Scott Flagg, a 1993 Brewer High School graduate, was named the new head football coach at his alma mater on Monday night at a Brewer School Committee meeting.
The 45-year-old Flagg had been an assistant the past two years at Brewer responsible for the defensive backs after serving as the head coach of the middle school team the previous two seasons.
“I am very excited for this opportunity,” said Flagg. “We have a great bunch of players and an excellent group of veteran coaches along with a supportive administration.
He replaces Nick Arthers, who resigned after six seasons as the head coach. Arthers’ teams compiled a 30-28 record and made Class B North championship game appearances in 2015 and 2016.
Brewer has gone 2-7 each of the last two seasons but made the playoffs each year.
Flagg has previous football head coaching experience at the varsity level as he guided Hampden Academy to a 2-6 record in 2015. He had been an assistant at Hampden Academy for five years.
He was also the head boys basketball coach at Gray-New Gloucester High School for four years after serving as the JV coach and varsity assistant for six seasons.
In addition, Flagg coached the middle school football team at Gray-New Gloucester for three seasons before being promoted to varsity assistant for three more.
“It’s a really good fit,” said Flagg, who is an occupational therapist at Brewer Community School and the high school.
Flagg was selected from a list of seven formal applicants according to Brewer athletic director Dave Utterback.
“Scott has a great deal of familiarity with our student-athletes,” Utterback said. “In such an unsettling time for our community and country, we wanted to provide our football program with a person we felt could best be a stabilizing figure for the student-athletes as well as advance our program to the top of Class B football.”
Utterback explained that since Flagg is a Brewer graduate, he “understands what football means to the community and how special Friday night football is at Doyle Field.
“[We are] fortunate to already have someone of Scott’s caliber already in our school district not only as a coach, but as a person, to take over our program,” Brewer High School principal Brent Slowikowsi said.
“He is known and respected by our student-athletes and that respect is well-earned,” said Slowikowski.
Flagg, who also coaches the JV boys basketball team and the JV tennis teams at Brewer, said Brewer has a great football tradition.
“You can always build off that as a program,” he said. “I am a big believer in what football can do for young people and I want to see it thrive again in Brewer. We have strong numbers.”
Flagg, who played basketball and tennis at Brewer, described himself as a JV level football player. He said the Witches will spread the field offensively and should have a strong running game.
They will run a 4-4 alignment on defense and focus on fundamentals.
Flagg graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in physical education and kinesiology and earned a master’s degree in occupational therapy from the University of Southern Maine.