David Shedd, who guided the Brewer High School hockey team to a 76-20-3 record and a Class B state championship in his five years behind the bench, has stepped down in order to help laid off millworkers develop a woodworking skill.
Shedd teaches cabinetmaking and woodworking to high school students at Northern Penobscot Tech Region III in Lincoln, and when both the Lincoln and East Millinocket mills closed, he proposed offering the course to the millworkers.
Shedd is a Millinocket native and said he felt an obligation to help.
“It’s my calling,” he said. “I thought I would be teaching the course to one group, but it turned out to be two groups.”
He began teaching the millworkers during the third week of June, and there are 12 people in each group.
“There was just no physical way for me to both teach and coach,” said the 50-year-old Shedd, whose classes for the millworkers last four-and-a-half hours and are offered four days per week.
He will be at the school from 8 a.m.-7 p.m., when he teaches both the high school students and millworkers.
“It was a hard decision. I was hopeful for next season. I was looking forward to showing them how to win. But life goes on, and I’m sure they will find a decent coach to pick up where I left off,” said Shedd, who noted that the future is bright.
Brewer was a youthful team last winter with 14 freshmen. The Witches went 8-9-1 and missed the Eastern Maine Class B playoffs for the first time during Shedd’s tenure.
Brewer won the state in his first season, beating York 3-1, and then the team lost to York 4-3 in overtime in the state game the next year.
He enjoyed his time at Brewer.
“It was one of the most gratifying lifelong memories I’ll ever have. It was a phenomenal experience,” he said.
He said he had the opportunity to coach his sons, Jonathan and Michael, but both had graduated prior to last season and that didn’t play into his decision to step down.
“It was easier coaching without my sons being on the team,” he admitted.
“He did a great job,” Brewer athletic director Dave Utterback said. “He won a state championship, and we were always competitive. He also taught sportsmanship. He made sure our players played hard but also played clean.”
Utterback hopes to send a candidate’s name to the Brewer School Committee by its November meeting “if not sooner.”