Even though it is John Donato’s 41st year as a high school girls basketball coach in Maine, he said the excitement is still there as he embarks on his first season as the Orono High School coach.
Basketball, schoolboy hockey, cheerleading, swimming, indoor track and wrestling teams were able on Monday to hold their first practices of the the Maine Principals’ Association winter season.
Schoolgirl hockey teams began practicing on Nov. 6 while ski teams don’t get started until Nov. 27.
“Any time you start the season, you have butterflies,” said the 70-year old Donato, who is living in Bangor with his wife Kelly (Taylor). “I was just as nervous as the kids were. It’s going to be interesting.”
Donato inherited an Orono team that went 10-27 under Nick Winchester the last two seasons in Class B North. The Red Riots were 5-13 last winter.
Winchester has taken the Hampden Academy girls job after Tim Scott stepped down.
“I have been doing some substitute teaching in Orono so I know all the kids. I did run an abbreviated summer program, too,” said Donato, who spent the last seven seasons at Lawrence High School in Fairfield and has a career record of 547-219 (.714) at five schools.
He has won 11 regional championships and five state titles.
“The kids are just as interested in being successful as I am,” said Donato. “It’s going to take a lot of effort on their part. It’s going to be a process more than it is wins and losses immediately.
“They are very eager to learn and very eager for us to build a (successful) program. We’ll take our lumps. They weren’t very successful the past two years. You don’t turn that around overnight. We have a lot of work ahead of us,” he added.
Derek Sinclair returns as the JV coach and varsity assistant and former 15-year John Bapst High School of Bangor girls coach Mike Webb and Desiree Dubois are volunteer assistants.
Webb was not rehired by John Bapst after last season and he was replaced by former Calais High School boys coach Chris Woodside.
Donato had 19 players, including nine freshmen, at Monday’s tryouts to begin the process of picking a varsity and JV team.
Senior guard Isabelle Henderson and junior forward Lauren Melanson will be his co-captains. Both were members of the Red Riots soccer team that reached the Class C North semifinals, where they lost to eventual state champion Houlton.
Donato, who retired as a full-time teacher but has been substituting at Bangor and Brewer High Schools as well as at Orono High School and middle school, said he has some good athletes on the team and he will determine their style of play when he has picked the team.
“Some coaches like to play a lot of straight-up man-to-man. I’m the type of coach who will play what I need to play in order to be successful,” he said.
He coached at Houlton (18 years), Messalonskee High of Oakland (9), Mount View of Thorndike (5) and Hall-Dale of Farmingdale (1) before going to Lawrence where the Bulldogs won the state Class A title in 2015 and lost in the state final the following year.
Orono hosts Ellsworth to open the season on Dec. 8.
The defending girls state champions are Gorham (Class AA), Messalonskee (A), Gray-New Gloucester (B), Monmouth Academy (C) and Vinalhaven (D).
The defending boys state titlists are Portland (AA), Greely of Cumberland Center (A), Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor (B), George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill (C) and Machias (D).
The schoolboy hockey landscape takes on a new look as two-time defending Class B state champ Waterville joins forces with archrival Winslow to form a cooperative team, the Kennebec River Hawks, under the guidance of Jonny Hart. Hart is a former Waterville hockey player.
Waterville has won 20 state championships between Classes A and B while Winslow has 11 state B crowns.
But low numbers forced both schools to merge to save hockey.
They will play in Class B North.
Lewiston is the defending state champ in A.
The 2016-2017 state champs in cheerleading are Lewiston (A), Hermon (B), Lisbon (C) and Central Aroostook of Mars Hill (D). Indoor track championships were won by the Scarborough boys and girls in A, the MDI boys and Greely girls in B; swimming crowns were captured by the girls from Cony High of Augusta (A) and Cape Elizabeth (B) and the boys from Cheverus of Portland (A) and Old Town (B).
Marshwood High School in South Berwick and Wells High were the state wrestling kingpins in A and B, respectively.
In skiing, Alpine championships went to the girls from Falmouth (A) and Fort Kent (B) and the Nordic titles went to Mt. Blue of Farmington (A) and Maranacook of Readfield (B). In boys skiing, it was Camden Hills (A) and Spruce Mountain High in Jay (B) in Alpine and Mt. Blue and Maranacook in Nordic.
Maine Coast Waldorf School of Freeport was the boys and girls Class C Nordic winner.
St. Dominic Academy of Auburn is the defending girls hockey state champion.
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