The University of Maine is where Augusta native Amy Vachon wants to be, and with her new contract to continue as head coach of the women’s basketball team, she will be in Orono for a while longer.

The university has reached an agreement with Vachon to continue as coach through the 2024-25 season, the school announced Wednesday.

“I’m really excited to continue in my role here at Maine. I love our players. I love the community, our staff, the university, obviously, and the state,” Vachon said in a Zoom call with media Wednesday afternoon. “Our goal every year is to win championships and compete at the highest level. That will never change. I don’t put ceilings on how far we can go. We just take it day by day and work really hard. We’ve been very fortunate with the players we have and the staff we have.”

A three-time America East Coach of the Year, Vachon and the university have agreed to a binding term sheet, in advance of the full contract, the school announced. The four-year deal begins on July 1 and runs through June 30, 2025. The new contract will replace the final year of the four-year contract that Vachon signed on March 1, 2018, when she was elevated from interim head coach. Neither Vachon nor UMaine would disclose the terms of the contract, but a school spokesperson said they would be available once the deal is finalized.

“I am thrilled Coach Vachon is continuing her commitment to the University of Maine and Black Bear basketball,” director of athletics Ken Ralph said in a news release. “She has developed a winning culture in our program and we are excited to see the team continue to evolve under her leadership. I believe it is important to invest in excellence and Coach Vachon is setting a very high standard. This is great news for all of our fans who love our women’s basketball program.”

The Black Bears have gone 94-42 – including 62-16 against America East competition – under Vachon. She coached the Black Bears to the NCAA tournament in 2018 and 2019 and to the America East championship game five consecutive times. This season, Maine went 17-3, falling to Stony Brook in the America East championship game.

Vachon said she has received inquiries from other schools regarding coaching positions, but her first priority has been to stay at Maine.

“I want to be very clear, I want to be at Maine. I’ve had people call, other schools have contacted me. Not only this year. I’ve had a lot of talks with Ken Ralph, looking at the future of our program and resources and how we can support women’s basketball moving forward. I’ve been really excited about the possibilities and really excited about what’s ahead, and I think this is a great first step,” Vachon said. “Whenever anybody asks, where are you going to be in 10 years, I don’t know. If you asked me 10 years ago, I would not be here, I can tell you that right now. I know right now I love what I’m doing and I love where I’m at. Someone once told me, don’t mess with happy.”

With four seniors leaving the program, including Blanca Millan, the two-time America East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, and Dor Saar, a four-year starter at point guard, the Black Bears will have a new look next season. Anne Simon, a first-team all-America East selection this season, will return. So, too, will Maeve Carroll, a second team all-conference selection this season.

How Vachon goes about recruiting changed in the COVID-19 era. Even as the world slowly recovers from the pandemic, some of those changes are likely to stay in place, Vachon said.

Zoom presentations to recruits, for example, saved money and time spent on travel. The NCAA instituted a dead period until May 31, which means recruits cannot visit a campus and coaches cannot go off campus to see players in person, either.

“That’s been in effect since last March, so it’s been over a year. It sounds like they’re going to open that up a little bit. We don’t know what that looks like, whether that means recruits coming to campus or us being able to go on the road, either. The European championships that we usually go to, the dates haven’t been set yet. They’re still trying to figure out if they’re going to have them. So there’s a lot still up in the air,” Vachon said.

Vachon said she expects her staff of assistant coaches – Courtney England, Tom Biskup, Parise Rossignol and Matt Peyton – to all stay, giving the Black Bears more continuity on the bench.

“That was a big part of what Ken and I talked about, supporting my assistants and the staff as well, in a lot of different ways. Consistency is really important. Assistant coaches create relationships with players that head coaches usually don’t. It’s just the nature of the business,” Vachon said.

As the Black Bears’ starting point guard in the late 1990s. Vachon set team and conference records for career assists. Maine made the NCAA tournament each of Vachon’s four seasons as a player, and upset Stanford in the first round of the 1999 tournament.

A 2000 UMaine graduate, Vachon was inducted into the UMaine Sports Hall of Fame in 2018. Vachon was inducted in the Maine Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 and the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020.

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