I was happy to learn recently that longtime Machias Memorial High School sports booster and fan extraordinaire Dick Shaw had retired from his day-to-day job at Machias Savings Bank.

In all my years of coaching – 34 of them, to be exact – no one served the schools I’ve been in as a loyal fan better than Dick.

Dick had also been an enthusiastic school board member in School Union 102, but his real joy was following the sports teams in the district, most notably the high school offerings of MMHS.

I had the privilege to be a part of all the Down East hoopla from 1989-1993.

What a time we had.

I arrived in town on a hot August day to interview for the position of boys’ varsity basketball coach at the high school. I had been in the storied gym on one other occasion to take on the Bulldogs in an exhibition game when I was directing the hoop fortunes of the John Bapst of Bangor boys basketball team.

Old friend Walter Crabtree was the coach at the time – he is presently at Sumner Memorial High School – and I remember being impressed with the whole program, especially with then-athletic director, Mike Worcester.

A few short years later, Mike and I would discuss the application process over the telephone, and by Labor Day weekend 1989, I was the new coach.

The first person to greet me was a guy named Dick Shaw. Hmmm, I’m thinking. I’ve been the new kid on the block enough to know to be on guard for ulterior motives from townies, who may be just out to promote their own kid.

This was certainly not the case with Dick.

In fact, the basketball player in Dick’s family was female, his daughter Sara.

From that first meeting, I was impressed to find out that Dick Shaw was the heart and soul of the fans who supported our every move.

Every school district needs this type of individual. Dick and his lovely wife, Jane, attended every home and away contest we played during my four-year stay in the coastal community.

In 1991-1992, we put together a solid club.

Names such as Lucas Stuart, Ryan Schoppee, Josh Goding, Shannon Grange, and the Hood twins, Eric and Francis – to name a few – dotted a roster comprised of speed, size, and athleticism that had champion written all over it right from the opening night of tryouts in November.

Dick was a loyal supporter for all MMHS activities, but he loved basketball.

The town threw us a huge welcome-home rally and dinner after our Eastern Maine title game, and the first to greet us at the Bangor Auditorium when the nets were being cut down was Dick.

That Sunday, I told the crowd of 1,500 or so folks that if our luck turned bad in Augusta that weekend and the kids weren’t fortunate enough to win a state crown, I fully expected them to return to our bench and congratulate the team for their spectacular season.

When the gun went off at the Augusta Civic Center, we were hard luck overtime losers to Buckfield.

As we started to clean up our bench area, only two of the hundreds of fans who made the long trek to Augusta made their way to our bench to thank the guys.

One was our head cheerleader, Becky Borry, and the other was Mr. Dick Shaw.

Becky was crying, but she took time out from all the teenage stuff to thank each player and coach for his or her efforts. Dick was hugging the guys and looking pretty distraught himself. It was at that point that I knew how much he cared about this group of kids.

I will always remember the pep rally the night before the state game when Dick carried a state championship gold basketball through the large crowd, screaming, “We want another one of these!”

He was quite a showman.

Enjoy your retirement, Dick, but don’t forget those Bulldogs. Supporters such as you don’t come along every day.

BDN columnist Ron Brown, a retired high school basketball coach, can be reached at bdnsports@bangordailynews.net