For a while, Sam Smith lost the joy that made him fall in love with basketball in the first place. Rediscovering it has led him back home.

Looking back on his time playing high school and college basketball, Smith laments that his serious nature about the game prevented him from truly enjoying it. In the coaching ranks, though, the two years he’s spent as coach of the Messalonskee boys basketball team included fun amid the competition.

“This group of kids really taught me that joy has to be part of the process,” Smith said. “This is a game at the end of the day, and being around a group that brings that love for the game and for each other. With the way this group had so much (fun) while competing, I learned so much for them.”

That makes it bittersweet for Smith to leave Messalonskee, but it’s also a lesson he takes with him to his dream job. The 29-year-old is set to be the next boys basketball coach at his alma mater, Lake Region High School in Naples, where he replaces Ryan Martin.

Lake Region athletic director Paul True told the Morning Sentinel that Smith will be the school’s next boys basketball coach, pending approval by the Maine School Administrative District 61 school board.

Smith, a 2014 graduate of Lake Region, played three years of college basketball at Thomas College after a single season at the University of Presque Isle. He then got into the coaching ranks, leading the Waterville boys from 2020-23 before coaching Messalonskee the past two seasons.

Smith’s run at Messalonskee marked the finest two-year stretch in program history. Messalonskee was the Class A North runner-up in 2023-24 with a 16-5 record before going 19-3 this winter. The Eagles won the North regional, then lost to Falmouth in overtime in the state final.

“I had great players and great coaches, and the administration at Messalonskee and athletic director Chad Foye all treated me very well,” Smith said. “It’s very hard to leave a situation like that, but going to Lake Region has really always been in the back of my mind, so I’m very excited as well.”

Between attending Thomas, teaching at Maranacook Community High School and Waterville Senior High school, and coaching basketball, Smith has spent a decade in central Maine. He plans to leave his current job at Waterville and return to the Naples area, where his family still resides.

Messalonskee’s next boys basketball head coach will be the fifth since 2019. Smith followed Pete McLaughlin, who served as interim coach in 2022-23, Isaiah Brathwaite (2022 offseason, left for Cony before coaching a game) and Jay Dangler (2019-22). Foye said the Eagles hope to have their next coach hired in time for summer basketball.

“Sam did a great job; he really worked well with our kids and our community, and I appreciate the time he put in,” Foye said. “It’s a tight window, but we’re going to do our best in a short time and hopefully attract some good, qualified individuals who want to coach.”

Smith, who met with Lake Region players Friday afternoon, thinks the success he built at Messalonskee is replicable at Lake Region. The Lakers are set to return quite a bit of talent from their 2024-25 team, including guards Jacoby Bardsley and Jacoby True and 6-foot-7 forward Cooper Smith.

“What I’ve done the last two years at Messalonskee, if I can do that at Lake Region, it would be everything to me,” Smith said. “With me being an alumni and being from there, I’m hoping that my passion seeps through and the kids get to experience something unspeakable.”