WINTHROP – Dennis Dacus knows he’ll be a marked man on the Winthrop sideline this year.

Dacus isn’t worried so much about fans or parents or others who like to keep a close eye on high school basketball coaches.

It’s the officials he’s worried about. Not because he’s particularly bellicose or eager to question a referee’s call. It’s because he used to be one of them.

“All of my officiating buddies that I see, I tell them I know you all want to be the first one to give ol’ Dennis a technical because it will be a little feather in your cap, but you don’t have to be,'” Dacus said.

Dacus officiated basketball for 14 years in Maine, including tournament games in Bangor and Augusta, before taking the Winthrop varsity boys’ job this fall.

The University of Maine at Augusta graduate had a brief two-year stint at Kennebec Valley Technical College in the late 90s and had toyed with the idea of coaching a varsity team for the last couple of years.

“I tried a couple of years ago. I applied for the Skowhegan and Hall-Dale boys jobs and I guess I was close,” said Dacus, 36, who is from Winslow. “Then Keith (Morang, a fellow official and former Winthrop AD) called me in September about the Winthrop job knowing I might be interested. I decided it might be a good move to coach and I had a real good opportunity at Winthrop.”

Just two years removed from the state championship game, the Winthrop boys’ program has been in a state of flux ever since. Coach Tom Hill resigned to coach at Messalonskee. Former Jay coach Steve Hamilton took over last year and resigned at the end of the season, sighting the commute between his home in Jay and Winthrop.

Dacus said he is hoping to bring some much-needed stability to the program and lead it back to its hardly long-lost prominence in the Mountain Valley Conference. He’s also excited about this season, even though some might view it as a rebuilding one.

“We’re very athletic, very fast,” he said. “We don’t shoot too well yet, but we’re working on that.”

He also has the Ramblers working on off-the-court projects to give back to the community. For example, he’s having his players help out at the Augusta YMCA every Saturday.

Dacus also hopes to set an example for his players on the court and keep his cool around his former colleagues with the whistles and the striped shirts.

“I’m going to know when they mess up, obviously, because I’ve been there,” he said, “but I’m going to stress with my kids, and myself, that you can’t make an official blow his whistle. Just play the game and whatever happens, happens.”

Besides having a little inside knowledge on the rules and calling a game, Dacus thinks officiating will help him deal with the issues of coaching head-on.

“Being an official has taught me that you just need to worry about what you can deal with,” he said. “As a coach, I can deal with the X’s and O’s and my kids attitude and mentality. You can’t worry about a parent or someone in the stands if they don’t like you calling this play or making this substitution. You just worry about what you can worry about.”

“I know I’ll give the job and the team the work ethic it needs,” he added. “No one is going to complain about work ethic.”