Since he graduated from St. Joseph’s College in 2002, Mike Herrick has coached soccer somewhere.

Herrick will still be on the sidelines next fall, but he will be watching his own children compete instead.

Herrick stepped down earlier this month after four years as Madison’s girls’ varsity soccer coach to spend more time with his family.

“It was extremely difficult because soccer is such a huge part of my life and always has been,” Herrick said. “I had a blast the last four years in Madison.”

The father of an 8-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter, Herrick said he couldn’t devote the time to his second love, coaching soccer, and watch his kids grow up. A teacher in the Skowhegan school system, he and his family moved from Madison to Skowhegan before last season and the commute made it more difficult to devote adequate time to both his children and coaching.

Still, the decision to leave the Bulldogs wasn’t an easy one, he said. Madison finished 12-2-1 last season and won the Mountain Valley Conference with one of the youngest teams in the conference. Herrick was named the MVC’s coach of the year.

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“I’m extremely proud to leave the program in the shape that it’s in,” said Herrick, who compiled a 41-14-4 record at Madison. “It’s not only how good the girls are as soccer players, it’s the quality of the kids and the parents giving great support.”

The Bulldogs’ roster included nine freshmen last fall, many of whom helped propel the team to the top seed in Western C. They were upset, 2-1 in overtime, in the quarterfinals by Hall-Dale, but Herrick believes his team was ahead of schedule.

“I thought we overachieved last year,” he said. “I thought with such a young team we were going to figure it out as the year went along but we figured it out pretty quickly.”

Madison graduates just three seniors, including MVC all-star defender Monica Ouellette. Expected to lead the team next fall will be three seniors, including all-MVC striker Kayla Bess, and one junior, all-MVC midfielder Madeline Wood.

Herrick also had stints coaching the Skowhegan varsity and Mount View junior varsity before reaching Madison,

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Gardiner Area High School athletic director Steve Ouellette is looking to fill coaching positions in three spring sports — baseball, softball and girls’ tennis.

The varsity and JV positions are open in both baseball and softball. Softball coach Ginger Shaw and baseball coach Chris McLaughlin both resigned after three seasons. Ouellette said both stepped down for family reasons.

Under Shaw, Gardiner softball finished 17-1 in 2014 after an undefeated regular season in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference. The top seed in the Eastern Class B tournament, they were upset by third-seeded Hermon in the semifinals.

Gardiner baseball did not reach the playoffs last year after finishing 3-13.

Ouellette said he posted the positions publicly about a week-and-a-half ago and hopes to have new coaches by late February. Spring season practices start on March 30.

“Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be setting up interviews and hopefully (the positions are filled) either a little before or after February vacation,” he said.

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Other schools are also advertising to fill vacancies for varsity spring sports, including Maranacook (boys’ tennis), Richmond (track and field), Hall-Dale (softball) and Mt. Blue (baseball).

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Messalonskee athletic director Tom Hill said he expects to have a new varsity baseball coach brought up for RSU 18 school board approval Tuesday.

The position opened up in October, when Ray Bernier resigned after serving as the Eagles’ coach since 2007. He led them to a Class A state championship in 2012.

Hill said he had a good pool of candidates interview for the position and has some follow-up work to do before sending a candidate to the committee next week.

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638

rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33


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