Harold “Haggie” Pratt, longtime former Dexter varsity football coach who has spent the last two years as an assistant at Nokomis of Newport, has been named the Warriors’ new head coach.

Pratt’s nomination was approved by the SAD 48 board of directors during its meeting Monday night.

Pratt replaces David Evans, the program’s first head coach who resigned shortly after guiding Nokomis to a 1-7 record in its inaugural season of Class B varsity competition last fall.

“The kids already do a lot of things well, and we will continue to do those things,” said Pratt. “With a young team like we have, there are some things we will need to improve on, and we will keep working on those things.”

Nokomis won its first-ever varsity contest, defeating Old Town, before losing the remainder of its games with one of the youngest teams in the Pine Tree Conference Class B ranks.

Most of those players are set to return next fall to a varsity roster that numbered in the upper 40s to mid-50s at various stages of last season, Pratt said.

“We were not that far from being a pretty good football team last year,” said Pratt. “We were competitive in quite a few games and in the hunt for the playoffs up until pretty close to the end, and in Class B football not many teams started as many as seven sophomores like we did.”

Pratt, a 1974 Dexter graduate who played tight end and wide receiver for the Tigers, began his coaching career at his alma mater in 1985 and was part of the staff under Evans that guided the Tigers to the 1985 Class D crown and three subsequent appearances in the Class C state final in 1987, 1988 and 1989 – winning a second championship in 1987.

Soon after Pratt became head coach in 1994, he nearly saw football eliminated at Dexter. The program initially was cut from the school budget in April 1995 but ultimately was restored.

He went on to coach the Tigers until his tenure ended after the 2005 season as Dexter’s football program struggled in the face of being one of the smaller schools fielding the sport in the state and as the schoolboy soccer program at the school thrived.

Pratt rejoined Evans in 2006 on the staff of the fledgling Nokomis football program, which began in 2005 and played a club-level schedule for two years before joining the varsity ranks last fall.

“Dave was my mentor at Dexter, and he gave me a great opportunity to come back and work for him at Nokomis,” said Pratt. “I had a great situation with him last year to be able to call the defenses. I had a lot of fun with it.

“But once you’ve been a head coach, that’s what you want to do, and this is a great chance to do that.”

eclark@bangordailynews.net

990-8045