administrator and basketball coach who was one of the early leaders of the organization.

Murphy was one of a number of people recognized during the banquet.

Two high school senior student-athletes, Brianne Records of Mount Desert Island High School in Bar Harbor and Brandon Newman of Erskine Academy in South China, were awarded MIAAA scholarships.

Former Caribou High administrator Dwight Hunter received the Martin E. Ryan MIAAA Award of Excellence. The award, named after current MIAAA executive director Martin E. Ryan of Kennebunk High School, honors athletic administrators who have practiced in their chosen field with distinction.

Murray Putnam, athletic administrator at Southern Aroostook High School in Dyer Brook, was presented the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association State Award of Merit. Neal Genz, athletic administrator at Caribou Middle School, received the Past President’s Memorial Special Achievement Award, presented for outstanding league work.

State nominees for national awards were Keith Weatherbie of Cape Elizabeth for the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association distinguished service award, and Don Wilson of Biddeford for the national federation citation.

Distinguished service awards were presented to Phil Mateja of Orono, a longtime athletic trainer in the state, and Peter Gribbin of Portland, a teacher at Portland High School who serves as the Bulldogs’ public address announcer and is the school’s historian.