Menard steps down as Greenville soccer coach Drinkwater takes post with Lakers girls team

As the Greenville girls soccer team opens defense of its Western Maine Class D title today, the man who led the Lakers there has moved on.

Three-year coach Dan Menard has resigned due to a professional transfer.

Menard, a sergeant in the warden service, moved from the Greenville area to Houlton, and so resigned after three years.

“I really enjoyed it and I wish I didn’t have to give it up,” Menard said. “It’s the first day of practice and I feel like I’m going through withdrawal.”

Greenville had a stellar 45-5-1 record under Menard, with losses to just Richmond and Lee. Just once in his three seasons did the Lakers allow more than two goals in a game, which was also a tribute to standout 6-footer Beth Bartley, who graduated this year.

The Lakers fell to Lee 1-0 in the Class D state game.

“That’s pretty good for a small school,” Menard said of 90-student Greenville’s record.

Mike Drinkwater will coach the girls this year, Menard added.

Although Greenville graduated six or seven starters, depending on which alignment Menard used, the Lakers won’t be lost. The former coach said there’s a “good” class of 10 freshmen coming in, and striker Hannah Breton, the 2005 Western Maine Class D Player of the Year who has racked up 78 goals in her career, is going into her senior year.

Zane picked to ODP team

Mount View of Thorndike soccer standout Cody Zane was recently selected to the Region I Soccer Olympic Development Pool team for those born in 1990.

The team is made up of the top 35 players in Region I, which extends from Virginia to Maine. About 400 players took part in a four-day identification camp at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., last month.

Zane, a Freedom resident who will be a junior at Mount View this fall, is eligible to participate in national and international events sponsored by U.S. Soccer.

He was a second team Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference all-star last year. He also plays for the Coastal Soccer Club, which is based in the Brunswick-Topsham and Freeport-Cumberland areas.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.