POLAND – While Dave Jordan and Chris Willer were preparing a number of their athletes for college as coaches at Poland Regional High School, it turns out that they were also preparing themselves to move onward and upward.

Both Jordan, the varsity baseball coach for the last four years, and Willer, the boys’ varsity basketball coach for the last three years, resigned last week to take assistant coaching positions at nearby colleges.

Jordan has agreed to join new Bates College baseball coach Edwin Thompson, while Willer has just been hired to become part of Rob Sanicola’s men’s basketball staff at St. Joseph’s College. Both said they had difficulty deciding to leave the first varsity coaching jobs they’ve ever had but though a chance to coach at the next level was an important challenge to accept.

“I’m excited,” said Jordan, who coached the Poland/Mechanic Falls junior American Legion team this summer. “Edwin called me up and asked me to be on his staff and I had to do it. Originally, when I was coaching middle school and working my way up through, all I wanted was to be a varsity coach someday. I got to that level and the people of Poland were great, and the kids were great, but once you get to that level you think, well, what would college be like? Edwin gave me an opportunity to check that out.”

Under Jordan, the Knights went 54-17. They won the first Western Maine Conference title in school history in 2007 and reached the Western Class B playoffs in Jordan’s first three years before narrowly missing out last spring. They went as far as the regional finals in two of those three years.

“We had very clear goals and a mission as a coaching staff when we started, and we kept a very good core of coaches there,” he said. “The parents were exceptional. The community was awesome with fundraising and helped us compete with some schools that might have had an easier time getting equipment and so on. And the players were really accepting and did everything we asked them to do.”

Willer, who coached the Knights through their summer program, said it was the best offseason he’s had as a coach. He was looking forward to helping the team bounce back next season after not making the playoffs for the first time during his tenure, but the opportunity to fulfill a dream was too good to let slip by.

“It’s always been a goal of mine to coach at the college level, and having been given this opportunity, it’s kind of hard to pass up,” Willer said. “I’m definitely going to miss Poland. There are a lot of great people over there. Especially my coaching staff. That was probably one of the most difficult things, telling them I was going to move on because we are a very close-knit group of guys, and we all came into the program at the same time.”

Willer coached freshmen and JV at Poland before getting his first varsity head coaching job there in 2005. The Knights had their best success in his first year, finishing 10-10 and reaching the 2006 Western Class B quarterfinals. They made it as far as the preliminary round the following year with a record of 7-12, then finished last season at 3-15.

“It was a learning experience every single day, in practice, whether it be in-season or out of season, you were always learning, always gaining new knowledge,” Willer said. “I think it made me a better person as well as coach because you have to deal with a lot of things.”

Poland co-curricular director Don King said both Jordan and Willer left their mark on the school’s still growing sports programs.

“It’s a tremendous loss for us. They’re both extremely passionate coaches who have worked very hard,” he said. “We’re still a relatively young school – this is our 10th year – and the real challenge for us has been to get our level of expectations up to the more established schools and programs. One of the things we’ve stressed to get that done is get kids involved in our summer programs, and Dave and Chris certainly have had lots of conversations with their kids about doing the extra work to get yourself ready for the season. This year, we’ve had as many kids participating in all of our summer athletic activities as we’ve had in the time I’ve been here.”

King said both positions have been advertised and hopefully can be filled by the fall.