HAMPDEN – Ben Greenlaw is only 23, but he’s had a variety of coaching experience, from coaching at summer camps to the junior varsity and even some college coaching.

Hampden Academy officials certainly thought Greenlaw’s breadth of experience would benefit the school’s varsity girls basketball team as the SAD 22 board of directors named him its head coach at a meeting Wednesday night.

The eight board members present at the Reeds Brook Middle School voted unanimously to approve the recommendation to hire Greenlaw made by superintendent Rick Lyons.

The board also voted to name Hampden’s practice football field the Veneziano-Sinclair Practice Football Field and gave approval to naming the school baseball field after Baltimore Orioles star and Hampden graduate Mike Bordick.

Greenlaw, an Orono resident, is in his second year teaching physical education at Hampden. He coached the junior varsity girls basketball team to an undefeated record and is also an assistant football coach.

“I think with his background and having been in the JV role last year that he’ll certainly hope to provide some continuity for us,” Lyons said after the meeting.

The 1996 Mattanawcook graduate played football, basketball and baseball for the Lynx. He went on to Springfield College in Massachusetts, where he played varsity basketball his sophomore year and served as a student assistant to the coaching staff for two seasons.

“There was quite a bit [of coaching] involved,” Greenlaw said. “I worked with the JV and helped with scouting and recruiting for the varsity.”

Greenlaw’s father, Dick Greenlaw, is the Mattanawcook principal and a former Fort Fairfield basketball coach.

It’s something Ben Greenlaw has wanted to get into.

“Basketball without a doubt is a passion of mine,” he said. “One of the main reasons I wanted to get into teaching was to coach. It’s a great way to communicate with students outside the classroom.”

Lyons said there were 11 applicants for the job, four of whom interviewed for the position.

“I feel very pleased we had this large of a number [of applicants],” Lyons said during the meeting.

Greenlaw replaces Mike Webb, whose contract was not renewed after two years coaching the Broncos. Hampden went 31-11 under Webb, including a quarterfinal win in the Eastern Maine Class A tournament both seasons.

Lyons has not commented on Webb and declined Wednesday to release the names of the applicants.

At a July 10 meeting, the SAD 22 board approved a host of appointments for fall and winter coaching and teaching positions but the girls basketball position was not among them, board member and athletic committee chair Lou Aurelio of Winterport said at the time.

Webb said in July that Lyons told him his contract would not be renewed.

The process by which SAD 22 coaching contracts are approved starts with recommendations from the athletic director and then the principal. Both recommendations go to the superintendent, who passes the nomination on the to athletic committee. The nomination goes to the full school board, which votes to deny or approve the recommendation.

In Webb’s case the nomination never got past Lyons, so neither the athletic committee or the school board got a chance to consider rehiring the coach.

Bordick, a native of Winterport and a former University of Maine star, has played 12 seasons, the majority of which have been in Oakland and Baltimore. This year he made just one error and set major league records for consecutive errorless games, and chances, at shortstop.

Herb Sargent, the chairman of Citizens for Quality Education and the owner of Sargent and Sargent, sent a letter to the committee suggesting Bordick’s name be considered for the field, which is undergoing renovations and should be ready by early November.

Lyons said Bordick is scheduled to spend Nov. 15 in the school district, which encompasses Hampden, Winterport and Newburgh.

“He’s going to go around to some of the schools and meet people,” Lyons said.

The practice football field, which is also located in the Weatherbee School complex, will be named after former coaches Don Veneziano and Bob Sinclair.