BANGOR, Maine — Dave Morris was working at Fairmount Market on the city’s west side in 1987 when the store owner and his former Bangor High School football coach, Gabby Price, offered up what nearly 30 years later he ranks as the most important piece of coaching advice he’s ever received.
“He told me the greatest thing you can do is care,” said Morris, who on Tuesday evening was named the new head baseball coach at his alma mater.
“I’ve really tried to make sure that’s been my No. 1 focus in everything I’ve done, in coaching and at the same time in everything else I’ve done as a husband and a father. It was the best advice a young coach could ever get,” he said.
Morris, who teaches alternative education in Brewer and is a middle school football coach in Bangor this fall, had served for the last seven years as an assistant to former Bangor High School baseball head coach Jeff Fahey.
Fahey retired from that post in September after compiling a 246-50 record over 16 years with four Class A state championships — including consecutive titles each of the last three seasons — and five regional crowns.
“Jeff’s had great teams over the years, and he’s left behind a great nucleus of kids, so you’ve really got to talk about what he’s done over the last 30 years, 14 as the JV coach and 16 years as the head coach,” said Morris. “And having Fred Lower there for the last 16 years as the JV coach … it’s quite a legacy of continuity.”
Morris becomes just the third head coach the Bangor baseball program has had in nearly a half-century, with Fahey following the 32-year tenure of Bob Kelley. Kelley guided the Rams to eight state championships and 15 regional crowns during his tenure.
“It’s a position only two people have occupied in nearly 50 years, that in itself is quite humbling,” said Morris. “If we can do a fraction of what they’ve done in terms of keeping the consistency and continuity intact then we’ll be successful.”
Morris is a 1985 graduate of Bangor High School who played baseball for the Rams under Kelley and football under Price, and he has gone on to have a long coaching career in his own right.
Before joining Fahey’s staff in 2010, Morris spent 12 years as head baseball coach at Brewer High School where he led the Witches to a 135-66 record. Brewer qualified for postseason play during every season with Morris at the helm, winning the Eastern Maine Class A championship in 2008 and advancing to the regional final in 2004.
Morris was the head baseball coach at Hermon High School for three years before taking the Brewer post.
Morris also is a longtime American Legion baseball coach, serving 11 years as head coach of the Brewer Falcons before moving on to the Bangor Coffee News Comrades, which he led to American Legion state championships in 2014 and 2015 and to the state championship game again this summer.
Those two state titles were the first for the Bangor Legion entry since 1979.
Morris plans to continue coaching American Legion baseball with the Comrades as he assumes the head coaching duties at Bangor High School.
“We try to approach Legion baseball as an extension of our high school season,” said Morris. “The benefit you have in Bangor in particular is you’re able to continue to develop the relationships you have with the players you’ve worked with during the spring, and the commitment the kids have made is second to none.
“The kids in Bangor have high expectations, but they want to earn everything they get,” he said.
