MARS HILL, Maine — Tim Brewer’s recent decision to step down as the boys varsity basketball coach at Central Aroostook High School was not unexpected.
He merely wanted to see his son, Chandler, through his high school playing days before concluding a 15-year tenure at his alma mater highlighted by four Class D state championships and five Eastern Maine titles.
But don’t call it a retirement.
“Obviously with Chandler graduating that’s when I had planned on getting done, at least for now,” said the 38-year-old Brewer. “I’m not retiring. I might be done for good or I might not be. At this point, it’s a pause for me.”
Should Brewer return to coaching, he’ll bring an impressive resume to the application process.
After two years as an assistant coach, he took the varsity job in 2000 and compiled a 251-64 record good for a .797 winning percentage.
“People might say, ‘You had some talented players,’ and I did have some talented players,” said Brewer, “but my kids worked their tails off. That’s the thing I’m most proud of, how hard they worked. We always had tough-nosed defensive teams and the kids always represented their school well.”
That coaching run included three undefeated regular seasons and state crowns in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2011.
“I think everyone who plays for him would say how much they respected him and how much he meant to them as more than a coach, as a mentor you could talk to and a good friend after you were done playing for him,” said Logan McLaughlin, a guard who played under Brewer from 2007 to 2011.
“He’s just an all-around great guy who taught us a lot of life lessons, and along with the life lessons we also won some state championships, which made it 10 times better.”
Brewer said defense wasn’t his immediate priority when he became head coach at age 23, and while his first three teams averaged more than 14 victories, it wasn’t until his coaching philosophy included more attention to defensive detail that his program achieved its ultimate postseason success.
“It didn’t take me long to figure out that if I was going to win championships we needed to play defense, so I really focused on it and did a lot of studying to become a better defensive coach,” he said.
That transition coincided with a five-year stretch from 2004 through 2008 when Central Aroostook went 106-5 with three state titles.
“I learned from playing that you dictate tempo from the offensive side, which when I played was to get up and down the floor and run,” said Brewer, who as a high school junior helped Central Aroostook win the 1994 Class D state championship. “Then I started to learn from coaching that you can dictate tempo with your defense.
“For me, the tempo is the most important part of the game. Whoever can play the game at whatever speed they want to play is usually the team that ends up winning the game.”
The most notable example of Central Aroostook dictating a game’s tempo with defense under Brewer came en route to its most recent undefeated season in 2011.
The Panthers were matched in the Eastern Maine final against Jonesport-Beals, which had averaged 78 points in two earlier tournament victories. But Central Aroostook used a triangle-and-two defense to hold the Royals 52 points below that average in a decisive 49-26 victory.
Brewer also expanded his offensive playbook as his coaching career continued.
“From when I started until 2005 and 2006 I pretty much ran the same offenses, but after [All-Maine honoree] Andrew York graduated [in 2006] I realized I was going to have to start doing different things offensively,” he said. “We had a good group of kids after that, good players who did different things well so I tried to set up a lot of quick hitters for my better players and work off them and allow them to create. I think from there I started to evolve into a better coach from the offensive side.”
That helped produce undefeated regular seasons in 2007 and 2008 — with the 2008 state final capped off by one of the more memorable moments in recent tournament history, a last-second shot by 5-foot-7 guard Manny Martinez over 6-10 Richmond center Marc Zaharchuk to give Central Aroostook a stunning 54-53 victory.
“We ran 10 to 12 different offensive sets with that team and they could go from one to another,” Brewer said. “I never had a group of kids who did as much with what they had as that group. That team probably did the most with the least, along with the 2013 team.”
That 2013 team won three postseason games in overtime en route to the Eastern Maine championship before Central Aroostook slipped below .500 the last two winters, in great part because of injuries that limited Chandler Brewer — an Eastern Maine all-tournament guard as a sophomore — to spot duty in 2014 and sidelined him entirely this winter.
“From a coaching perspective I enjoyed everything while I was coaching,” Brewer said. “The only thing that bothered me was the last two years with Chandler being injured and unable to play the way he was capable of playing.
“But that wouldn’t have mattered if I was coaching or a parent sitting in the stands.”
