LEWISTON – Tom LeBlond is a coach.

It’s his profession, his hobby, his purpose. There is hardly a sports season that goes by that doesn’t involve him.

“For me, it’s what I do,” said LeBlond. “It’s my passion. What motivates me is coaching kids year round. I pride myself in doing that.”

LeBlond was a longtime hockey coach at Lewiston and more recently coached the sport at Bates College. He’s been involved in all other sports as well and is now adding tennis to his resume.

LeBlond is the new boys’ tennis coach at Lewiston, where he’s also a history teacher.

LeBlond was confirmed along with a number of other coaches Monday night. Molly Leopin and Ashley Woodcock were named the new softball coaches, while T.J. Niles was named the new outdoor boys’ track coach.

In addition to coaching hockey, LeBlond has coached football, golf, soccer, lacrosse and baseball. Tennis makes his seventh sport he’s coached. He’s been a tennis instructor at Camp All-Star at Kents Hill School. He’s also taught his children the game.

“I’m a lifelong tennis player,” said LeBlond. “I’ve coached all my life. That’s what I do for a living. I work with kids. All my professional life, I’ve been a coach and a teacher.  I’ve always been active in each season.”

LeBlond has been a lacrosse official for 10 years but this spring presented a new opportunity. Ron Chicoine stepped down after last year’s state championship. It was an opportunity that interested LeBlond’s coaching instincts.

“When Ron decided he wasn’t going to coach, I was thinking it was something I could do,” said LeBlond. “It was close to home. You know the schedule every day.”

He expected some younger coaches that had been associated with the program to step forward and express interest, but they didn’t. That opened the door for LeBlond.

“I didn’t want to interfere with them and would have stepped aside if that was the case,” he said.

There’s a great tradition of winning for Lewiston tennis. The boys’ team won state titles eight times in the last nine years. The Blue Devils only lost two matches during Chicoine’s tenure, one was a regular-season match and the other came in the state final.

That kind of tradition and success is nothing new to LeBlond. He won four state titles while coaching Lewiston hockey.

“When I first went to Lewiston and started coaching hockey, I certainly knew in advance what Lewiston hockey was,” he said. “It’s the same with tennis.”

With a strong program established, LeBlond hopes to be able to continue building upon the accomplishments of previous teams. He’s got a promising group to work with this spring.

“We’ve got a lot of kids that weren’t playing in matches last year that could have been playing on other teams in the state,” said LeBlond. “So I know in advance there’s a good group to work with. There’s some skill and ability there. I’ll try to help them compete harder and help them improve their game. I think I can do that.”

Leopin and Woodcock have been assistant coaches at Saint Joseph’s College for much of the last decade. Woodcock was a standout at Jay before playing for the Monks. Leopin was an all-star at Morse before playing at UMF. After coaching at the college level for so long, both had been considering other opportunities when the Lewiston job became available.

“It was time,” said Woodcock. “It’s tough to leave something that’s so good but to have our own team, we decided to try to co-coach together. We learned so much together at St. Joe’s, and we have philosophies that are very similar.”

Woodcock brings expertise in the outfield and bunting while Leopin will work with hitters and the infield. Former teammate and pitcher, Christy Wezowicz, will assist and help groom the pitchers.

“Between the two of us, we thought we could take a team, especially one like Lewiston which has struggled in the past,” said Woodcock. ” It’ll be a good challenge for us to turn things around.”

The hardest part may just be adjusting to the high school level and the unpredictability of younger softball players. At a recent meeting, the JV players were reminded to bring their gloves and sneakers.

“I never imagined that I’d have to remind the kids to bring their glove to softball practice,” said Woodcock. “It’s going to be different. So we have to move backwards a little bit.”

Though they might have been able to find coaching opportunities in Southern Maine, coaching in Lewiston brings them a little closer to their roots.

“Growing up in Jay, I wanted something a little more that way and go to a familiar place,” said Woodcock. “Being in that area is almost like home, too.”

Niles became the cross country coach at Lewiston last fall. He led the boys to a third in the KVAC’s, fourth in Eastern Maine and eighth in the state in Class A. The girls were sixth in Eastern Maine and 12th in the state.

Niles takes over a boys’ program that finished second in the KVAC’s last spring and was 10th in the Class A state meet.

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