Paul Soucy has guided the Big East Conference through many changes in the Eastern Maine high school basketball landscape during his 22 years as that league’s first and only director.

The conference was formed as the Eastern 8 during the mid-1980s to accommodate northern Maine’s Class A programs, and eventually it evolved to incorporate both Class A and Class B schools.

More recently, the region’s few remaining Class A schools joined the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference in many sports, leaving the Big East as a Class B basketball conference – although the league still hosts a Class A cheering competition.

Through it all, the conference has taken considerable pride in its recognition of top athletes, teams and other contributors to Eastern Maine high school basketball through its awards program.

That effort, which includes all-star teams, sportsmanship and spirit awards and scholar-athlete recognition, is culminated in an annual banquet that attracts more than 400 people at the end of each basketball season.

Soucy has had much to do with building and maintaining that program, but given the demands of his full-time duties as Hermon High School’s athletic administrator and vocational coordinator he has decided to give up his Big East leadership post.

“Being an athletic director is so challenging and time-consuming,” said the 56-year-old Soucy, this year’s recipient of the Big East Recognition Award. “As you get older and your priorities change and you want to spend more time with your family, you realize how full your plate is. I realized I was spreading myself too thin.”

Soucy’s Big East duties will be divided among three veteran high school athletic administrators. Bunky Dow of Mount Desert High School in Bar Harbor will serve as the conference’s new director, while Ellsworth’s Jay Brown will be the treasurer and Bucksport’s Brendan Harvey will be the treasurer.

Bob Cimbollek of Bangor, who has served as the conference’s assistant director under Soucy and has been pivotal in drawing up the league’s basketball schedule, will remain in that capacity.

“The conference is in good hands,” said Soucy, who will continue to be active in the Big East through his duties at Hermon. “It’s a strong conference, and I’m sure it will continue to be a strong conference.”

Soucy also has pulled back from his role as a familiar presence at the Eastern Maine high school basketball tournament at the Bangor Auditorium.

Over the years his connection with the tournament has included seven postseason appearances as head coach of the Brewer High girls basketball team, serving as public address announcer when girls tournament games were played at Husson College during the mid-1970s, being a backup trainer of sorts when the late Wes Jordan would leave the tournament to join the University of Maine baseball program for its annual southern trip, and working for the last 16 years as the tournament’s floor director.

“It’s the first time in 33 years I haven’t worked there in some capacity,” said Soucy.

Big East adjusts schedule

The Big East Conference will grow to 11 teams next year with the drop of Old Town from Class A to Class B and the elevation of Central of Corinth to Class B from Class C.

Under the updated basketball schedule that reflects those changes, each member team will play each other at least once during the 18-game regular season for the first time in the conference’s history.

Conference officials have always been challenged to create a schedule that takes into account the Big East’s wide geographic region, the maintenance of local rivalries that involve Big East Class B schools playing Class C teams from the Penobscot Valley Conference, and the need for teams to have enough Class B games to accumulate sufficient Heal Points for tournament seeding.

“With Central and Old Town coming into the league, we thought this was a good time to rethink our schedule,” said Soucy.

Under the new schedule, some Class B teams in the league will continue to play Class C opponents that have been traditional rivals – such as Ellsworth and Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor playing George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill, or Foxcroft Academy playing neighboring Dexter, Piscataquis of Guilford and Penquis of Milo.

The number of nonconference games varies from school to school, Soucy said, while some schools will play a strictly Class B schedule.

“We think it’s a good schedule, because everyone gets to see each other at least once,” Soucy said. “We’ve been trying to get to the point where we had a balanced schedule, but we also want to maintain those rivalries some of the schools have with Class C schools, and we also understand that some of those Class C schools need games to fill out their schedules.”

Soucy said having each member school face each other at least once during the season will make it easier when it comes to determining various postseason honors, such as players of the year and all-star teams.

“The Big East has had a pretty extensive awards recognition program,” Soucy said, “and it becomes more difficult to vote on those awards when you haven’t seen a particular team. Now everybody will see each other, and it should make that much easier.”