HOULTON, Maine — Dillon Kingsbury burst onto the high school basketball coaching scene while a 19-year-old college student in 2011.
Now he’s poised to take the next step in that fledgling career after his nomination to become Houlton’s new boys varsity coach was approved by the local school board Monday evening.
“I’m still early in my coaching career at 23, and I’d like to move up the ranks,” said Kingsbury, whose teams at Easton High School compiled a 67-15 record over the last four years. “Going up a class or two classes is a step in the right direction, and it’s intriguing to me to see how my philosophies and my basketball IQ will transition to a bigger school and a bigger class that’s a little more competitive from top to bottom.
“I know Houlton is a tremendous community, and its athletic program and athletes are top-notch,” he said.
After being hired at Easton by athletic administrator Steve Shaw and former superintendent Frank Keenan, the Presque Isle native and recent University of Maine at Presque Isle graduate experienced immediate and consistent success with the Bears.
“I don’t want to say they took a chance, but they did,” said Kingsbury. “They hired a 19-year-old who had only coached middle school. They kind of went out on a limb and trusted what they had heard about me and trusted me.
“Obviously I might not be here and I might not be coaching if not for them giving me that opportunity. I’m so grateful to them, and I hate to leave them. I’ll be leaving a little bit of my heart behind, but it’s one of those things where I kind of knew I probably wouldn’t be in Easton my whole life, but when that day comes to leave it’s always a little bittersweet,” he said.
Easton won at least 15 games each year under Kingsbury during a tenure that featured a memorable 2013 tournament upset as the No. 8 seed of top-ranked and defending Class D state champion Jonesport-Beals.
A year later, Easton scored the first undefeated regular season in school history and returned to the Eastern D semifinals before suffering a two-point loss to eventual state champion Hodgdon.
That 2014 Easton squad also was a recipient of the statewide Maine Red Claws/Maine McDonald’s Team of the Year Award for its effect on high school basketball statewide as well as the lives of others through community service, sportsmanship, team spirit and academic excellence.
The Bears finished 16-4 last winter after making their fourth straight tournament appearance in Bangor.
“By the third or fourth years, everyone knew we were contenders. We got that competitive atmosphere in Easton going again, and that’s what I’m most proud of,” he said. “Now everybody expects to win, they believe they can play with anybody they step on the court with no matter who they’re playing.”
Kingsbury joins a Houlton program one year removed from winning the Class C state championship under former coach Rob Moran. Moran resigned in April after four years with the Shiretowners because of increased responsibilities in his job as executive director of Community Living Association, a Houlton-based nonprofit agency with more than 250 employees.
Led by the state’s 2015 Mr. Basketball, senior forward Kyle Bouchard, Houlton followed up its 2014 championship run with a 16-4 effort last winter that concluded with a loss to Orono in the Eastern C semifinals.
Houlton likely will play a significantly different schedule next winter when the Shiretowners become the smallest school in Class B North under the new five-class basketball format approved this spring by the Maine Principals’ Association.
“People have said, ‘They’re going to Class B and they’re going to be the smallest school there, they lose seven seniors, they lose Mr. Basketball,’’ said Kingsbury, who also will continue to coach subvarsity soccer at Presque Isle High School.
“But I say that’s probably what intrigues me the most. It’s a situation where people probably think we won’t do much, so we’ll go see what we can do and how far we can get at that higher level,” he said.
