ORONO, Maine — Summer football camps typically are an opportunity for coaches to share their love for the sport with eager-to-learn youngsters while picking up some supplemental income for their efforts.
Coaches from the LTC Eastern Maine Class D ranks, who will conduct the second annual Eastern Maine Football Academy at Orono High School next week, will forego such monetary benefits, instead re-investing the registration fees in the college futures of some of the campers while recognizing the memory of a former colleague.
All money generated from the three-day clinic that runs from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday will go toward establishing the Ken Libbey Memorial Scholarship Fund in honor of the former head coach at Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln and Mount Desert Island High School of Bar Harbor who died at age 53 on April 11, 1997.
“All of the coaches are volunteering,” camp organizer Bob Sinclair, veteran head football coach at Orono High School, said. “We decided we wanted to do this with this camp to give the money back to the kids in the LTC while honoring someone we all respect.”
Sinclair said about 125 football players from throughout the conference have registered for this year’s camp, about double the number that turned out for its first year in 2014.
Sinclair said he hoped the effort would generate several $1,000 scholarships annually to be awarded to deserving incoming seniors who attend the camp and submit an application and then go on to complete their high school careers the following season.
Scholarship winners will be announced during the annual LTC postseason awards banquet in early December.
“I’ve been looking for some sort of venue to honor Ken for years, and this is perfect,” Kim Libbey, Libbey’s widow and a member of the scholarship’s selection committee, said. “With any luck we’ll be able to give out three or four scholarships or even more. I’m really happy about this.”
Ken Libbey was a Brewer High School graduate who, after serving with the U.S. Army, went on to graduate from the University of Maine before beginning his career in education.
He served as an assistant football coach at Brewer, John Bapst of Bangor and Gardiner, and was a head coach at MDI for six years from 1975 through 1980.
Libbey became head coach at Mattanawcook in 1986 and coached the Lynx for 11 seasons through the 1996 campaign. He also coached girls basketball, baseball, softball and outdoor track during his tenure at MA while teaching science, social studies, health and physical education.
“He was tremendously dedicated as a coach. He absolutely loved the game and was an incredible student of the game — and he just loved being with kids,” Kim Libbey said. “He was well-respected statewide for what he did, how he carried himself as a coach and for his honesty and sportsmanship and integrity.
“Those qualities were near and dear to his heart. And to be honest I don’t know anyone who didn’t like him and respect him as a coach, players included.”
Among others on the scholarship committee will be Libbey’s 23-year-old son, Kyle, who was just 4 years old when Ken Libbey died but returned to his father’s alma mater and was a four-year football player at Brewer High School.
“I’m absolutely just touched that Bob wanted to do this, and I’m happy to be able to get our son Kyle involved,” Kim Libbey said.
Sinclair and Kim Libbey would like the Libbey scholarship program to broaden in scope as it becomes more established.
“We’re hoping this eventually won’t be just an LTC award but for Class C teams and even Bangor and Brewer,” she said. “We’ll see how this goes, but it would be great to get even more kids involved.”
