The renowned hockey coach has won six state titles at Waterville and Gardiner.

After 13 years of teaching at Gardiner High School, and 12 as the hockey coach, Norm Gagne was faced with one of his most difficult decisions ever.

On a whim, he had applied for the head coaching job at Waterville High School, saying that he “hadn’t applied for anything in a while.”

He got the job.

He also turned it down, initially.

“After I got the job I had second thoughts,” Gagne said. “I told them no. But after that, Skip Hansen, who was the athletic director at the time, got all of the other coaches in the school to keep calling me every half hour, trying to tell me why I should take the job.”

In the end, it was a visit to see his father in a Lewiston hospital that changed his mind.

“He told me right there that I should go,” Gagne said. “He explained to me how much tradition there was there, and he though I’d be happy.”

Moving on again

Seventeen years after that exchange, the coach that helped form Gardiner hockey, Maine Class B hockey, and the careers of several collegiate prospects has again moved on.

After 17 years and three Class A state titles with the Waterville Purple Panthers, Gagne has decided to retire from teaching, effective at the end of the current school year.

“It was time,” Gagne said. “I’ve been at it for 30 years, and it was time.”

Motivated to move closer to his wife’s family, Gagne and his wife have purchased a house in Gorham, from which Gagne commutes every day to teach in Waterville.

“I wanted to continue coaching,” Gagne said. “The travel is just too much, though, between here and there, especially in the winter. It’s not an easy commute.”

At both Gardiner and Waterville, Gagne coached several future collegiate athletes, including Trapper Clark, Jeff Libby and Nate Hart, all of whom went to Maine, and Barry Clukey, who made it as far as the East Coast Hockey League.

“The hardest part in all of this was telling my players at Waterville,” Gagne said. “I have been very proud to wear the purple and white for 17 years.”

Next up…

Purple isn’t entirely out of Gagne’s wardrobe just yet.

A graduate of Edward Little and the first goaltender for the fledgling club team at the Auburn school, Gagne isn’t quite ready to hang up the whistle for good. Once rumors started flying that he was moving closer to Portland, Cheverus coach Jack Lowry contacted him and asked if he wanted to be a part of the Stags’ program.

“He called me up when he found out,” Gagne said. “He told me he was willing to step down and be an associate head coach if I was willing to come in to help Cheverus get to the next level.’ Honestly, he’s still the head coach really.”

It’s a step with which Gagne is all too familiar. After building Gardiner’s program from the ground up and winning three titles in Class B, he continued Waterville’s tradition and won three more. At Cheverus, which has been close in recent years, Gagne may be the missing piece.

“I’ve been at Waterville for 17 years and had success with them,” Gagne said. “I’m ready for a new challenge now, and this will be certainly be a challenge for me.”

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