Special to The Star-Herald
EASTON — Ryan Shaw brings an impressive resume into his first year as coach of the Easton Bears.
Shaw, a Mars Hill native who played high school soccer at Central Aroostook in the mid-1990s, spent eight years as a soccer coach at Hampden Academy, the first three at the junior varsity level before moving up to varsity in 2003. His Bronco teams reached the playoffs all five years, and were Class A Eastern Maine champions in 2004. He compiled a 62-19-3 mark as the varsity coach.
This year, Shaw faces his most difficult coaching challenge as the Bears have had a hard time putting enough bodies on the field early in the season.
“We have struggled with numbers basically, practicing with between seven and nine players during the first week of school,” said Shaw, who relocated with his family to Aroostook County last year. “We played with 11 in our first game (Aug. 14) and talked two more into joining the team early last week.”
The lack of personnel is new for a team which has experienced success on the field over the past several years. Last year’s team, in fact, went 10-2-1 during the regular season before being eliminated in the Eastern Class D quarterfinals.
“We graduated most of the defense, as well as some of the scoring punch,” Shaw said. “I’m trying kids at different positions to find the right combo.”
After losing their first two games of this season, the Bears did manage to get into the win column against Washburn last Wednesday. Still, Shaw said his squad is going through an adjustment period that will last for awhile.
“I am trying to get the guys used to my system,” he said. “We still have a long ways to go, but we’ll get there. I teach a possession-type offense, moving the ball all over the field while remaining in control. This maximizes efficiency and helps get better numbers on the attack. We need to get away from the ‘jam it up the middle’ or ‘boot it over the top and chase it’ game.”
Shaw said he has always stressed the importance of conditioning, but that has been a source of frustration due to the short roster.
“You can’t play decent soccer unless you are in good physical condition,” Shaw said. “My teams are usually physical, but in a clean way.”
The new coach said the players on his young team are “eager to learn and do what it takes to become a perennial successful program.”
“We have had to take our lumps early on, but as long as we learn from it and improve every day, we should start to see some success eventually,” he added.
The Bears feature senior Corey White and sophomore Holden Turner at forward, while sophomores Reid Clark and Jonah Bacon hold down the midfield. The outside midfielders are juniors Zachary Clark and Devyn Grey, with freshmen Carl Mullen and Jared Hafford joining junior Jacob Bacon and senior Luke Fuller on the back line.
Sophomore Cody Tompkins is back for his second season as the starting goalie, while Luke Budreau, Caleb Bomar and Mike Petrin are Easton’s reserves.
“My expectations are to have the boys get used to my system over the first few games, then to be in the hunt to host a playoff game and try to make some noise when it counts,” Shaw said. “With a young and small squad, getting more and more experience is only going to help.”
