Mt. Ararat girls basketball coach Julie Petrie and her players celebrate a basket by Kennedy Lampert during the Class A South final against Gray-New Gloucester on Friday. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Jeannine Paradis was one of just 10 women coaching girls varsity basketball teams in Maine when she became Maranacook High’s coach 15 years ago.

What she is seeing now in the sport is exciting.

Of the 10 girls basketball teams playing in state championship games this weekend, five are coached by women. That includes Biddeford, where Paradis has coached since 2021.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Paradis whose Tigers will play Caribou in the Class B championship Saturday afternoon at Portland’s Cross Insurance Arena. “To have five (women) in the state championships is amazing.”

Along with Paradis, there’s Brianne Maloney of South Portland, which will face Cheverus in the Class AA final Saturday night; Julie Petrie of Mt. Ararat, which will play Hampden on Friday night at the Augusta Civic Center in the Class A championship; Caribou coach Kayla Brown; and Laurie Rowe of Hall-Dale, which will play Penobscot Valley in the Class C final Saturday night at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.

In the 2019-20 season, only 28 women coached a varsity girls basketball program in Maine.

That number dropped to 27 at the conclusion of the season when Lynn Girouard resigned as Lewiston’s coach. But last season, 50 women coached a varsity girls basketball in the state, a dramatic rise.

This season, 34 of the 95 girls basketball teams (36%) that participated in the Maine high school basketball tournament had a female head coach.

Wells coach Sandi McPadden talks to her players before the start of the second quarter of the team’s Class B South playoff game against Biddeford on Feb. 15. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

In 2020, Augusta native Amy Vachon, the University of Maine women’s basketball coach, began a series of coaching workshops for women. The Pass it Forward clinics have been a success. Last fall, 101 women attended the clinic at Cony High.

“Amy has done a really nice job making it known that this is important,” Petrie said. “Basketball is still a male-dominated sport in the coaching world.”

Vachon has said repeatedly that it’s about women taking advantage of opportunities when they arise. Don’t hesitate. Apply for the jobs.

Petrie and other female coaches in Maine say it’s important that these opportunities exist. Petrie’s entire staff is composed of women, she said. Assistant coach Morgan Ruff joined Petrie’s staff as soon as she graduated from Mt. Ararat in 2022. Petrie sees Ruff as a role model for the current Eagles.

“We were just talking to the girls the other day, you don’t know the impact you have in your community until they come forth,” Petrie said.

Biddeford girls basketball coach Jeannine Paradis celebrates a 3-point basket during Friday’s B South final against Oceanside. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

At Biddeford, three of the four assistant coaches on Paradis’ staff are women. That includes Biddeford alumna Lexi Libby, who joins the Tigers when she’s home from college at Franklin Pierce University. When Libby or other former players are available, Paradis invites them to practice, where she lets them run drills and get a taste of what coaching entails.

“Lexi will make a fantastic coach someday if she wants to,” Paradis said.

As Vachon has repeatedly pointed out, the goal is not to push men out of coaching. Her father, Paul Vachon, coached the Cony girls basketball team to seven state titles in his 23 seasons as head coach, instilling a love of basketball into hundreds of players. Paradis counts the late Dick Meader, who coached men’s basketball at Thomas College and the University of Maine at Farmington for decades, as a mentor and influence. Paradis points out she got her coaching start as the junior varsity boys coach at Madison under varsity coach Tom Maines, before she moved on to coach the Mt. Blue girls varsity program.

It’s simply about providing opportunities, and helping women realize that coaching is an option. It shouldn’t be a surprise that as the number of women participating in the Pass it Forward clinics has grown, so has the number of female varsity head coaches in the state. Success will continue to come.

Petrie is thrilled to be one of the five women coaching a state championship game this weekend. Her advice for any woman looking to get into coaching is simple.

“Have a voice and stand up for what you believe in. Have confidence,” she said.

Paradis said that as a young coach, she heard of longtime boys basketball coaches from across the state like Lawrence’s Mike McGee and Tony Hamlin at Penquis getting together in the summer and just talking about the game. She’d like to see women start doing that.

“Let’s give female coaches the same opportunity to talk shop,” Paradis said. “I can call Julie Petrie and kick around ideas.”