SKOWHEGAN — Decide for yourself if you think Tom Nadeau’s stint at his current job qualifies as a long one. If you do, though, don’t tell him that.

It’s been 11 years that Nadeau has been coaching the Skowhegan boys basketball team. That’s not necessarily an eternity by any means, but in the current Class A North boys basketball landscape, it might as well be.

“Thank you, I appreciate that,” Nadeau joked when referred to as part of the “old guard” of the region’s current coaching crop. “We’ve got a lot of new coaches. There are some young ones, but there’s also some older veteran coaches that have taken over.”

Yes, there are four Class A North teams with new head coaches navigating the early days of what they hope to be long tenures for their respective programs. Between Messalonskee’s Sam Smith, Nokomis’ Josh Grant, Brewer’s Carl Parker and Camden Hills’ Joel Gabriele, nearly half the region has new blood.

Messalonskee was one of the most hyped teams in all of central Maine entering the year with forward Merrick Smith and a host of talented guards returning. With Pete McLaughlin unable to return as full-time coach because of his assistant principal duties, though, Smith has stepped on to lead the Eagles.

“It’s a lot (to step into a team with high expectations), but we’re just trying not to listen to all the outside noise,” said Smith, who spent the last three years as Waterville’s head coach. “I have my own personal expectations for this group, and we’re going to keep it in-house and not worry about what other people have to say about us.”

Smith’s early goal has been to try and shape Messalonskee into a defensive-oriented team. The Eagles have been at their best when they’ve stuck to that moniker this year, putting the clamps down on Lawrence after a rough first quarter in a 60-51 season-opening win and topping Lewiston 40-31.

Nokomis under Earl Anderson was a behemoth the last two years, winning the state title with Cooper Flagg two years ago and turning in a solid 13-6 campaign last year. Yet Anderson, who also won a state title in 2002 with the Nokomis girls, has stepped aside after a two-year stint with the boys.

In steps Josh Grant, an assistant under Anderson who has coached all but one of Nokomis’ current players at some point between the youth and high school ranks. Many of those players, though, are young, presenting him with the challenge of plugging in his lineup with players inexperienced at the varsity level.

“Sixteen of our 22 kids in our whole program are freshmen and sophomores, so four of our top-seven are freshmen and sophomores,” Grant said. “They’re all great kids, and they’re all coachable, and the sooner they can mature physically to play in this league night in and night out, that’ll help us.”

Grant is the father of one of Nokomis’ seniors and top players, Alex Grant, who said having his dad step up to the head varsity role after years of coaching the same group of boys provides continuity. Junior forward Dawson Townsend likes how the team has looked under his new coach in the early going.

“He’s a really funny guy, and he has a good relationship on and off the court with every single one of our players,” Townsend said. “He’s great. If I need something, whether it’s basketball or not — maybe I need help with homework or something — I know I can always count on Coach Grant to help me out.”

Speaking of Nokomis, one of the Warriors’ former head coaches is back in Class A North leading Brewer. Parker, who previously coached at Nokomis, Maine Central Institute and Bangor in addition to the AAU circuit, takes over a Witches team that went 21-1 and won a state championship a year ago.

“I’ve been around the block a little bit, and I wanted to do it one more time,” said Parker, who began coaching in the 1980s at Bangor and most recently coached the Rams from 2015-18. “My grandson (Brock Flagg) was on the state championship team last year, so I’m very familiar with the community here and the team.”

The Brewer team Parker has inherited looks vastly different from last year’s state title-winning squad with all five starters from that team gone. The Witches are 1-2 thus far with losses to Hampden Academy (back in Class A after two years in AA) and Camden Hills and a 59-58 victory over Bangor.

With Parker’s experience, it’s hard to call the new class of Class a North coaches entirely a collection of new blood. There’s a gulf, he said, between the coaches with double-digit years of experience (Nadeau, Lawrence’s Jason Pellerin, Hampden’s Russ Bartlett) and the recent newcomers.

“Barlett is kind of the elder statesman, but you’ve got Pellerin and then Nadeau that are double-digit years now,” Parker said. “Outside of that, you’ve got some younger guys. Cony (head coach Isaiah Brathwaite), he’s in his second year, and (Gardiner’s Aaron Toman and Mt. Blue’s Troy Norton), they’re still newer, too.”

Then, there’s Camden Hills, where a well-known alum has taken charge. Joel Gabriele, who played for the Windjammers from 2007-11 as the team won two Class B state championships and three Eastern Maine titles, is now at the helm after Jon Moro stepped down from the position after four seasons.

It’s a dream job for Gabriele, whose former coach, Jeff Hart, is now Camden Hills’ athletic director. He’s off to a good start as the Windjammers, who went 5-14 last year, are now 2-2 with wins over Cony and Brewer and an overtime loss to an Oceanside team that’s among the best in the state regardless of class.

“Looking back at those teams I played on, we won a lot of games, but we had a growth mindset of never resting on our laurels and getting back in the gym early every day,” Gabriele said. “I’ve told my guys, ‘If we grow every day and maintain that growth mindset, we’ll be where we want to be,’ and I’ve seen that from them so far.”

Gabriele sees a good future not only for Camden Hills but for all of Class A North boys basketball. The region, he said, looks to be as parity-driven as ever, something he believes will only continue with the influx of new coaches and the staples who’ve now been on the sidelines for a decade-plus.

“I think it just bodes well for the future,” Gabriele said. “You have some young blood and some young energy coaching some talented teams and other guys who have been there a while. To me, it means Class A North is going to be a division to watch for years to come, that’s for sure.”

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