Lee Academy’s fledgling postgraduate basketball program now has a leader.

Brian McDormand, a Colby College graduate and longtime high school coach in Massachusetts, has been named the academy’s first postgraduate coordinator, according to Lee headmaster Bruce Lindberg.

In that capacity, the 50-year-old McDormand will be responsible for the development of a postgraduate enrollment of 10 to 14 students who will live in dormitory housing already available at the school.

He also will coach the school’s postgraduate men’s basketball team, which will include most if not all of the postgraduate students who attend Lee. McDormand, who was selected from a field of more than a dozen candidates, also will serve as a dormitory supervisor.

“The appeal for me is that it’s very rewarding to get in on the ground floor and start the program from scratch,” McDormand said. “I’ve seen a lot of interest in the program so far, and I think it’s going to work out.”

McDormand has an extensive high school and AAU coaching background in his native Massachusetts, and had been named girls varsity basketball coach at his alma mater, Lynn English High School, this spring before resigning to take the Lee job.

The Lee Academy post represents a fortuitous geographic opportunity for McDormand, who was planning to move to the area anyway to live in a year-round home being built at a shorefront camp he and his wife own on Coldstream Pond in Lowell.

In fact, McDormand’s wife moved to Maine earlier this year and works as a nurse at Penobscot Valley Hospital in Lincoln.

The family’s three daughters also all live in Maine, and McDormand recently retired after 25 years with Hansen Engineering and Machinery Inc. in Danvers, Mass., a subsidiary of General Electric, precipitating the full-time move to Maine.

“I’ve been doing a lot of commuting lately,” he said. “This is a great opportunity for me.”

McDormand is a 1973 graduate of Lynn English and a 1977 graduate of Colby College, where he played basketball under veteran Mules’ coach Dick Whitmore.

He went on to coach at several high schools in and around Lynn, Mass. One career highlight came in 2004 when he was named the Boston Globe Division 3 coach of the year after leading the Lynnfield High girls basketball team to a 20-5 record and a berth in the state championship game.

McDormand compiled a 70-19 record in four years at Lynnfield, and was named Cape Ann League coach of the year in 2003.

At Lee, McDormand expects to recruit and coach a number of Division I college basketball hopefuls. Once the program is established, he said Lee plans to compete in the New England Prep School Athletic Conference Class A ranks, which includes the likes of perennial regional prep powers Maine Central Institute, Bridgton Academy, Worcester Academy and the New Hampton School.

McDormand said the team’s 2005-06 schedule would include a number of NEPSAC foes as well as games against a variety of small-college teams from throughout the Northeast.

McDormand and Lindberg said Lee already has a number of financial or verbal commitments from postgraduates, including students from as far away as Lithuania and France.

Lindberg said the school also is in the process of hiring an assistant postgraduate coordinator, Ryan Conboy. Conboy is a former four-year basketball player at Whittier (Calif.) College who most recently has been coaching in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Conboy, the nephew of San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, also will serve as a dorm parent and educational technician at Lee.

Hyde coaching Washburn soccer

Sheldon Hyde, a junior high soccer coach in the Washburn school system for the past several years, has been elevated to boys varsity soccer coach at Washburn High School, according to athletic director Ron Ericson.

Hyde replaces Larry Worcester, who resigned as boys soccer and basketball coach, girls volleyball coach and physical education teacher to take a position as principal of the Woodland Elementary School in Aroostook County.

Hyde played soccer during his days at Carrabec High School in North Anson and at Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle. He also has been active in the Aroostook County men’s summer soccer league, Ericson said.

Preseason practices at Washburn, like other Aroostook County high schools, already have begun.

Ericson said he hopes to complete the search for a new boys varsity basketball coach later this month.

Ernie Clark can be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net