When Deidre Davis suffered a knee injury playing women’s basketball her junior year at Nichols College (Mass.), she thought coaching would be a smart career option.

Turns out it was, as the founder of the Maine Maritime Academy women’s basketball program was recently named the new girls basketball coach at Bucksport High School.

Davis, who served as a volunteer assistant at the school for three seasons, replaces Brendan Harvey, who resigned earlier this spring.

Harvey also stepped down from his athletic administration duties at the school to take a job teaching English in Tennessee.

Jon Perry has since taken over the athletic director post at Bucksport.

Davis coached at Maine Maritime from 1995-2001 and had previously served as an assistant at West Point and as the head coach at Hartwick College (N.Y.).

“She brings a wealth of experience from the collegiate level from her time at Maine Maritime, she’ll be an outstanding role model for the girls,” said Harvey, who added that Davis’ hiring was approved in May.

“She’ll do a great job. Deidre worked with me for three years as a volunteer assistant, so it’s not going to be much of a change for the girls as far as getting to know a new coach.”

The Bucksport job will be Davis’ first head coaching position at the high school level.

The Augusta native is having to get into basketball mode fairly quickly, as she was an assistant on Brewer High’s state champion softball team.

“Our first open gym [was Monday night], so I kind of have to switch gears here pretty quick mentally,” said Davis, the Dean of Students at MMA in Castine.

Davis is looking forward to the challenge of rebuilding a Bucksport team which finished with a 1-17 record in the Eastern Maine Class B ranks last winter. She wants improvement both on and off the court.

“If you do everything right, the wins will come. I don’t want to worry about how many and when,” she said. “It would be nice to see the seniors go out with a good season, that’s my goal for them.”

“I’m looking forward to the challenge of improving the team,” added Davis. “There’s lots of different ways to see progress, not necessarily all wins and losses.”

While Davis believes in stingy defense, she doesn’t have a set style as of yet.

“It all depends. I love to run, I love to press, it’s one of those things where you’ve got to decide what the team is capable of,” she said.

Davis is fairly familiar with the players in the Bucksport system, having coached at the junior high level last winter.

“I think we’ve got a good core group of upperclassmen. If they commit to working hard, then they’ll definitely improve,” she said.

Davis is also hoping that players will exhibit passion for the game and have willingness to train in the offseason.

“In the last several years, kids pick up a ball in November and put it away in February, you really want to actually improve outside the season as an individual,” she said.

It has certainly been a whirlwind last few weeks for Davis in the wake of Brewer’s run to the state softball championship.

“We had a state trooper and sheriff that met us just before the I-395 exit…. We had 150 people waiting for us [at the high school],” said Davis, who added the team pulled up to the school around 11 p.m. the night of the state game.

She hopes to instill the lessons she has learned while coaching at Brewer into the Bucksport system.

“I’ve learned a lot in the last three years from the Brewer system as a whole,” Davis said. “Taking pride in being a member of a team, that’s something I want to bring to Bucksport.”

Last hurrah for Flint

Even though she didn’t pitch in last week’s Senior All-Star softball game in Augusta, Ashland graduate Whitney Flint was just happy to be on the field.

“It feels great, it’s a different atmosphere, you get to play with all the other people that are good players,” Flint said after the game.

The Eastern Maine Class D Player of the Year had a stellar senior season, leading the Hornets to the regional championship game along with strong work from catcher and cousin Mindy Chasse.

“We’ve been playing together since rec department in fourth grade,” said Flint, who compared the fastball of Buckfield ace Kasey Farrington, who pitched four no-hit innings in Thursday’s game, to Bangor Christian ace Jillian French, who shut out Ashland in the regional final.

“[Chasse] knows exactly what’s coming, so we work very well together,” Flint added.

Hill commits to Seton Hall

Fryeburg Academy pitcher Hannah Hill, who led the Raiders to their first Class B state softball championship recently, has made a verbal commitment to attend Seton Hall University in New Jersey.

Hall, who just completed her junior year with the Raiders, also garnered Gatorade Player of the Year honors this spring while recording a whopping 276 strikeouts and allowing just nine runs, four of them earned.

rmclaughlin@bangordailynews.net

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