Give a high school baseball coach two reliable arms, one kid with a knack for drawing walks and another possessing a penchant for ripping the ball 375 feet to his left and he’s bound to win. And many schoolboy and schoolgirl basketball coaches have hidden behind a cadre of talent.

You can’t hide on a football sideline, however. It is perhaps the most physically and mentally draining game of ’em all, and all five local football programs still playing as we enter the state semifinals this weekend deserve a tip of our officially licensed NFL cap for the accomplishment.

Three of those contending schools share a distinct common bond: perennial success with an unchanging coaching staff. They are as dependable and inseparable from late autumn as mom’s apple pie and windblown campaign signs.

Lisbon, Mount Blue and Mountain Valley simply win. They win when we expect them to and when we don’t. They win when their rosters are saturated with seniors and when they flaunt more nervous sophomores than the average Homecoming dance. They win with offense, they win with defense, or if all else fails, they win with special teams.

Why they win consistently when others succeed sporadically, or never, may be attributed to the continuity of the gentlemen outfitted in headsets, holding laminated sheets of paper and wearing shorts when the temperature dips to 30 degrees.

Dick Mynahan of Lisbon, Jim Aylward of Mountain Valley and Gary Parlin of Mt. Blue have been at the helm for a combined 44 years. Before that, Aylward coached at Mexico High, while Mynahan and Parlin won championships at their schools as assistants under Joe Woodhead and Ray Caldwell.

We’re all carrying a few extra gray hairs and more pounds than we were when I first covered their teams back in the early 1990s. When you look at their programs in the mirror, however, they’ve only improved with age.

Chalk that up to consistency. In Lisbon, Mynahan has never made a playoff appearance without right-hand man John Murphy. Stacen Doucette has been in the picture for almost a decade, joining the staff shortly after his playing career ended. When Jeff Ramich stepped away to concentrate on his duties as Lisbon’s co-curricular coordinator about five years ago, another former Greyhound and longtime Mynahan football disciple, Randy Ridley, stepped in.

Lisbon’s overachieving has become a rite of fall in these parts. With only a handful of players on the roster old enough to own a driver’s license, Mynahan and his crew have steered this year’s team to an unbeaten regular season and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Mynahan has instilled a coaching culture that breeds success.

“Jay played Traip (one) Friday night. Nobody else scouted that game,” said Ramich. “Dick knew Traip was next on the schedule. Traip hasn’t won a game in how long? But you have to respect your opponent.”

Mountain Valley is Class B’s answer to Lisbon. Often small, never fancy and frequently injury-riddled during their run of 13 playoff appearances in 15 seasons, the Falcons prosper with technique and football smarts. Translation: coaching. Aylward is the only head coach the Falcons have ever known, and Rick White, Steve LaPointe and Ryan Casey have been actively involved in the program through most of that time.

“Jim and I have worked together for 14 years and get along really well,” said White. “We are able to say what is on our mind and fully understand what is being said and what is expected. We (may not have) a lot of individual talent, but together we make a good team. It works the same as a staff.”

Aylward has no match as a motivator in the region, and he is masterful at putting kids in a position to succeed. If a 140-pound freshman wants to be a halfback but couldn’t pick up a newspaper without fumbling it, Aylward will turn him toward the weight room and tell him he’s about to become an offensive lineman.

At Mt. Blue, Parlin looked around after a rare losing season and saw too many 140-pound linemen in the Cougars’ camp. Then he read books and watched videos endorsed by Mouse Davis, architect of the run-and-shoot, and saw a way to win with those personnel.

The Cougars haven’t missed the post-season many times since. Dustin Ireland won the Fitzpatrick Trophy as Maine’s outstanding senior football player in 1996, and Mt. Blue has enjoyed an amazing run of signal-callers under Parlin’s watch.

Parlin is also surrounded by a familiar, dedicated group of assistants, led by Roger Bolduc, Craig Collins and Peter Franchetti. His system of anointing one quarterback from each grade with the senior penciled in as the varsity starter has helped the Cougars overcome a rash of injuries at the position the last four years.

Tireless off-season weight training has brought the letters “XXL” back into vogue in the Cougars’ laundry basket, and Parlin has been flexible enough to tinker with his offense. Now you’ll find a fullback and tight end in the mix when the coach has a legitimate every-down back (Lance Meader this season, for instance) whose talents might be lost in a traditional run-and-shoot attack.

When kids graduate from the football programs at Lisbon, Mountain Valley and Mt. Blue, there is no question that they leave better football players than they arrived.

And you can safely bet that they played a few games in November.

Kalle Oakes is sports editor and can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].