Van Buren has hired a new boys basketball coach two weeks after its previous coach stepped down on the day of the team’s regular season opener.
MSAD 24 hired Jay Edgecomb, the district’s physical education teacher and a longtime coach, to fill the vacancy during an emergency school board meeting Thursday night.
He will be the team’s fourth coach since the start of last season and third within three weeks.
“[Edgecomb] has a track record of success, and we’re hoping that he’s going to seamlessly fill the void,” Van Buren Athletic Director Matt Rossignol said Friday.
Blake Martin, who graduated from Van Buren in 2022, coached the Crusaders in 2024-25 but opted not to return to the position this season. The district hired Brian Massey, a longtime area coach who led Van Buren’s girls basketball team in 2021-22, to take over the team in June.
Massey resigned on Dec. 4, citing medical reasons, MSAD 24 Superintendent Karen DuBois said.
That same night, Van Buren opened its season at home against Washburn. Rossignol, a Maine Basketball Hall of Famer, stepped in as the team’s interim coach. He’s led the Crusaders for the first five games of the season, where they’ve gone 2-3.
Van Buren beat fellow Class S opponents Ashland and Wisdom, but lost by an average of 50 points in games against Washburn and Class D powers Fort Fairfield and Madawaska.
“I felt bad that the players had to transition from one coach abruptly the way they did,” Rossignol said. “Regardless of who the previous coach was and who I am, that’s always a challenge for the players. They gave me everything they had during that tenure. Their attitudes were terrific. Their work ethic was terrific. We battled even in the games when the score was lopsided.”
Thursday was Rossignol’s last practice coaching the team. He’s now handed the reins to Edgecomb, who previously served as the district’s athletic director and coached the Van Buren girls basketball team in several stints over his 27-year tenure with the district, including during the 2023-24 season.
Edgecomb also led the school’s girls soccer team from 2006 to 2014, and again in 2024, coaching the Crusaders to Class D Eastern Maine titles in 2010 and 2011.