There’s no question Jamerson Crowley bleeds orange and black.
He was a part of the last Brewer boys track and field team to win a Class A state indoor championship in 1996, which led to a successful coaching career at that school and Fort Kent as well.
Crowley, who coached the Witches’ indoor and outdoor teams the last four seasons while leading the girls to consecutive Eastern Maine Indoor Track League championships in 2008 and 2009, is leaving those posts to take the cross country and track coaching jobs at Lewiston High School.
Crowley, who will also teach mathematics at the school, takes over for Ray Putnam, who resigned after the spring track season.
While the decision to leave Brewer was difficult, Crowley is excited to take over a Blue Devil program which had great success under Putnam, winning a Class A state title in boys outdoor track in 2006 and a similar crown in cross country in 2007.
He’s also excited to remain in the competitive Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.
“The KVAC is such a great league, it’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Crowley, who praised the success Lewiston’s programs have had over the last few years and the work of athletic administrator Jason Fuller.
Crowley also gave the Brewer administration and his fellow coaches credit.
“Dennis Kiah’s a great athletic director, he supported me big time,” he said. “Glendon Rand, Dave Jeffrey… They were there all the way.”
Crowley inherits a young Lewiston girls cross country squad which qualified for the Class A state meet last fall with two freshmen and a sophomore as the team’s top three. They graduated top track athlete Sarah Crispin from the distance squad.
The Lewiston boys graduated their top two runners, but will have a solid No. 1 this fall in junior Faisal Abdillahi.
“We should have a great group of boys this year, and I’m excited about the girls, they took some steps forward last year,” said Crowley.
Belfast names girls hoop coach
Belfast Area High School has turned to an alumna to fill the vacant girls basketball head coaching position.
That post was landed recently by Amy Dyer-Kelley, who played four years of high school ball at Belfast before having a fine career at Husson College in Bangor.
Dyer-Kelley replaces Meg Cressler, who stepped down after three seasons on the job.
Cressler, a former Camden-Rockport and University of Southern Maine standout, compiled a 29-29 record at Belfast and led the Lions to two Eastern Maine Class B quarterfinal appearances.
Dyer-Kelley had a stellar high school career at Belfast, scoring more than 800 points and grabbing more than 900 rebounds while having continued success at Husson.
She is fifth in school history in career field-goal percentage (50) while hauling down 378 boards. Dyer-Kelley is a member of Husson’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
Her coaching resume includes stops at Searsport High, where she was that school’s softball coach from 1997-2001, leading the Vikings to the 1998 Class C state championship while also coaching basketball at the junior varsity level at Searsport.
Dyer-Kelley also served as Searsport’s varsity basketball coach for two seasons, starting in 2006 before taking over at Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast.
She’ll inherit a Belfast squad which compiled a 7-11 record in the Eastern Maine Class B ranks last winter, missing the preliminary round by one spot.
Dyer-Kelley’s hiring was approved by the SAD 34 school board recently.
Pitching distance to be moved
High school softball pitchers will have their pitching distance increased for the 2010-2011 season, as the rubber will be moved from 40 feet to 43.
The distance revision was one of four rules changes approved by the National Federation of State High School Associations Softball Rules Committee in Indianapolis earlier this summer.
The new pitching distance will become mandatory in 2010-11, but state associations have the option of switching to the distance next season should they choose to do so.
The rule change was put in place mainly to create a better balance in the game between the offense and defense, and have the fielders become more involved in the game, according to an NFHS press release.
rmclaughlin@bangordailynews.net
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