Mt. Abram boys soccer coach Darren Allen celebrates following the Roadrunners’ 1-0 state championship victory over George Stevens Academy in Topsham on Nov. 11. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

When Mt. Abram defeated George Stevens in the Class C state championship game at Mt. Ararat, it was the payoff for years of hard work by head coach Darren Allen.

It also ended up being his final time leading the school’s boys soccer team.

“If you would have told me that when I walked out that field, that would be my last game I coached for Mt. Abram, I would’ve said, ‘You’re crazy,’” Allen said. “It would take something special, something really difficult for me to be done.”

Allen announced earlier this month that he is leaving Mt. Abram after 17 years of coaching boys soccer and nine years of teaching because the Maine School Administrative District 58 (MSAD 58) budget did not increase coaching salaries to level closer to the school’s in the Mountain Valley Conference, in which the Roadrunners compete.

Allen said he’s been working with the Mt. Abram Teachers Association, the teachers union, over the past year on contact negotiations before the new school budget was passed in June.

“We presented to the union, that (MSAD 58 coaches) were $600 lower than the next school, which would be Telstar,” Allen said, referring to the Mountain Valley Conference. “It was extremely disappointing that the new contract was presented to us in mid-June and coaches felt like they weren’t recognized for their efforts. (There was) no stipend increase at all for any MSAD 58 coaches.”

MSAD 58 Superintendent Laura Columbia said she could not confirm that Mt. Abram coaches are the lowest paid in the conference, but she did say, “We are below average for our area,” based on local comparisons.

“I’m not asking to be the highest paid coach in the state of Maine, that’s not what I’m asking at all,” Allen said. “I’m asking to be appreciated and recognized by the people in charge. … I’m not even making over $50,000, and this is my ninth year of teaching.”

In a June 20 letter from Columbia presented at the MSAD 58 school board meeting titled “Response to Board Questions,” Columbia touched on the requested increase in stipends for coaches.

“We have had many groups that were underpaid,” Columbia wrote. “This budget includes wage increases for those groups who were most underpaid — administrators, nurses, library techs and administrative assistants. We will be continuing to work on increasing the wages for other groups that are paid below the average compared to area districts.”

Allen said his decision to leave the Roadrunners came down to the contract, which was only a $56 raise from last year to this year, increasing his coaching stipend to $3,356 for the varsity soccer season. For comparison, Allen said he was offered $600 more to coach a middle school soccer team in a different district.

“I’ve been there for 17 years,” Allen said. “I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I just won the National Coach of the Year Award. I would have been perfectly happy with a $200 to $300 increase in my coaching stipend, (but) that didn’t happen.”

Columbia said individual contract negotiations are a private matter, but as a whole, her objective as the superintendent of MSAD 58 is to “get all of our items around an average,” that’s comparable to other districts. She said that will take more than one budget cycle.

“I would say the goal and the feel of our community is to get all of our people’s pay and stipend up to an average, and to be around it,” Columbia said. “We can’t be the highest, we just don’t have that tax payment. But we do want to get it so it’s more comparable to other districts in our area.”

Columbia also said there are step increases for teachers in the district. Currently, teachers are scheduled to get a 1.5% increase each year.

Another factor Allen considered when leaving Mt. Abram was the vacant athletic director position, which opened when Kristina Stevens stepped down at the end of the school year.

The Mt. Abram athletic director is a part-time job paid with a stipend, rather than a salary, because the position used to also include assistant principal duties.

Columbia said the assistant principal position was cut within the past five years, making the athletic director a stipend position that a teacher could apply for. She also said that the athletic director as a stipend position is a part of “Schedule B,” which is a part of negotiations that the Teachers Association can request the superintendent open at any time for discussion.

Allen said the lack of pay coupled with the long process usually required to hire a new AD was more than he had the capacity for.

“Given where we are, we don’t have a lot of community resources,” Allen said. “We have to work for what we have.

“I understand the financial restrictions of our district. However, I feel like people will bend over backwards — not only myself, there are many others that do — (who) just weren’t recognized and compensated for their time.”

Allen also said the stipend of Kawika Thompson, the school’s strength and conditioning coach, was decreased by $1,000. Also, the summer weightlifting sessions were canceled.

Columbia said the stipend was not lessened, but rather reorganized to allow include middle schoolers — the program was changed from 8 percent high school base salary to five percent high school and three percent middle school, still given to the same person.

Allen and his wife run a 7-on-7 soccer tournament each summer that last year raised $15,000, which he said goes to the school’s soccer program to purchase equipment. Sports programs are valuable at Mt. Abram, and Allen said many of the school’s 200 students participate. Out of the past five valedictorians, four were multi-sport athletes, he said.

“The staff (at the high school), I love,” Allen said. ‘The coaches, I get along with awesomely, they’re great throughout the high school and the district. It just felt really, my time was wasted talking to the union and they didn’t recognize how much time and effort go into it.”

Allen is still planning to run the 7-on-7 tournament later this month.

In the upcoming school year, Allen will be teaching special education at Spruce Mountain High School, in Regional School Unit 73, but he will not be coaching soccer. He said that making that decision was emotional for him.

“I didn’t want to go,” Allen said through tears. “Very difficult decision, because, really, I am in this community. I’m really close with the kids. The relationships I have with my students and my players are very special.”

Allen said that he has not a fall free from coaching soccer since 2000. He’ll have plenty to keep him busy, though. His two younger sons will be playing collegiate soccer together at Southern Maine Community College, and he is about to be a grandfather.

“I definitely want to be back on the sidelines coaching at some point, I just need to take a year off,” Allen said. “It takes great amounts of emotional and physical energy to grow and maintain a successful program at any level.”