SHERMAN – Dick Barstow sat at a local diner Monday afternoon, sipping coffee and talking about two of his passions – basketball and coaching.

Later in the day he planned to head back to the high school gymnasium to guide the Katahdin of Stacyville’s girls basketball players through their summer program, as has been the norm for the last decade.

But whether the state’s winningest high school basketball coach will be leading the Cougars through their drills next winter is far less certain.

Though no specific reasons for the move have been made public, SAD 25 has opted to seek new applicants for the varsity coaching position that Barstow has held most recently since the 1997-98 season.

“The position’s been posted,” said SAD 25 superintendent of schools John Doe, “but nobody’s been hired, the board has made no decision.”

All extracurricular positions at Katahdin involve one-year contracts, and those who fill extracurricular positions must be reappointed each year prior to the start of the sports season.

Barstow’s coaching position was not posted last year, Doe said.

Despite receiving positive postseason evaluations from both Katahdin principal Rae Bates and athletic administrator Phil Faulkner, Barstow said Bates recommended that he not be rehired and that Faulkner recommended he be rehired with reservations.

“I was actually shocked,” said Barstow when he learned about the recommendations.

Bates and Faulkner on Monday referred inquiries about Barstow’s coaching status to Doe’s office.

A decision on the girls basketball job could be made when the SAD 25 board of directors holds its July 9 meeting, but Doe said winter sports coaching contracts probably would come before the school board at its Aug. 13 meeting.

Doe said Barstow certainly could apply for the girls basketball job, and Barstow originally did reapply informally as he has after each previous season with the Cougars. But when he learned that Bates and Faulkner would be conducting the interviews to hire the next coach, Barstow withdrew his application.

“I just didn’t feel like I would get a fair shake with Rae and Phil doing the interviews,” said Barstow, who did not completely rule out applying for the position again.

Barstow, 74, has more than 665 coaching victories during a 48-year career on the sidelines, and in 2006 he was named to both the Maine Sports Hall of Fame and the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.

The Dexter Regional High School graduate, who went on to play baseball and football at Syracuse University during the 1950s, made his varsity basketball coaching debut in 1960 with the Sherman High School girls squad.

He then took over at Katahdin when that school formed from the merger of Sherman and Patten high schools, and Barstow later coached at Central Aroostook in Mars Hill, Waterville and Presque Isle before returning to Katahdin for the 1997-98 season.

Barstow’s teams won Class C state titles with Central Aroostook of Mars Hill in 1981 and 1982 and Class A championships in 1990 and 1997 with Presque Isle. His teams also won seven Eastern Maine titles.

Barstow earned his 600th coaching victory on Dec. 29, 2000, when the Cougars defeated Deer Isle-Stonington 66-32.

Katahdin has not had a winning season since 2004 but advanced to the Eastern Maine Class D semifinals last winter. The ninth-ranked Cougars edged No. 8 Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook in overtime in preliminary-round play, then stunned top-ranked Washburn in overtime in the quarterfinals before falling to Ashland in the semifinals to finish with a 9-12 record.

Barstow battled through illness while coaching last winter but said Monday that his health is much improved this summer.

The Katahdin girls basketball team will have all but one player – graduated center Kayla Stevens – back from its 2007-2008 squad next winter, with four starters among 10 returning players.

Barstow, a retired teacher, also has coached softball, field hockey, cross country and soccer over the years.

eclark@bangordailynews.net

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