NEWPORT, Maine — It won’t be a homecoming for Ryan Martin as he takes the reins of the Nokomis Regional High School boys varsity basketball team — but almost.
Martin, the boys junior varsity basketball coach at Messalonskee of Oakland the last four years, recently was hired at Nokomis to replace Carl Parker, who resigned after six seasons.
“The Nokomis job for me was really attractive because that’s in the area where I grew up,” said Martin, a Ripley native. “I was only two miles from the Ripley-Saint Albans town line growing up so I was just a couple of miles away from being a Nokomis kid myself.
“And a lot of my family’s from Saint Albans so I still have a lot of deep connections to that area.”
Martin is a 2006 graduate of Dexter Regional High School who played soccer and baseball and was part of the Tigers’ 2005 Eastern Maine Class C championship boys basketball team under veteran coach Peter Murray.
“I had a really good experience under coach Murray,” said Martin.
He went on to the University of Maine-Farmington where he didn’t play basketball but spent his last two years there as a student assistant on the staff of longtime men’s basketball coach Dick Meader.
“That was an excellent opportunity to get into coaching and just be around one of the nicest guys in basketball,” said Martin.
After Martin graduated from UMF he landed a teaching position at Messalonskee where he also joined the school’s coaching staff at the subvarsity level in basketball, baseball and boys soccer.
This marks his first varsity coaching job.
“I’ve always had that goal and that aspiration,” said Martin, whose father Mike is the JV boys basketball coach at Dexter. “(Messalonskee varsity basketball coach) Pete McLaughlin understood when I took the JV job here that the intent was never to be the junior varsity coach at Messalonskee for my entire coaching career.”
Martin will inherit a Nokomis team that finished 4-14 in Eastern Maine Class B last winter but will graduate just two seniors.
The Warriors’ roster last winter included three juniors, four sophomores and three freshmen, two of whom were among the team’s leading scorers.
“I’ve been able to watch some game film and there’s a lot coming back, which is really exciting,” said Martin. “There’s a good nucleus of young players there that got a lot of varsity experience last year.”
Martin already has a Nokomis team signed up for the Hermon junior varsity summer league and hopes to enter a varsity squad in Bangor High School’s summer league.
“I think this year being my first year, the summer’s going to be critical in getting to know the kids and just instituting some of what we want to do,” said Martin.
With its April 1, 2014, enrollment of 661, Nokomis will be one of 14 schools competing next winter in the new Class A North, and one of seven that played in Eastern Maine Class B last winter.
Nokomis, Camden Hills of Rockport, Gardiner, Waterville, Oceanside of Rockland-Thomaston, Erskine Academy of South China and defending Eastern B champion Medomak Valley of Waldoboro will move up to join Messalonskee, Skowhegan, Mt. Blue of Farmington, Brewer, Cony of Augusta, reigning Class A state champion Hampden Academy and Lawrence of Fairfield in Class A North as part of the state’s new five-class format.
“I think there will be a little bit of an adjustment,” said Martin, “but with us the fortunate thing is there are kids coming back who have a lot of varsity experience, so that’s a good thing.
“But the schedule is what it is and ultimately you’re going to have to play whatever teams are on it.”
