State games spark special memories Coach returned to aid Machias quest

The excitement of tourney week in Bangor is only surpassed by the anticipation of the upcoming round of state championship games across the state.

I had the good fortune in 1991-92 to ride the wave of euphoria which accompanies such a run at a title in Machias, where our Bulldogs could seemingly do no wrong on their path to glory.

The personal and professional story behind that Down East quest yielded memories I will always cherish.

In 1989, I was a patient at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

I was recovering from a bad fall, and I had pretty much decided that my coaching days were over.

Boy, was I wrong.

Unbeknownst to me, one of our dialysis nurses, Karen, decided to take it upon herself to try and motivate me to get back in the gym. I was, after all, only 38 years old, and because Karen was a former cheerleader at Machias Memorial High School, she felt it would be in my best interest and the school’s to have me look into the job.

I was flattered by the idea, and when I found out that a well-known local personality, Geebo Gooch, himself a kidney transplant recipient, had taken it upon his shoulders to promote such an idea within the community, I was on my way to getting back into the business I loved.

The 1989-1990 season turned out to be one of those years that made Murphy’s Law resemble the law of the land. If something could go wrong, it did.

We survived that tumultuous period and began to put a program together in the offseason for kids of all ages in our district. Problem was, my assistant coaches had to shoulder much of the workload that summer because I received a kidney transplant in July 1990.

By fall, I was my old self again – yes, I can hear the groans from my former players – and we began to make a serious run at putting together a title team.

That year, 1990-91, we were upended by an undefeated Southern Aroostook squad in a hard-fought semifinal contest at the Bangor Auditorium. I had a feeling in that somber locker room that the 1991-92 season would be ours.

It turned out to be a fairly accurate assumption. What a year we had.

That gifted, talented group of young men followed every directive of a coach who was long on discipline and very short on offensive creativity.

We were the odds-on favorite to be the best team in the Eastern Maine Class D rankings, and the experts were right on in their prediction that we would be the top seed come tourney time.

Like all of its Down East counterparts, Machias and its surrounding communities were pretty excited about the hoopla in Bangor.

A first-round quarterfinal game with Washburn set the tone for the week’s proceedings, and by the time we reached the semis, defeating a scrappy Deer Isle-Stonington club, all eyes were on the title game between Machias and perennial contender Jonesport-Beals.

Machias has a rich tournament tradition. Of all the schools I coached, the youth program there was the best. Lower grade teams are important in any school system, and the ones in Machias were the best of any I’ve seen.

The hoopla after a title win was incredible, and our overtime loss to Buckfield in the Class D state final did little to minimize the excitement the team had created throughout their run to the championship.

I feel blessed as a coach to have had the opportunity to be a part of all that.

Memories which have lasted a lifetime were forged that day, and I was proud to be the coach of such a team.

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