BRUNSWICK — Dick Leavitt jokingly says it has all been part of his nine-year plan.

His Brunswick football team has created quite the buzz this fall. The Dragons have won nine games for the first time in their history and are poised to challenge Bangor for the regional title in an Eastern Class A showdown Friday night.

This kind of success has been a long time coming for the Dragons and Leavitt.

“It’s really been fun watching this team start to believe in themselves,” said Leavitt. ” In years past, we’d get up 14-0 and people would wait for the other shoe to drop. Now we can get down 14-0 and still feel like we don’t have to panic. It’s really been a fun ride to watch these kids come together.”

There’s been an excitement building around the Brunswick team all season, and that fervor only increased with last week’s playoff win over Gardiner.

There was an estimated 5,000 people at last week’s win over Gardiner. Players are finding new fans in the school hallways while Leavitt has been hearing from former players and old friends that have been caught up in the Dragons sudden emergence. The entire community has been caught in the Dragons’ grip.

“It’s been a pretty exciting time,” said Leavitt. “It’s been great.”

It hasn’t always been this way though. Leavitt has faced many lean years. Between the 0-8 seasons and some serious health issues in recent years, it may have been tempting for him to give it all up, but he hasn’t.

“It’s certainly something you have to look at at the end of each season,” said Leavitt. “Am I still in a position where I can do something positive for the kids? If I didn’t feel I could make a difference, I would have gotten done years ago. You have to take a long hard look at yourself. I’ve always been able to look at myself in the mirror.”

Though the success hasn’t been there on the scoreboard, Leavitt has felt he has had an impact on the Dragons’ program., but it hasn’t been easy.

When Leavitt took over, the program was barely breathing. He not only helped save it, but has revived it and helped take it to new heights. He’s helped build interest and enthusiasm in the program. The developmental levels have grown. The Dragons have been a team to reckon with the last few seasons. Beyond that though, he’s been a teacher and mentor to many of the players that have come through the program. That, to him, is one of the most important things.

“I like to think I coach for all the right reasons,” said Leavitt. “I like working with kids, and I’ve tried to make a difference in their lives. I think I’ve done that even on the 0-8 teams.”

Even though the wins have been slow in coming, Leavitt firmly believed that the record was not the only way to measure the success of his program.

“If you took a look at my won-loss record, people might say ‘What’s he doing here?,'” said Leavitt, who says he has gotten great support from the administration at Brunswick. “When you don’t have success on the scoreboard, a lot of that (other success) doesn’t get recognized. When we were 0-8, 2-7, 0-8 that was a little bit distasteful. There were grumbling parents that didn’t understand what was going on, but nobody likes to watch their kids lose like that and coaches don’t like to see that either. I think I can go to my grave and look at myself and say we’ve always done it the right way.”

The last few seasons, significant progress has been made. The Dragons were a solid club last year and narrowly missed the postseason with a 3-5 record. The numbers have been up. The depth has been there and the talent has increased. Leavitt lauds his players for their hard work, dedication and commitment to reaching a new level. Coming into this season, the Dragons had reason to believe they could finally play with the big boys.

The Dragons had 12 starters back, including senior fullback Phil Warren, who rushed for 700 yards last year, and senior Devin Shepard, a Pine Tree Conference All-Star halfback/linebacker. The addition of Ralph Mims at quarterback only brought more athleticism and talent to the picture.

“We thought we had the potential to be pretty good,” said Leavitt. “We wanted to host a home playoff game, and we wanted to be playing in November.”

The Dragons have done both and now hope to enjoy this ride for another week or two.

“The kids don’t seem intimidated at all,” said Leavitt. “We know we’re going up against a real quality program. They’re one of the elite programs in the state. We feel we have a real good challenge, but we’re not going up there just to be competitive or complacent.”