Jay Kemble called it a “really hard decision.”
But he has elected to step down as the Bangor High School girls soccer coach after leading the Rams to three Class A North championships and two state titles in his three seasons at the helm.
His three teams posted a record of 49-4-1 and including a 16-1-1 mark this past fall.
Bangor beat Scarborough 1-0 in the state final after upending Scarborough 3-1 in the 2024 title game and losing to Scarborough 2-0 in the 2023 final.
He has been replaced by former Husson University of Bangor women’s soccer assistant coach Nick Christensen.
Kemble is also the Bangor High School boys basketball coach and he will remain in that capacity. He is a history teacher at the school.
He had been the girls basketball coach at Bangor for six seasons, including the COVID-19 year when teams played other schools in their area and there wasn’t a Maine Principals Association tournament.
He compiled a record of 83-33 in his six seasons before he took the boys job a year ago and guided the Rams to a dramatic nine-win improvement as they went 10-8 during the regular season after posting a 1-17 mark the previous year.
He also spent one year coaching the field hockey team before taking the girls soccer job.
The 62-year-old Kemble said there were a “lot of factors” behind his decision to step down.
“I’ve been coaching since 1987, and you get to a point in your life when you have to make decisions based around family, around time, just weighing everything that goes into it,” said Kemble, a former three-sport standout at Mt. Blue High School in Farmington and a relief pitcher and assistant coach at the University of Maine. “I’ve been coaching two sports for four years now, and I was trying to run two programs in the summer back-to-back.
“I loved coaching the soccer team and the field hockey team. But it gets to the point where time becomes a factor in decisions regarding family. And everything needed to be weighed into it. At 62 now and after 40 years, coaching one sport is plenty.”
In his one year as the girls field hockey coach in 2022, his Rams went 8-6 after going 4-9 the previous season. The Rams have gone 3-38-1 in field hockey since his departure.
He said his three seasons with the girls soccer team were “tremendous,” which made his decision a difficult one.
“They were great kids. They worked hard. They were there every day, they did what you asked, they had good attitudes and they were good to each other,” said Kemble. “They held each other accountable and did everything you would ask of a team.”
Kemble said coaching two sports was challenging especially since you are also responsible for coaching them during the summer program.
“So you would coach them in the summer and then you’d go right into the fall and into the winter [season],” said Kemble. “I’d be prepping for a state championship game in soccer in early November and, at the same time, trying to get things ready to start basketball a week later.”
He said Christensen will inherit a quality team even though All-Americans Georgie Stephenson and Clara Oldenburg have departed.
Stephenson is transferring to a prep school in Connecticut and Oldenburg graduated.
Stephenson had 36 goals and 8 assists this past fall and scored the game-winners in each state title game and Oldenburg had 25 goals and 27 assists and finished as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 73 goals and 70 assists.
“They have a great group of kids who are returning,” said Kemble. “The program is in really good shape. There have a great feeder program.
“They will have 11 kids returning who played in the state championship game. A number of them have played in two state games and three or so have played in three straight state games,” said Kemble. “They know how to get there and know what they need to do in order to continue with that success.”
“It’s tough losing Jay. But he left for the right reasons,” said Bangor athletic director Steve Vanidestine. “He was everything we could have hoped for. He was great to the girls. He didn’t baby them but they loved him and he got the most out of them.”
Vanidestine said he is very pleased to have landed Christensen as Kemble’s replacement.
Christensen had been an assistant with the Husson women’s team since 2021 and formerly played soccer at Waterville High School, Bridgton Academy and Shorter University, an NCAA Division II school in Rome, Georgia.
“We’re very fortunate to get such a high quality coach that has coached women at the college level, very high-quality ones,” said Vanidestine. “He is very knowledgable. He played for Waterville when they were very, very good and he was a very good player, himself. He played college soccer in Georgia and had a pro tryout. He’s a good husband and a good family man.
“He is also very familiar with our student-athletes since Husson recruits our kids,” Vanidestine added.
Vanidestine contacted several people in the Waterville area that knew Christensen and his family and “everything checked out positive…great.
“Change is hard but I couldn’t be more pleased with the quality of the person, his knowledge of soccer and the experiences he had in soccer,” said Vanidestine who added that Christensen has put together a top-notch coaching staff and has been coaching Bangor’s summer team.
Kemble said the support he has received from the administration has been exceptional and that support combined with the “resources we have have enabled us to have success.”