OAKLAND — Only a year ago, going to football practice at Messalonskee was one of the worst parts of Sam Dube’s day — not that you could blame him.

There was little to look forward to for Dube and the Eagles in 2022. On the field, the team had a dismal season, going 2-6 to miss the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season; off the field, it was chaos as the Eagles played much of their season without a full-time head coach after Walter Polky departed midway through the season. 

“We weren’t really having fun at all,” said Dube, now a senior running back and defensive back for the Eagles. “We dreaded going to practice and weren’t happy. This year, our coaches have made practice fun, and you can see on the sidelines we’re all smiles and having fun.”

Yes, everything is different this year for a Messalonskee program that’s done a reversal from where it was on just about this day a year ago. The morale has gone from leaden to spirited, and the result is a team that’s been the class of the Pine Tree Conference as it nears its first 6-0 start this century.

Messalonskee players and coaches don’t shy away from the fact that, at least recently, their program hasn’t been strong. The Eagles had gone a paltry 5-27 over the previous four seasons entering 2023, and they hadn’t posted a winning mark since going 6-4 in 2013.

“For a while, people have said, ‘Oh, we’ve got Messalonskee this week; that should be an easy win,’” said sophomore starting quarterback Tatum Doucette. “We’re tired of that; we want people to look at us on the schedule and say, ‘Oh, Messalonskee this week, that’s a tough one.’”

First-year Messalonskee football head coach Blair Doucette watches a drill during an Oct. 4 football practice in Oakland. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

At 5-0 with its closest game coming in an 18-point victory over Cony in Week 3, Messalonskee has certainly done that. It didn’t come, though, before the Eagles’ returning players from 2022 dealt with a challenging campaign that tested them in ways in and out of their control.

A year ago Thursday, Athletic Director Chad Foye announced that Polky was no longer Messalonskee’s head coach. The Eagles did their best to salvage that season with Foye filling in as acting head coach.

“It was definitely tough,” said Mitch Marquis, a senior offensive lineman and linebacker. “I was close with a lot of the seniors last year, and to see them lose their senior season in that way was tough emotionally. I think that motivated us, too, this year to come back and show, ‘Hey, we’re not burnt out.’”

As challenging as it was, Messalonskee embraced an interim coaching staff that tried to give the players a rewarding end to a trying season. The Eagles showed resolve in Week 8 with an upset victory over Lawrence. This year, their new head coach saw a fire in his team from the get-go. 

“The first day of two-a-days, I could really see they were motivated and ready,” said Blair Doucette. “When we started that practice and started going through the practice itself, you could see from that point on that the kids really believed in what we were doing. They were ready for that cultural change.”

The practices a year ago that Dube dreaded have now become far more engaging. The new staff, he said, has been more detail-oriented and specific in walking the players through new plays, schemes, coverages and other techniques. The “soft” preparations from a year ago, Tatum Doucette added, are now more disciplined.

A Messalonskee football player makes contact with a pad during an Oct. 4 practice in Oakland. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

The key, Blair Doucette said, has been perhaps a slightly less conventional approach to practices. Although Messalonskee is plenty tough — how could a 5-0 team not be? — that toughness hasn’t come from conditioning drills but rather from a fast tempo and practices that keep everyone engaged.

“We haven’t done any conditioning at all; it all comes from the tempo and speed at practice,” Doucette said. “We don’t do hills, sprints or anything like that, but we keep things moving at practice and make sure we practice at game speed. We’ve noticed that, in the second half of games, we’ve been the team in better shape.”

The Eagles play fast and have an offense that can succeed in a variety of ways. Tatum Doucette has become one of the state’s elite quarterbacks as only a sophomore, already nearing 1,000 passing yards this season. He’s helped by a strong receiving corps of Garrett Card, Brady and Drake Brunelle and Cash Bizier.

In the run game, there’s Dube, who ran for 202 yards and three touchdowns against Skowhegan last week. Defensively, Marquis regularly racks up double-digit tackles, and Drake Brunelle has seven interceptions in the secondary.

“It just shows how versatile we are,” Dube said. “Every game, you have somebody different stepping up. I think what made the difference for us last week was our line because they played amazing. They’re hard-working boys, and they do the dirty work up front so that all I have to do is run.”

It all has Messalonskee in a completely different place compared to a year ago in ways that go beyond the sidelines and yard markers. With a strong finish to the regular season, the Eagles could clinch the No. 1 seed in Class B North and send the path to the regional championship through Oakland.

Although some might not have expected such a quick turnaround for the Eagles, their head coach made it clear to his players soon after taking the job that it was possible. Now, a Messalonskee team that Doucette already had in “win-now” mode entering the season has even bigger dreams as it looks toward its October slate.

“I didn’t want the kids thinking, ‘OK, we have a new coach, and we’ll get there eventually,’” Doucette said. “I really felt like we could win right now, and I really stressed that with them. … The kids realize what they’ve accomplished, but they also know they have even bigger goals than that in front of them.”

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