FREEPORT – Nice guys do finish first, after all.

The Maine Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association bestowed Craig Sickels with its highest honor at its annual spring conference last week, naming him the Bob Lahey Maine Athletic Administrator of the Year.

Best known for his 291 wins and combined 10 state, regional and conference championships as boys’ basketball coach at Buckfield and Freeport, Sickels also has served continuously as an athletic director for that quarter-century.

Sickels, a Mt. Blue High School graduate who lives in New Gloucester, has spent the last 15 years at Freeport.

“It was a nice surprise. I’d been nominated the last eight or nine years. I was beginning to feel like the Susan Lucci of the MIAAA,” Sickels said with a laugh, referring to the actress who was denied a Daytime Emmy Award for much of her career.

In addition to overseeing Freeport sports at the high school and middle school, Sickels is assistant principal at the junior high and served as interim high school principal for the first six weeks of the 2008-09 school year.

Sickels’ increasing job demands and the expansion of Freeport’s school district to permanently include Pownal and Durham persuaded him to retire from coaching in February.

“We’ve grown substantially from 38 total teams at the high school and middle school when I started to now over 60,” said Sickels. “We’re about to add another 150 kids, which should put us around 600. I’m kind of looking forward to that.”

It’s a far cry from his early days in education.

A multi-sport athlete at Mt. Blue, graduating in 1978, Sickels served as an assistant coach at Mt. Blue and Jay after receiving his bachelor’s degree from Springfield (Mass.) College and his master’s from Biscayne College in Miami.

Buckfield hired him as AD and boys’ basketball coach in 1984.

“After coming from Mt. Blue and even Jay, going to that gym at the old Buckfield High, it looked so small,” Sickels said. “I honestly thought I’d stay for a year and move on to something bigger. Well, I quickly found out that bigger isn’t always better.

“I really enjoyed my time at Buckfield. I never had any intentions of leaving until this (Freeport) opportunity came up.”

Both Sickels’ parents, Pete and Jean, taught and coached high school sports. Pete died in June, less than a year after his induction into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame.

The common bond between Freeport and Buckfield is a tight-knit community.

With the help of his co-workers, Sickels’ wife kept his award a secret for more than a week, right up until he heard his name and walked to the podium at Samoset Resort.

“I looked out and there they all were, jumping up and down and holding signs,” Sickels said. “It was pretty special.”