Dana Redding, who has coached girls basketball at the junior varsity level the last five winters, has been hired as the new varsity girls coach at Calais High School.

Redding replaces Bob McShane, who coached the Blue Devils for 22 seasons and compiled 375 victories, and won nine Eastern Maine Class C championships with five state titles.

“It’s kind of hard to follow a record like that. I was lucky enough to learn some things from [McShane],” said Redding, whose hiring was approved by the Calais School Board this week.

McShane resigned from the position after the end of last season.

The Blue Devils had made 18 consecutive appearances in the regional semifinals before a quarterfinal loss to Houlton in 2006.

Calais fell to Washington Academy of East Machias in last year’s quarterfinals.

Redding, who played basketball, soccer and baseball at Calais and the University of Maine-Presque Isle, said that his familiarity with the kids and the program attracted him to the post.

“I knew all the girls, they’re a good bunch of kids,” he said. “I know there’s talent there.”

Redding said his junior varsity teams were 71-19 over the last five seasons, and he’s worked under McShane for seven years – the first two as a volunteer assistant.

Redding inherits a Blue Devils squad that finished the regular season 10-8 last winter.

Calais didn’t graduate anybody from that team, and will feature a senior-laden nucleus next winter. If there’s anything Redding promises, it’s that the Devils will be tough defensively while he’d like to take advantage of a talented backcourt.

“I’d like to get it up and down a little bit more this year, we’ve got some good guards, if we can rebound and get it out we might be able to run,” said Redding, who works for Sunrise Opportunities in Machias.

“We have [tall] girls and we have speed. We’re hoping we’re going to play good defense and hopefully create the offense,” he added.

Redding doesn’t feel that there’ll be any pressure coming from his first career varsity coaching job.

“I’m sure its going to be more challenging. I don’t want to put any pressure on myself or anything,” he said.

Redding added the Devils will be a fixture in summer leagues, as they’ll be playing in a league in Machias.

“We’re looking for a couple of tournaments during the summer. We’ll be active 5-6 weeks of the summer,” he said.

rmclaughlin@bangordailynews.net

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