Veteran hockey coach Norm Gagne, who took Scarborough High to the Class A championship game in 2015 and 2016, now coaches at Edward Little. The two schools will face each other Tuesday night in a Class A semifinal in Lewiston. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Jake Brown had finished only one year of college when his first coaching offer came. Norm Gagne wanted an assistant at Scarborough High. Gagne had also coached Brown at Lewiston High.
“He was a leader as a captain at Lewiston and was a good role model for the younger players,” Gagne said. “That’s what made him a good player and that is the reason I asked him to be an assistant for me when he was a student at Saint Joe’s.
“I knew he would be able to relate well with the players, and he was a student of the game.”
Brown, 29, the pupil, and Gagne, 75, the teacher, face each other Tuesday night – in the familiar surroundings of the Androscoggin Bank Colisee – when Brown’s Scarborough team takes on Gagne’s Edward Little High Eddies, in a Class A semifinal game at 6 p.m.
A win would put Scarborough in the title game for the first time since the Red Storm made back-to-back appearances in 2015 and 2016 (winning in ’15), with Gagne the head coach, and Brown his assistant.
Brown took over as head coach in 2017-18 when Gagne took the Edward Little job.
Scarborough (14-4-1) is seeded third. No. 7 Edward Little (10-10) upset No. 2 St. Dominic in the quarterfinal.
Tuesday’s other semifinal game is No. 4 South Portland/Freeport/Waynflete (12-6-1) challenging No. 1 Lewiston (19-0) at 8 p.m.
Brown played at Lewiston from 2005-09, three seasons under Gagne and one under current Blue Devils Coach Jamie Belleau.
“(The Colisee) is where I grew up playing hockey, so there are a lot of good memories there,” Brown said.
Gagne was a part of several of Brown’s memories, at Lewiston High, and then as a colleague at Scarborough.
Jake Brown took over as the boys’ hockey coach at Scarborough High in 2017 when Norm Gagne took a job with Edward Little Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
“It was a great partnership and we had a lot of fun,” Brown said. “Norm has a ton of passion for the game. He certainly helped prepare me to be a head coach.
“The last few years, while he was at Scarborough, he allowed me to run the practices and really take a leadership role with the team.”
Brown is now the official leader and has the Red Storm contending again. Of their three losses to Class A teams, two came against Lewiston (5-1 and 3-1), and another against St. Dom’s. In Scarborough’s only meeting with Edward Little, the Red Storm won 4-3 on Dec. 23 on Dawson Gendreau’s score with one second left.
“It was early in the year, but it was a really good game,” Brown said. “I think both teams have gotten better since that game, and I anticipate that it will be a great game on Tuesday.”
Scarborough has an eight-game winning streak. Edward Little has had an odd year – winning the season-opener, losing 10 straight, and then winning the last nine. The Eddies are not playing like a seventh-seed.
“I think it’s a good match up for both teams,” Gagne said. “We will need to play to our strength … We have some outstanding defensemen … and our goalie Gage Ducharme.”
Seven of Edward Little’s wins have been shutouts. Scarborough has scored 37 goals during its win streak.
Lewiston High will be favored in the second semifinal. The Blue Devils beat South Portland 2-0 on Jan. 18, out-shooting the Red Riots 41-11.
THE TRAVIS ROY AWARD nine semifinalists were announced Monday. Scarborough (Dawson Gendreau and Ethan Jasa), Thornton Academy (Chris Balzano and Sawyer Wirsing) and Lewiston (Kurtis Pelletier and Ryan Pomerleau) all had two players among the nine. Others included Tyler Baker (Falmouth), Jack Ouellette (St. Dominic) and Liam McGibbon (South Portland).
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