BREWER – Clayton Blood has been at home in a classroom for nearly three decades, including the last 10 years as an English teacher at Brewer High School.

Next winter, he’s going to add some additional classroom duties – on the sidelines as Brewer’s new boys varsity basketball coach.

“I’ve always been in education, and I’ve always enjoyed tremendously working with the students,” said Blood after his hiring was approved earlier this week by the local school committee. “I’ve always been a strong believer that a coach is a teacher, and when the opportunity comes to coach and teach in the same system, that’s the best opportunity.”

Blood replaces Mark Reed, who resigned earlier this spring after eight years at Brewer, and brings considerable experience to his new post.

A former standout during his playing days at Searsport High School and the University of Maine at Farmington, Blood has coached basketball at the varsity level for 16 years. That includes one year at Belfast, two years at the former Mexico High School and 13 years at Hermon High School, where he compiled a 155-97 record before resigning after the 1999 season.

But while he has been away from the varsity ranks for nearly a decade, coaching never left Blood’s system.

“Basketball and coaching have always been right up there among the more important aspects of my life,” said Blood, who did coach the Brewer freshman boys team for a year in the interim, “so I thought there was always something more out there for me in terms of coaching.”

Blood said his reputation as a coach may be as one who stresses up-tempo play. But he added that while a team always can apply pressure defense from an out-of-bounds situation or look to fast-break after grabbing a defensive rebound, how his team plays the game depends more on the assembled talent than on a specific coaching strategy.

“Throughout the years I’ve coached different systems,” said Blood. “I don’t have players feed into my system, I look for the right system for my players.”

Blood expects to inherit a solid nucleus of returning players from last winter’s young Brewer squad, which finished with a 6-12 record in Eastern Maine Class A.

“The kids coming back have been very, very well-schooled,” said Blood. “Defensively, they’ve had the chance to learn some great fundamentals, and it gives me the opportunity to expand on that.”

Blood also will have the opportunity to expand his relationships with his players, given that he is in the school throughout the year.

“The greatest part of coaching to me is the relationships you build with the players,” Blood said. “That day-to-day interaction, that opportunity to have a positive effect in all aspects of the players’ lives is all very important.”

Blood’s ultimate goal is to further develop the entire Brewer basketball program, which will commence with a summer program that will incorporate players from third grade up to at least some degree.

“The thing you really hope to do as a coach is get the best out of the players individually and as a team,” said Blood.

Brewer to host KVAC games

The Brewer High baseball and softball teams, both ranked No. 1 in Eastern Maine Class A, will host Cony of Augusta in the annual Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A championship games at 7 p.m. Friday.

Brewer, the KVAC North champion, earned the home field by virtue of having more Heal points than Cony, the KVAC South champion.

The championship games will be rematches of regular-season meetings between the schools at Brewer on May 9.

Brewer won both contests 3-2, with the Witches scoring the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning of the baseball game and in the bottom of the seventh of the softball game.

Brewer finished its regular season with a 15-1 softball record and a 14-2 baseball record.

Cony finished 13-3 in softball and 12-4 in baseball.

Nine earn Tiger Awards

Nine senior student-athletes from Dexter Regional High School have been recognized with their receipt of the fifth annual Tiger Awards.

The Tiger Award was established in 2004 to recognize and promote a superior level of participation among athletes at Dexter, and to recognize exemplary achievement in interscholastic sports.

Honorees must have played two different sports and earned six varsity letters while at Dexter. Eligible athletes subsequently are selected for the award by a committee based on sportsmanship, character, leadership, dedication and athletic contributions and achievements.

This year’s Tiger Award recipients are Michelle Chapman (field hockey, basketball, softball), Gavin Cote (golf, basketball, baseball), Chris Eastman (soccer, basketball, tennis), Jana Kenney (soccer, field hockey, softball, football), Nathan Peirce (soccer, basketball, tennis), Denise Robinson (soccer, basketball, tennis), Rick Stewart (soccer, basketball, baseball), Carol Wing (soccer, basketball, tennis) and Ethan Woodman (soccer, basketball, baseball).

eclark@bangordailynews.net

990-8045