A former Conference Campbell football all-star selection is now the “Coach of the Year.” First-year Boothbay Region High School football Coach Ed Crocker was named Class E Coach of the Year during the Nov. 20 conference banquet and award ceremony.

Crocker called being named “Coach of the Year” an honor and credited his assistants Jesse Peters, Smith Climo, Bruce Orne, David Drapeau and Bob Hasch in the team’s championship season.

“It’s great, but this couldn’t have been achieved without an outstanding coaching staff. So this is more of a ‘Coaching staff of the year’ honor,” Crocker said.

This season, six teams joined the conference for the inaugural Class E season. Crocker, a 1994 BRHS graduate, led his alma mater to its first championship since 2002. BRHS finished 10-0 which included eight regular season victories and two playoff wins. Boothbay had previously been a Campbell Conference member as a Class D school, but dropped out of Maine Principals’ Association football last season.

After one year participating as a club sport, Boothbay rejoined MPA football in Class E along with Maranacook, Camden Hills, Telstar, Sacopee Valley and Traip Academy. In 2017, Boothbay dominated play with a hard-hitting defense and well-conditioned squad. Crocker believed his team’s preparation during each week’s practice led to several victories on Friday nights.

Crocker had full-contact practices  and promoted his players being supremely physically fit during the season.

“A lot of teams with small rosters won’t ‘hit’ during practice,” Crocker said. “But we took a different approach. If you don’t hit then you’re not prepared to hit during a game. Also, our players  this season were constantly in the weight room and running. They were in great shape and it showed. When other teams were sucking wind, we were still fresh.”

His team’s physical play and conditioning were most evident in the Seahawks’ defense. The hard-hitting Seahawk unit turned a championship game fourth deficit into a victory. In the Nov. 16 championship game versus Maranacook, Boothbay surrendered an early lead and trailed in the second half due to costly turnovers committed by the offense. But a couple of big hits on defense aided Boothbay’s fourth quarter rally.

“Turnovers definitely hurt us, but our defense, like it has been all season, came up big,” he said. “Each time, we turned the ball over in the championship, our defense came up with a big hit and got it back. One hundred percent. Our defense was the reason for our dominance.”

Crocker has a lot of coaching experience, but this was his first as a varsity head coach. He has been a volunteer high school and youth coach in basketball, football and baseball for several years. He has wanted to join the BRHS football coaching staff for several years, but couldn’t due to his job.

But that changed this fall. Crocker joined the Boothbay Region Elementary School behavioral program as an educational technician. Last spring, the varsity football head coaching position was vacant and Crocker applied.

This season, Crocker used lessons learned from his BRHS football coaches Chris Norton and Tim Rice about mentoring young student-athletes. He also used some coaching techniques he devised.

Nov. 16 turned out to be a bone-chillingly cold night. Prior to the game, Crocker filled the Gatorade bucket with warm water. So when his players doused him with customary “championship bath” at the contest’s conclusion, the water wasn’t as cold.

“