The state’s winningest high school soccer coach is retiring.
Ellsworth High School boys coach Brian Higgins submitted his retirement papers to the Ellsworth school board on Tuesday evening.
Higgins said he has contemplated retirement for two years and he quipped that the reason for his decision was “old age.”
“It’s time for a young person to take over — someone with more energy,” said the 71-year-old Higgins, who has spent the past 42 seasons along the Ellsworth sidelines.
“It has become a little more of a grind. I also coached two nights a week during the summer. I had big-time shoulder surgery eight weeks ago and that also played into it a little bit,” the Hampden native added.
Higgins never played soccer but was offered the Ellsworth job in 1974 after being hired as a physical education teacher.
He had told the superintendent that he had taken a soccer course at Springfield College from Hall of Fame soccer coach Irv Schmid.
Despite his lack of experience in the sport, Higgins proved to be a quick study.
His remarkable career reached a milestone on Sept. 28, 2011, when he notched his 500th career win, 7-0 over Hermon. At that time, he had posted a record of 500-95-42.
His teams since have won a pair of Eastern Maine Class B championships, in 2014 and ’15. Those were Higgins’ 18th and 19th regional championships. He also has won four state titles.
He said every class he has coached — freshman, sophomore, junior or senior — has played in at least one regional championship game.
“That’s pretty important to me,” he said.
His teams never had a losing season.
“I’m pretty proud of that. I’ve had kids come through who have carried on the tradition,” said Higgins, who will continue teaching physical education and coaching boys and girls tennis but will step down as boys freshman basketball coach.
He has coached his soccer and tennis teams to 31 regional championships.
Former University of Maine baseball standout Danny Kane, a successful baseball coach at Blue Hill’s George Stevens Academy, had never kicked a soccer ball when he came to Ellsworth High School as a freshman in 1980.
But he saw significant playing time as a sophomore and became a stellar fullback who started his junior and senior years.
“Brian taught me a lot,” said Kane, who also has coached the boys soccer team at GSA. “He gave me the opportunity to travel with the varsity team as a freshman and he gave me a chance to develop. I didn’t even know most of the rules my freshman year.
“Brian challenges players. He has a way about him that enables him to get the best out of his players,” said Kane. “He has always been successful. He is amazing. He has never had a down year.”
Higgins was a master of restarts. His teams worked hard on corner kicks, free kicks and long throw-ins and scored tons of goals off them over his 42-year-career.
He has seemingly always had players he developed into long flip throwers, who can throw the ball into the opponents’ penalty box from near midfield.
“I couldn’t teach the kids skills since I never played. So we had to work on other things,” Higgins explained. “[Restarts] are pretty easy to work on when you have a low-skill coach.”
Higgins said last fall’s statistician, Hannah Crane, charted that Ellsworth averaged 25-30 throw-ins into the opponents’ penalty area per game along with five to 10 corner kicks.
Three of the biggest influences on Higgins’ career were University of Maine women’s soccer coach Scott Atherley, who also used to coach the men’s team at Maine; former Maine men’s head coach and current women’s assistant Jim Dyer; and UConn men’s soccer coach Joe Morrone.
“I used to love going to watch Scott’s teams train,” said Higgins, who also picked up a valuable coaching tidbit when he attended a Morrone clinic.
“Morrone said he taught his players to take the ball to the endline and cross it because you can’t have an offsides [since the potential pass recipient is behind the ball]. You can also earn a throw-in or corner kick from it,” Higgins said.
He has taken his Ellsworth teams on soccer trips to Europe and Mexico every other year and exposed them to some of the best teams and soccer venues in the world.
He also has produced a lot of quality college soccer players including his own son Darby, who has served as his assistant for several years after playing for his father for four years.
Higgins has always had a good sense of humor.
When he received an award for his 500th win, he said, “I’d like to thank all three of my wives for their support.
“That’s true,” he insisted. “Wives have to follow you around to games and make late suppers.”
He said he will enjoy attending soccer games this season and having free time in which to do a variety of activities such as going on bike rides with wife Tracey.
He said he will miss the friendships with the players.
“I always considered my players my friends even though I was rather tough on them at times,” he said.