BANGOR, Maine — A familiar face is returning to lead the Bangor High School boys basketball program next season.
Carl Parker, 64, a longtime Queen City resident who first guided the Rams for two seasons three decades ago, was appointed as the team’s boys varsity coach during Thursday night’s Bangor school committee meeting.
“I think it’s one of the better jobs in the state of Maine,” he said.
The veteran high school and AAU basketball mentor , who spent the last six years at Nokomis of Newport, replaces Ed Kohtala, who stepped down in April after three seasons with the Rams.
“I think Carl is the right person for Bangor High basketball at this time,” said Bangor athletic administrator Steve Vanidestine. “His players will play very hard for him. They have played hard for him everywhere he’s coached.”
“He will win and win often in a system that will inspire passion, commitment and loyalty from all of his players.”
Parker’s lengthy interscholastic basketball coaching career includes a previous stop at Bangor where he led the Rams to a 23-13 record during the 1984 and 1985 seasons — including a trip to the 1985 Eastern Maine Class A semifinals — before being replaced by Roger Reed, who went on to coach for 27 seasons at Bangor.
“Over 30 years ago Carl and I coached on the same football staff with coach Gabby Price,” said Vanidestine. “Carl was one of the best coaches then, and he’s one of the best coaches now.
“The difference, in my opinion, is that Carl has been honest with himself, he’s changed a lot in 30 years and I think he’s put all the good things he has as a coach in a place where he can use them effectively and he realizes that there’s a mission here he wants to be part of at this point of his life.”
Parker’s coaching resume includes subsequent varsity stops at Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft and Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield as well as his most recent stint at Nokomis, where he also has served as athletic administrator.
He also was an assistant coach with the former MCI postgraduate program and head coach of Lee Academy’s PG team.
“I think if most of us reflect on what’s caused us to do what we do, a lot of us would point to something that didn’t really go our way,” said Parker. “With the Bangor situation, I ended up having the opportunity to develop a body of work.
“If I had stayed at Bangor then I would have stayed at Bangor. I never would have coached AAU basketball. I never would have had the opportunity to coach [former University of Maine star] Dean Smith [at Foxcroft]. I never would have met Max Good and coached at MCI. I never would have gone to Lee Academy and coach.
“So rather than look at the negative side of it, I look at the positive side.”
Parker is perhaps best known in coaching circles for his contributions to the state’s AAU basketball movement, including being one of its founders in Maine in 1991.
Parker has since coached numerous teams to AAU national tournament appearances, highlighted by his 17-and-under squads that earned 11th-place finishes at the AAU 11th-Grade National Championships in both 2007 and 2014.
Last year’s U-17 squad included the likes of 2015 Mr. Basketball Kyle Bouchard of Houlton and Gatorade Maine Player of the Year Nick Mayo of Messalonskee of Oakland.
Success at the AAU level also helped Parker land a berth as an assistant coach at the USA Basketball Men’s Youth Development Festival in 2000 at Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“I think I’m an emotional person, a passionate person, a competitive person,” he said. “But by the same token I also recognize that it’s all right, it’s just part of life’s process. You control the things you can control and utilize the things you can’t control that you don’t think went your way to become better.”
Bangor will be looking to improve on last winter’s 6-12 record, the program’s first sub-.500 finish since 1986.
The Rams are poised to compete next winter in the new Class AA consisting of the state’s largest basketball-playing schools as part of the Maine Principals’ Association’s recent expansion of the sport from four to five classes.
Bangor is set to play in Class AA North with Cheverus of Portland, Deering of Portland, Edward Little of Auburn, Lewiston, Oxford Hills of South Paris, Portland and Windham.
Among Parker’s early priorities upon his return to Bangor will be to meet and evaluate the returning players at the high school level, prepare the program for its transition to the Class AA ranks, and encourage younger players in the area who want to fulfill their competitive ambitions through the sport.
“It’s important to get kids playing basketball more, and I’m not saying that at the expense of other sports because I believe in playing other sports,” he said. “But we’ve got to get young kids excited to come to the high school, so it will be important for me to work with the younger kids and not just the high school kids.”
