Southern Aroostook boys basketball coach Bill McAvoy has his team off to a 3-0 start this season, with one of those victories enabling him to reach a significant milestone.
The Warriors’ 77-55 victory over East Grand-Greater Houlton Christian on Monday night in Dyer Brook was the 400th of McAvoy’s 32-year varsity coaching career, and another win the next night against Easton improved his record to 401-200, a .667 winning percentage.
His teams have qualified for postseason play in 28 of his first 31 seasons and have had just four sub-.500 finishes during that tenure.
McAvoy played on an undefeated Class S state championship team at Sherman High School in 1967, the last year before that school was part of a consolidation that formed Katahdin High School of Stacyville. McAvoy then played on the first Katahdin team and helped the Cougars to an undefeated regular season.
He went on play basketball at Unity College before returning to northern Maine to begin teaching and coaching at Central Aroostook of Mars Hill.
McAvoy was a JV coach under Frank Keenan at CAHS for five years, then became head coach in 1977 and guided the Panthers for 13 seasons before returning to his alma mater in 1993 and coaching Katahdin for 15 years.
McAvoy left the Katahdin post in 2007 but returned to coaching at Southern Aroostook in 2012.
The Maine Sports Legends inductee guided Katahdin to the 2000 Eastern D championship. His clubs have reached five Eastern Maine finals, most recently in 2014 with Southern Aroostook.
The Warriors advanced to the semifinals last February and are expected to be among this winter’s top contenders in Class D North. Southern Aroostook returns to action Wednesday at Washburn.
COACHING NOTES: Bangor’s 59-42 win over Lewiston on Tuesday marked the 100th win of Carl Parker’s varsity coaching career. Perhaps best known for his work in the state’s AAU basketball community, Parker is in his 12th year as a varsity head coach, including previous stops at Bangor, Foxcroft Academy, MCI of Pittsfield and Nokomis of Newport. Parker is in the first year of his second stint at Bangor, where the 1-1 Rams face their first road of the season Friday at Cheverus of Portland. … Parker’s new JV coach at Bangor is former Rams’ and University of Maine forward Jon McAllian. … McAllian returned to his alma mater after spending the last two seasons as head coach at Bangor Christian. … Bangor Christian athletic administrator Kevin Reed, who preceded McAllian as the Patriots’ head coach, has returned to the sidelines at BC this year. … Kyle Joy is the new boys basketball coach at Sumner. He replaces veteran coach Walter Crabtree, who stepped down after last season. … Joy was a three-year varsity player and two-year starter for Sumner who graduated from the East Sullivan school in 2004. He coached the Peninsula School of Prospect Harbor to a middle-school league championship last winter and also has coached that school’s baseball team for five years.
