As usual, it was another strong season for Aroostook County soccer.

Although just one of the northern Maine county’s soccer teams made it to a state final – the Van Buren boys won the Class D title – at least two other state championship winners had coaches with County roots and a fourth team involved had a coach from Aroostook County.

County natives Adam Leach of Ashland and Marc Diaz of Madawaska coached against each other in the Class A boys state final. Leach’s Bangor team beat Diaz’s Scarborough squad 1-0 in double overtime.

Fort Kent native Paul Marquis guided the Traip Academy of Kittery boys to the Class C state championship.

Marquis, who has been a chemistry teacher as well as a three-sport coach for seven of his eight years at the school, is a 1990 Fort Kent graduate. He played two years under Terry Carpenter, who started the school’s soccer program, and then two years under David Minzy, who is currently the Hodgdon athletic director and assistant principal.

“Soccer was everything in the fall there,” he said. “Back in the 1970s a lot of the schools were just starting with soccer and it certainly exploded up there, both for boys and girls.”

Marquis said he played for talented teams that seemed to have trouble getting past Ellsworth, which won four straight Eastern Maine Class B titles from 1986 to 1989 and state titles in 1988 and 1989.

That’s one of the reasons Saturday’s 5-1 win over Piscataquis of Guilford was sweet for Marquis.

“The phone was just ringing off the hook with some of the guys from the late 70s, early 80s,” he said. “They told me, if [Fort Kent’s soccer team] couldn’t do it, at least someone from here did.”

After leaving the area for college – Marquis attended the University of Maine and the University of South Carolina – he returned to Fort Kent to teach chemistry. Marquis also coached with Minzy, was the girls basketball coach in 1998, and coached baseball.

Marquis coaches the Traip girls basketball and soccer teams.

He returns to Aroostook County about once a year and occasionally plays golf with former longtime Madawaska boys soccer coach Marc Michaud who recorded more than 300 wins in 34 years.

Bangor’s Leach is a 1989 Ashland High graduate and played in the 1987 Class C state championship game as the Hornets’ striker.

Leach recalled playing against Marquis and the Warriors in 1988. Fort Kent was undefeated, Leach recalled, when Ashland beat the Warriors in a home game. The Hornets traveled to Fort Kent later that season and lost the rematch.

The Bangor coaching staff has another County connection. One of Leach’s assistant coaches, Jason Pangburn, is a 1991 Washburn graduate. Leach was a striker for Ashland and Pangburn was a goalie.

Diaz graduated from Madawaska High in 1984. The Owls won an Eastern Maine Class B championship in 1982.

He believes he picked up his work ethic from coaches like Michaud and longtime former Madawaska girls soccer coach Ed Marshall, with whom Diaz keeps in touch.

“I think the thing that influenced me the most was the discipline aspect of it,” Diaz said. “You get that from a lot of Aroostook County coaches. It’s a real blue-collar mindset.”

Diaz, who helped coach soccer at Wisdom of St. Agatha when he was student-teaching in 1988, still travels north occasionally because his parents live in Edmundston, New Brunswick.

Bangor earns regional ranking

The Class A state champion Bangor boys soccer team made its debut in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America/Adidas poll with a sixth-place ranking out of seven teams in Region I, which encompasses the six New England states.

The Rams, 16-1-1 after beating Scarborough 1-0 Saturday for Bangor’s first state soccer crown, were followed by Class B state champ Falmouth (15-1-2) in seventh place.

The 17-0-1 Gorham girls, meanwhile, grabbed the top spot in Region I and were ranked fifth in the nation after they won their second straight Class A crown.

Class B state champion Falmouth (15-0-3) was ninth.

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