Two Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference baseball coaches resigned recently to pursue opportunities away from home, although one can claim taking a much longer tape-measure shot.
Ray Bernier, who led Messalonskee High School to a Class A baseball state championship in 2012, stepped down after taking a job as a carpentry instructor at the Bath Regional Career and Technical Center.
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Jesse LaCasse, who led Winslow High School to an Eastern Class B title in 2013, resigned to return to Germany as a professional player/coach.
Bernier, who resigned last week, said it would be impossible for him to continue to coach the Eagles effectively given the commute from his new job.
“The travel distance made it pretty difficult to try to get to games at the appropriate time, and to do my job, basically,” he said.
Bernier served as JV coach at Messalonskee before being promoted to head the varsity ballclub in 2007.
He led the Eagles from the middle of the bracket to back-to-back Eastern A titles in 2012 and 2013. In 2012, Messalonskee emerged as the No. 4 seed in the East to defeat Scarborough, 6-3, for the program’s first state title in 39 years and first ever in Class A.
The following year, the Eagles won the East as the sixth seed before falling to Westbrook in the state game, 2-0.
Last season, Messalonskee reached the regional final for the third year in a row, losing to eventual state champion Bangor, 6-3, to finish the season 13-6.
Bernier said even before the career change he’d thought about making the upcoming baseball season his last so he could spend more time with his wife, Waterville athletic director Heidi Bernier, and coach their 4- and 7-year-old sons, Ty and Colby.
The long commute hastened that decision.
“I’m very pleased with how things went (at Messalonskee),” said Bernier, who ran his own carpentry business for 25 years prior to taking the teaching job. “I’m going to miss it because I really enjoyed it. I was very fortunate Messalonskee gave me a chance because I was an outsider. I wasn’t a teacher there or anything.”
“I was very fortunate to come in to a good team, to take over a program that was already going in the right direction and had the players coming up to make us take the next step,” he said. “I hope I left them in a good position.”
LaCasse compiled a 42-15 record in three years with the Black Raiders. Promoted to the top varsity spot after one year coaching Winslow’s JV, he led the varsity to an 11-7 record and the Eastern B quarterfinals in 2012.
The following year, Winslow reached the state championship, which it lost to York, 4-1, to finish 16-4. The Black Raiders nearly equaled that mark last season, posting a 15-4 record after being knocked out of the tournament semifinals, 3-2 in eight innings, by eventual regional champion Caribou.
LaCasse will serve as player/coach for the Neunkirchen Nightmares, coaching a junior team consisting of the equivalent of grades 7-12 while also acting as player/coach for the professional team in the German Bundesliga. He served in a similar capacity for the Nightmares in 2004 and 2005 and met his wife, Anna, in Germany. The couple has two sons, ages 5 and 7.
“It’s exciting for me, but I was looking forward to another year with the Raiders,” said LaCasse, a wooden-bat maker who plans to continue the trade in Germany. “It was definitely a great four years. I’m so grateful to the Winslow community for their support and the parental support there.”
Randy Whitehouse —621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter:@RAWmaterial33
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