AUBURN – When Adam Macbeth, a sophomore at Bates College, broke a 37-year-old school record in the qualifying heat of the ECAC championships, Edward Little assistant boys’ coach Al Harvie had a particular interest in the results of that meet.

That record, in the 110-meter high hurdles, was Harvie’s, and was equaled but not surpassed in 1984 by Paul Williams.

“I suppose it’s time,” Harvie said. “It’s been standing for 37 years, and I guess it was due to get broken some time.”

It is particularly fitting that the record fell this year. Earlier this year, Harvie announced that he will officially step down as an assistant at Edward Little following this season, marking the first time since 1953-54 that he will not be either an athlete or coach affiliated with an organized team.

In all, Harvie has been either a head coach or an assistant coach for 78 different teams, starting in 1965. Twenty-four of those assignments have been as a head coach, most recently at Leavitt High School, where he was the head boys’ track and field coach for two seasons.

“It all kind of snowballed, really,” Harvie said. “When I first started coaching, it wasn’t something I envisioned doing for the rest of my life. My main focus was teaching. Over time, though, I came to realize that coaching and teaching, on many levels, were one and the same.”

Where it began

For all of the years Harvie has spent coaching and helping schools in Central Maine, his roots are actually a few exits south on the highway.

Through high school, Harvie was a student-athlete in South Portland.

“It’s really funny because even though it’s where I am from, all of my ties are here,” Harvie said.

Harvie’s first experience with a Central Maine school came in 1961-62, as a freshman at Bates College.

“Walt (Slovenski, a longtime track and field coach at Bates) recruited me pretty heavily,” Harvie said. “When a coach pursues you that much, you feel like you are wanted.”

Slovenski wanted Harvie for good reason: The South Portland standout was the reigning Maine and New England champion in the 120-meter high hurdles, and at the state meet that year he would have come in second by himself in the team competition when he scored 42.5 points by himself to propel the team to the state title.

“I don’t know that I would have done as well without others pushing me all the time,” Harvie said. “Runners like Paul Soule (currently in the Maine Sports Hall of Fame) drove me to be a better runner.”

Harvie handed Soule his only defeat in the low hurdles the same year the runner from Deering set the New England record in that event. Then, athletes from maine could only participate in one running event and one field event at the New England Meet. Harvie had qualified in four.

Moving on

After graduating from Bates in 1965, thanks to contact be had made through track and through his studies, Harvie landed a job at Kents Hill as both a teacher and as a ski coach.

“My old high school coach, Nate Johnson, was influential in getting me to Bates in the first place,” Harvie said. “The day before I graduated, he asked me if I was interested in a position at Kents Hill. I took that job for two years.”

At the end of that two-year stint, Harvie responded to an advertised girls’ skiing position at Edward Little, then the defending state champions.

“They had just come off of a state title and had a good tradition there skiing,” Harvie said. “I thought maybe I’d do that for a few years and that would be it.”

Five consecutive state titles later, Harvie stepped aside as the head girls’ ski coach and took the job as the head boys’ track and field coach, a sport close to his heart. Over the next nine seasons, the EL boys won several Andy Valley championships.

Back to Bates

Now entrenched in Central Maine, Harvie returned to his alma mater in 1979 as an assistant indoor track and field coach.

“At Bates, that is more of an advisory role,” Harvie said. “You are like a liaison between the athletes and the head coach.”

As the liaison between the athletes and his own former coach, Slovenski, Harvie coached the hurdlers and had several top athletes under his tutelage.

“Walt was so great to be around,” Harvie said of his former coach. “You could always count on him wanting to win. He was a very competitive person, and I like that about him. I liked working with him.”

Special moments

In 1985-86, Harvie returned to Edward Little as the head outdoor girls’ coach before taking a teaching position at Leavitt High School. For three years he was a coach in the Hornets’ tack program before resurfacing as a coach with EL again in 1992-93. He retired as a teacher from Leavitt in 2001.

“He came to me that year and applied for the job as my assistant,” current EL boys’ coach Dan Campbell said. “I remember at that point looking purely at his resume because I didn’t know Al as a friend then and thinking how could I go wrong.”

Since then, Harvie said, he has had his fondest memories as a coach.

“I have to say that I remember the class of 1998 the most,” Harvie said. “That was the year of the so-called ‘Fab Four,’ at EL.”

Those athletes, Andy Boyer, Tony Bradley, Mike Meyer and Brett Scott, helped EL to finish second to Cheverus at the state meet. Boyer and Bradley finished first and second respectively in the 110-meter high hurdles, a feat last accomplished by Harvie and teammate Peter Good in 1961 for South Portland.

“That whole group, they were in the top 20 students in their class,” Harvie said. “The best thing about them, though, is that they were not only fun but they liked to win and they knew how to win. They were a bit cocky, I think, but not to the point of arrogance.”

Several Edward Little sprinters also learned under Harvie, and many of them set state and school records. Among those athletes that Harvie lists are John Mastriano, Calvin Hunter, Robert Liguori and Matt Capone.

Another memory Harvie said is one of his fondest happened just last year, when EL won the state title at Thornton Academy.

“I don;t coach the distance runners, but there is still pride in watching them win for the team,” Harvie said. “Last year, when I saw Chris Pelliccia rounding the turn of the 800-meters as far ahead as he was, it was incredible. First, above everything, I am a track fan and I am a fan of hard work, and Chris that day showed a lot of guts.”

Ultimate assistant

In 12 full seasons as an assistant under Campbell, Harvie has seen some of the best teams in school history. In the last six years, EL has garnered two boys’ state titles and has been in the top three all six years. Campbell attributes much of his success as a head coach to Harvie.

“You’re only as successful a coach as the people around you are solid,” Campbell said. “I feel like I’ve almost piggy-backed off of Al for these years.”

Their relationship has resulted in a team chemistry unlike any other in recent memory.

“We think a lot alike,” Campbell said. “Because of that, it builds a team chemistry that has helped to shape the team into what we have now. If you look at his years of service and the wisdom that he brings to the table, this program is losing a lot just based on those two factors.”

Harvie, meanwhile, acknowledges that he, too, has benefited from being an assistant under Campbell.

“I’ve learned so much from him as far as taking care of the body and motivation,” Harvie said. “He’s a great person and is great for the program.”

What’s next?

Currently, Harvie is a track official at Bowdoin College and is the announcer for their home track meets. He also has been invited to announce at the 2007 NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships being held at Boston University, to which he replied, “I’ll do it if I am still alive.”

Still, though, no one in the Edward Little community thinks that they have seen the last of Harvie. He continues to substitute teach in the school system and Campbell and others in the track program feel that Harvie may make a few stops into practice next spring, just to check things out.

“His dedication to the kids is surpassed only by his love for the sport,” Campbell said. “For that reason, I don’t think he’ll ever stop coming by and helping out, even without getting paid. He has gone, and probably will continue to go above and beyond the call of duty of an assistant coach.”

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