Lewiston and St. Dom's head coaches resign

The Lewiston and St. Dom's men's hockey programs need to find a new head coach for the 2024-25 season.

Jamie King, who led Lewiston (17-4-0) to its 25th state championship in March and won the Bobby Boucher Coach of the Year Award as Class A's top coach this season, led the Blue Devils to three points. He retired after leading for a year. .

Dan Dauteuil also resigned after leading the Saint-Dominique Academy for five seasons. He served as an assistant under his predecessor Bobby Parker and replaced Parker in 2019, the season after the Saints won their 26th state championship.

Both employees cited increased responsibilities at their jobs as the main reason for leaving.

“We all know that coaching high school hockey is very time consuming,” King said. “Including practice, planning, summer (hockey), etc., I typically spend over 500 hours a year doing this. Due to work commitments, I had to step down to focus on my day job.”

Lewiston High School varsity hockey coach Jamie King (center) looks out onto the ice during a game against Thornton Academy on Jan. 13 at Corisse in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

King owns Rehabilitation Equipment Associates in Lewiston and plans to open a second location in Portland soon.

Lewiston Athletic Director Jason Fuller said King did a great job leading the Blue Devils to another state championship after a four-year drought.

“That's all you can ask of any coach: to fight every day and make adjustments during the season and after the season,” Fuller said. “I think the product we have this season is a result of that. Throughout the season he tried to do things differently and we were able to have success as a result. That is a direct result of his growth.Assistant. It's one thing to be a head coach, it's another, and it takes time. What you saw was someone come in there and figure out how to anchor themselves and make kids more successful on the ice. I was finding it.”

King, who had a 34-25-1 record as a head coach, led Lewiston to four state championships in five years from 2016-20, and when he was hired to replace Bellew in 2021, James – Was part of Bellow's coaching staff.

King said there was nothing off the ice that led to his decision to resign.

“I handle adversity well,” King said. “It's about being honest with everyone about what the gameplay is like. So from a parent's standpoint, like I said, it doesn't make sense. I certainly know how to communicate, but when it comes to the business side, the next step to becoming more successful in business is to open a new location, that's why.”

Dauteuil is an attorney and partner at Skelton, Tainter & Abbott in Lewiston.

“My workload has doubled in the last few years,” Dauteuil said. “It was tough juggling both jobs. I think high school instruction takes a lot of time, but if you're trying to do the job right, it takes plenty of time.”

St. Dominic Academy boys hockey coach Dan Dauteuil Jr. steps down and some team members participate in sports during the Class A boys hockey banquet held at the St. John's Community Center in Brunswick on March 16. Receive the Manship Award. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Dauteuil also said he wants to spend more time with his family after compiling a 37-45-3 record in five seasons as head coach.

“We had a tough, lean few years,” Dauteuil said of Saint Domes. “I remember one year we had 13 kids on the roster, and it was a numbers battle the whole time. It's been a tough year with COVID. The program is starting to take new steps. I had a great season this year and met this hot goalie.”

The Saints (13-4-2) finished second in heel points during the regular season, but Michael Zaccaria made 45 saves in a 2-1 victory over seventh-seeded Portland/Southpaw in the quarterfinals. Big loss to Tolland/Deering/Wainfleet.

Timothy Ouellette, who led St. Dom's in scoring this season, became the school's fourth Travis Roy Award recipient.

“Dan has been an important part of our overall program throughout his time at Dom's,” St. Dom's Athletic Director Brandon Rogers said. “He has contributed to our development both on and off the ice. I am grateful to him and grateful for my relationship with him. He will be greatly missed.”

Dauteuil said he received positive messages from players and parents when he announced his resignation.

“I was very surprised. I received a lot of nice congratulations from most of the players,” Dauteuil said. “I did some conservation work with some of them. I got a lot of positive feedback from the parents. The response was better than I expected.”

Dauteuil said the reaction from players and parents made his decision to resign even tougher.

King said he plans to meet with his team on Monday to inform them of his decision to resign. Rumors have been circulating about his decision, and he had spoken to several players before Monday's meeting.

“I have communicated with some of them because they often contact me to find out about their game, what their future is and what they want to do. Because it’s coming,” King said Saturday. “Some players know, but not all.”

What's next?

Both Mr. Fuller and Mr. Rogers said they hope to hire replacements immediately.

“The sooner the better. It's late April here and summer is coming,” Fuller said. “We want to be able to hire someone to work with the kids over the summer, do what they want to do, build relationships and work towards next season.”

Rogers said Dauteuil's replacement is expected within the next week. Rogers also said the program is in good shape.

“We're excited that the enrollment numbers are pretty high,” Rogers said. “We have good numbers coming in year after year to stay competitive year after year.”

The recruiting process will be a little more difficult this season, with all three Lewiston-Auburn men's teams looking for new coaches. Edward Little's Norm Gagne retired after the Red Eddy's season, 50 years after coming off the high school bench.

“It's not easy to find quality coaches. It's always difficult,” Fuller said. “It wasn't 30 years before he had 25 applicants when he was recruiting. That has never happened at any level, in any sport.”

Edward Little athletic director Todd Sampson told the Sun Journal in a text message that the Red Eddies have a great pool of applicants. Sampson is scheduled to interview during the second week of May.

The most recent example of all three schools having head coaching positions at the same time was in 2005. Bobby Boucher has resigned after coaching the Saints for 25 years at St Dom's and was replaced by long-time assistant John Proulx. Gagne took over as Lewiston's coach after Tim Smith retired after five seasons. Craig LaTusha was promoted by Edward Little after Bellow led the Red Eddies to back-to-back Class A state championships in 2003 and 2004.

“There are a lot of jobs out there,” Fuller said. “People can choose a little bit more about what they want to do. We're concerned about that, but we're going to find a coach who wants to be a part of our family, our tradition and our program.”

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