Entering a program at its tipping point has become Walter Polky’s bread and butter. That’s why he says he’s more than ready to take on the challenge of being Lisbon’s new head football coach and repairing the Greyhounds’ culture and reputation after hazing allegations shuttered the program last fall.

“These are situations I want to be in. Sometimes they come out right and sometimes you get burned on them,” Polky said. “It happens, but this one right here (at Lisbon), if we turn this thing around, which I think we can do, it’d be an unbelievable redemption story for the community. It’s going to be something people are going to look back on.”

Polky graduated from Winthrop High School in 2001 and was a key member of the Ramblers’ 2000 Class C state championship team. After a year at Bridgton Academy, he played two seasons of football at Division II Southern Connecticut State.

He has coached at two colleges, Husson and Bates, and several high school programs in Maine. He was 29 years old when he took his first head coaching job at Spruce Mountain in 2012, the second season of the football program that was established when Jay and Livermore Falls high schools were consolidated.

Polky led the Phoenix to the 2013 Western Maine Class C final and a 24-17 record before resigning four games into the 2016 season. At the time, he declined to provide specifics when asked by the Sun Journal, only saying that it was a “mutual” decision between he and the school’s administration.

Polky was hired as Maranacook’s head coach the following season. The Black Bears only had 16 players when he was hired, but he led them to 7-4 and 6-4 records during his two seasons. Maranacook elected to move to eight-man football in 2019, the first year it was offered in Maine. Polky said he did not want to coach eight-man football, so he stepped down.

Instead, he became the head coach at Messalonskee and completed one season before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Polky contracted a delta variant of COVID after getting vaccinated and suffered five pulmonary embolisms. He stayed in the hospital for 10 days and was on blood thinners from September to March.

He departed Messalonskee midway through the 2022 season, again for unspecified reasons. Messalonskee athletic director Chad Foye at the time would only tell the Morning Sentinel that Polky’s departure was a “personnel decision.”

“The biggest mistake I made, I never should have came back (to Messalonskee),” Polky said. “I couldn’t put the energy I needed to put in there, and when I got sick, I should have just said no, but I tried to (coach). It didn’t work. I tried to help in the offseason stuff, but I just couldn’t do it. I should have told Chad Foye, ‘Hey, I can’t, right now,’ but my ego (got in the way).”

Polky spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach at Cony under head coach BL Lippert.

When asked this week about his abrupt departures from Spruce Mountain and Messalonskee, Polky said he didn’t have much to say.

“It’s politics, that’s what it is; nothing really to say about it,” Polky said. “It’s funny, all that stuff’s like that game telephone, I go from a coach to basically axe murderer. College and the pros, it’s the media, right? But in high school, in Maine, it’s the parents. Parents are the driving force.”

He said the Lisbon parents, coaches and community members have been “fantastic” so far.

Lisbon athletic director Chris Spaulding said he couldn’t comment on Polky’s departures from Spruce Mountain and Messalonskee because its a “personnel matter,” but he did say that Polky’s background was vetted during the hiring process.

“We had a hiring committee that consisted of administrators, coaches and parents that decided unanimously to hire him as our head coach,” Spaulding said.

GREYHOUNDS ON PROBATION

In March, Lisbon won an appeal to repeal a two-season suspension by the Maine Principals Association. But that came with a few stipulations. The MPA required an overhaul of the entire coaching staff, and the program is on probation for one year. That means the MPA will keep a close eye on Lisbon, with a zero-tolerance policy for repeat behavior.

Spaulding said Polky is expected to turn the culture at Lisbon around based on his experience, background and ability to “come in and earn the respect and the trust of the students and make some positive changes.”

Spaulding added that the entire coaching staff is required to undergo two anti-hazing courses annually through the NFHS website, and all students and athletes undergo similar training during the first week of school, turning their individual certificates of completion into administration.

“The reason that we did a schoolwide (anti-hazing training) is we wanted to educate anyone that might be a bystander, so that more people might recognize when something is inappropriate,” Spaulding said.

Polky was hired in June and spent the summer leading the Greyhounds. He said about 30 players showed up for 7-on-7 scrimmages at Leavitt Area High School, weightlifting sessions, and summer practices.

“Our kids, they have a different perspective of how things are and they’re on a mission to prove people wrong,” Polky said. “With this community, there’s healing that needs to be done because a lot of things happened.”

Polky said the thrill of defying expectations is one of the things that keeps him coming back to the sidelines.

“You go in these situations and you win, and you see the kids’ faces when they believe that they’re supposed to win,” Polky said. “I remember winning games with Maranacook, and kids didn’t think we were going to win, but we’d win, and we did things they weren’t used to and they’re just like, ‘Oh, my God,’ like, it’s unbelievable. It’s harder, it’s more film study, it’s a little more of everything, but I love it.”

Polky’s goals for this season and beyond are to continue Lisbon’s tradition of success.

“It’s very simple,” Polky said. “It’s just to win the state championship. That’s the goal of Lisbon football. You don’t get a job to coach Lisbon football to go 4-4 and maybe win a playoff game. You coach here to win state championships, compete for state championships, compete for conference championships.”