BIDDEFORD – Coach, athletic director, recreation director, teacher, administrator, and sometimes facilities manager and athletic trainer in her 32 years at the University of New England, Karol L’Heureux has worn a lot of different hats.
Today, she’s “just” the school’s volleyball coach, a position she has served in for all 32 of those years. In that time her teams have won 631 matches, ranking her sixth among active NCAA Division III head coaches and 12th all-time. Her volleyball teams have won 12 conference titles, six district championships and have made two appearances at the national championships.
In honor of her accomplishments as a coach and athletic director at UNE, as well as her playing days at the University of Maine Presque Isle and Sanford High School, L’Heureux has been chosen for induction into the Maine Sports Legends Hall of Honor. The formal induction ceremony will take place Oct. 7 at the YMCA of Greater Waterville.
But despite her achievements, when she got the call notifying her, L’Heureux was caught off guard.
“I got a call about two weeks ago indicating that was the fact, and I didn’t even know that I had been nominated or that anyone was working behind the scenes to make it happen,” she said.
“I was surprised, and I was honored and humbled, I don’t know how else to say it. I know that it’s a great honor.”
Curt Smyth, the school’s associate director of athletics, who at 16 years is the second-longest tenured person in the athletic department, said a major part of L’Heureux’s success simply comes down to the passion she brings to her job every day.
“First and foremost she has an incredible passion for volleyball and for collegiate athletics as a whole,” he said. “She’s someone who can break down the game very well and teach not only the fundamentals but all aspects of volleyball. She’s someone whose very intense on the sidelines, not to the point she’s out of control, but just her passion for the game comes through when she’s coaching.”
A native of Sanford, L’Heureux earned 12 high school varsity letters, in basketball, bowling and track and field, and was a state champion and the school’s record-holder in the high jump. From her sophomore year in high school, L’Heureux knew that sports, in some capacity, would be her calling.
“Sports have always been a big part of my life,” L’Heureux said. “I knew in high school that I wanted to teach and I wanted to be a coach. I knew that if I could make a career out of something I loved I would be a really happy person, so I knew at a pretty young age that sports was going to be the way I was probably going to go. It was never an issue in my mind as far as what I wanted to do with my career.”
She then moved on to college in Presque Isle, where she was a two-sport star in basketball and volleyball and majored in physical education and recreation. After graduating in 1979, the opportunity came up to go to a start-up athletics department at St. Francis College, which had just merged with the New England College of Osteopathic Medicine to form the University of New England.
L’Heureux jumped at it.
“I can remember looking at my parents across the table and telling them I’m going to go temporarily to St. Francis at the time and get my master’s and get my foot in the door with college coaching, because I knew that I wanted to be a college coach and administrator,” she said.
“And here I sit 30-odd years later, and what kept me here is just the challenges and the fact that I have seen so much growth in this institution.”
In that time, L’Heureux has seen, and largely driven, a tremendous amount of growth at the school.
When she first arrived in 1980 to develop the women’s volleyball, basketball and softball teams, the athletics program was in its infancy, with just one small gym as the school’s entire athletic facilities.
Making it all the more challenging, there were only about 350 students enrolled, most of them males, making it difficult for L’Heureux to even fill out her squad and recruit in her first few years.
And if that wasn’t enough, she was also the school’s athletic director, at the time the only one in New England who was an AD for both men’s and women’s programs, and just one of four in the entire country.
“It was probably not until 5-6 years into the program that I had another person who was full-time in the athletic department,” she said.
L’Heureux spent 14 years as the head coach for women’s basketball and eight as softball manager. She stayed as athletic director until 2006, and in her 26 years in that role helped UNE transition from an NAIA institution to an NCAA Division III member and expanded the school’s varsity sports offering from its limited beginnings to the 15 teams it has today, nine of which are women’s squads.
The school’s facilities have also grown to include a campus pool, softball and soccer fields, and a synthetic turf field complete with competition lighting, a press box and state-of-the-art scoreboard for the school’s field hockey and lacrosse teams that opened in 2010.
And this fall, L’Heureux’s volleyball team will open play in the brand-new $20 million, 106,500-square-foot Harold Alfond Forum, which will house a hockey rink with 900 seats, a basketball court with 1,200 seats, classroom space, a fitness center and multi-purpose indoor practice courts.
“I’m very proud,” L’Heureux said of the development she’s seen in her time at the school. “The University of New England has been on a constant climb in growth since the time that I’ve been here.”
L’Heureux will start her 33rd year on volleyball sidelines next Saturday when her Nor’easters take on Clark University and Bridgewater State in a doubleheader.
“I can’t imagine not doing it ever. I think when you’re a coach you’re always a coach. I know that I’ll always be a teacher of the game, I’ll always be a coach and I’ll always be a friend to the University of New England,” she said.
Karol L’Heureux, who has spent 32 years as a coach and administrator at the University of New England in Biddeford, will be inducted into the Maine Sports Legends Hall of Honor Oct. 7. In 32 seasons, her volleyball teams have won 631 matches, ranking her sixth among active NCAA Division III head coaches and 12th all-time.Send questions/comments to the editors.
