LEWISTON – A Maine high school hockey coaching legend is coming home.
Norm Gagne, who for 30 years has been one of the preeminent coaches in Maine high school hockey and has amassed more than 500 wins, has reached a deal to become the new head coach at Lewiston High School, pending school board approval Monday night.
“I guess I’m coming to Lewiston,” Gagne. “I’m excited to go to a school with a tradition like Lewiston’s after having been at Waterville for so long.”
Because of that process, Lewiston Athletic Director Paul Amnott would not comment on Gagne’s hiring.
As a player, Gagne was on some of the first teams ever to play at Edward Little High School. He was recruited from the school’s basketball team to become the hockey team’s goaltender, and the sport stuck from there.
After spending some time playing amateur hockey locally and in Presque Isle, he spent 13 years as a teacher and 12 as head hockey coach at Gardiner High School. He won three Class B titles with the Tigers in the team’s first 12 years of existence, before taking an offer from Waterville High School “on a whim.”
“After I got the job (at Waterville), I had second thoughts,” said Gagne in an interview last year.
Gagne said he consulted with his father, a Lewiston native, who told him without question he should take the job.
Seventeen years and three Class A state titles later, Gagne resigned from Waterville for personal reasons, citing in part a long commute from his new home in Gorham.
After a deal to help out at Cheverus fell through late last off-season, Gagne took the head coaching job at Class B Gorham High School at the last minute. After four straight wins to begin the season, the Rams slipped to a 5-10-1 record.
Gagne is well aware of the reaction his arrival in Lewiston may cause, having been a rival across the ice for so many years.
“I’m sure people will look at it a bit funny,” said Gagne. “It was a big rivalry for so long, and still is a little bit, and I’m sure it’ll just get bigger now.”
Gagne’s overall record of 516-204-16 ranks among the top coaches in the nation in all-time wins, and that alone will endear him to a school and a community used to winning. Lewiston has won 20 state titles, second only to St. Dom’s 24.
Gagne will take over for Tim Smith, who in five years led the Blue Devils to one Class A title, two title games and four Eastern regional final games. Smith announced his retirement after the Blue Devils fell in the state final game to Cheverus, citing a desire to spend more time with his young family.
Across the river at Edward Little, the Red Eddies’ coaching vacancy remains open. Gagne had applied for that vacancy as well.
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