By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

Two former junior varsity coaches are ready to make the jump to the big time.

Sam Ferris and Barry Hackett decided the time was right to take over the girls’ varsity programs. Ferris has been named the new girls’ coach at Winthrop while Hackett assumes the helm at Poland.

“The girls’ basketball tradition there, I know people in the area and knew about it,” said Ferris. “That was even before the job opened up. I jumped at the chance to be part of it.”

Ferris coached the JV team at South Portland the last two years. He coached middle school in Bangor prior to that.

“I think my experience under Mike Giordano set me up to be prepared for that level,” said Ferris, who also coaches rugby at Bates College. “He really gave me a lot of responsibility and helped me through it.”

Ferris, a South Portland native and Maine grad, becomes just the fourth Rambler girls’ coach, replacing Lonney Steeves, who coached the program for three years after being the JV coach for 15 seasons under Ray Convery. Winthrop went 34-20 and reached the playoffs all three seasons under Steeves. The Ramblers failed to reach the Western C quarterfinals in February for the first time in over 20 years when Boothbay burst the Ramblers’ bubble in a preliminary game. Winthrop loses six seniors but has a promising and experienced group returning.

Ferris has only been with the girls once so far, but feels his coaching style fits the team and the Mountain Valley Conference.

“The style I like to play is hard-nosed and fast-paced defense,” said Ferris. “That’s the style I like, and I think the girls like that, too.”

The Red Riots program has had some of its greatest success the last few seasons, and Ferris hopes to bring that experience with him to this job.

“We had some great players and some great teams at South Portland,” said Ferris. “What I learned from those teams will set me up for a long time in coaching.”

Hackett coached the JV boys’ team at Poland for three years and took a year off before applying for the girls’ job.

“I was waiting,” said Hackett, an Oxford Hills grad. “I spent the year watching games. I did think coaching is what I wanted to be doing. It was kind of a year to regroup, reassess things and see where I wanted to go.”

Hackett first got into coaching by working with the rec programs that his sons were involved in. He was a volunteer with the Poland boys before taking the JV job.

He takes over a team that went 5-31 during two seasons under Maggie Thornton. After a frustrating, injury-plagued 1-17 year, she resigned.

Poland graduates just three seniors and has some promising young players, but finding consistency and steady progress has come slowly for the Knights.

“It’s a project,” said Hackett, who works at the Spring Meadow golf course and co-owns the Winning Edge facility in Auburn. “With the kids coming back, I think there’s a lot of potential. We’re fundamentally weak, but we’re working a lot on that right now.”

Hackett says he’s a “laid back, low key and matter-of-fact” kind of coach that won’t just scream instructions but explain why he wants things done a certain way. He’s encouraged by the turnout of summer basketball. He had 25 players sign up and between 17 and 20 show up regularly.

“For summer basketball that’s really good,” said Hackett. “They’re athletic. It’s just a matter of working hard on the fundamentals and going out and executing every night. As far as wins go, it will happen. Who knows if it will be next year or not, but we’ll be competitive.”