Dean Preston awoke Friday to celebrate Christmas — and perhaps sneak in a few minutes of thought about the next game, as high school basketball coaches are wont to do each winter.
But while the holiday observances were to be expected, the chance to plot basketball strategy was something the Pembroke man never imagined barely a week ago, for the Shead of Eastport boys varsity coach had spent the previous few months preparing a quite different game plan.
Preston is a major in the Maine Army National Guard and operations officer for its 133rd Engineer Battalion, which was scheduled to be deployed to Iraq early in 2010.
Preston already was a veteran of one tour in Mosul during 2004 and 2005, and as one of the battalion’s leaders he had been working full time since August helping prepare for the 133rd’s return to one of the world’s foremost hotspots.
And while that deployment wouldn’t take place until February or March, the increased workload — including several trips to Augusta each week — meant stepping back from coaching for Preston, the 2009 Downeast Athletic Conference coach of the year after a 17-4 season and trip to the Eastern Maine Class D semifinals.
So while Preston fulfilled his military duties, Shead principal Paul Theriault, who coached the Tigers for more than a decade during two previous stints, filled in on the bench — all the while believing it would be a season-long commitment.
But as deliberate and intense as the preparations for deployment had been, suddenly things changed for Preston. Barely a week before Christmas came the news there would be no deployment for the 133rd — the cancellation attributed to the continuing drawdown of combat forces in Iraq.
“We thought our mission was going to be shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan, and I was just waiting for more word and then suddenly we were ‘off-ramped’, we were no longer going to be deployed,” said Preston. “It totally surprised everybody, but given the time of year it is it came at a good time.”
The decision left Preston and others among the 521 members of the 133rd with varied emotions.
“You devote a lot of energy to this, you’ve made all the arrangements with your family and your job and you’ve prepared yourself to go,” said Preston. “In that way it was kind of a letdown, but in no way am I disappointed because let’s face it, when you go into that kind of situation you’re going to be in harm’s way.”
One day after learning of the Department of Defense’s decision to cancel the mission, Preston turned his attention back to a far less dangerous arena.
Last Friday he attended basketball practice, then he watched Saturday as Theriault guided the Tigers to a 67-23 victory over Calvary Chapel of Orrington before taking the reins Monday as Shead improved to 3-2 with a 52-32 victory over Machias.
“The first practice was a little awkward,” said Preston, the Tigers’ fourth-year head boys basketball coach who also guided the Shead girls to the 1999 Class D state title. “But after that it got back to normal pretty quickly because I’ve got a great bunch of kids here, not only great players but great citizens.
“For me it’s just great to get back to basketball, because whether you’re a coach or a player this is the time of year you relish, and I honestly never thought in a million years I’d be back coaching again this season.”
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