05/04/2008
enlarge
Morning Sentinel staff photo 
enlarge
Morning Sentinel staff photofrom the Kennebec Journal
KENNEBEC COMMUTER: Find another way to get to work
New bishop pays visit, leads service
Where are the voters?
Augusta planners face busy agenda
Former UMA head keeps busy
Green delegates look for exciting convention
Why exactly is Earnhardt Jr. so popular?
HIGH SCHOOL LACROSSE NOTES: Cony takes winning in stride
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
Animals are abandoned
Bricks from school to be auctioned off to support Run of River
Voters yawn at school budgets
FARMINGTON: Estate yields a historical treasure trove
GREENS CONVENTION UPCOMING Two candidates to be at gathering; Maine can send 44 delegates to national convention, second only to California in clout
Retired educator compiling history of Maine teachers, administrators
HIGH SCHOOL LACROSSE NOTES: Messalonskee sees big picture
Why exactly is Earnhardt Jr. so popular?
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
Staff Writer
Deep inside Waterville Senior High School, in a place dubbed "The Cage," Ian Wilson brings his team to a warm, sunny beach. The athletes lie down on the cool, hard cement. The white lights are dimmed.
Shhh ...
"What better place than the beach," Wilson says. "The breeze off the ocean, the crash of the surf on the shore. It's relaxing."
Wilson, the coach-turned-psychologist, instructs his athletes to focus. First on their toes, then their feet.
"You'd feel this warmth come over your body, and yet you were on a cold basement floor," remembers Troy Irvine, a 2001 Waterville Senior High School graduate and one of best athletes to ever come out of the track and field program.
"I remember feeling nothingness. Finally, you were floating on air. To this day I've never experienced anything like that before in my life. I loved The Cage."
Outside, on the track or soccer field, Wilson pushes his athletes to do more, to become better. He implores them to find that extra dab of energy, even when the proverbial tank is sucked dry. Wilson, the coach-turned-rabid animal, then hollers, barks out words of encouragement and hollers some more.
"He's yelling at you with good intentions," said former Waterville track star Lauren Tebbetts, who graduated in 2002 before competing at the University of New Hampshire.
"That's what pushed me the most. He's yelling for you, and only for you. It makes you feel special. He's very intense. His yelling can be seen as him being mean, but he pushes you to go faster. It's hard not to run faster when he's yelling at you, and you alone."
Who is this man who coaches girls soccer and both track and field teams at Waterville Senior High School? Who is this teacher and pupil of the sports he reveres?
If you ask his former and current athletes, as well as fellow coaches and administrators, the answers are clear as a summer sky.
Deep-thinker
Wilson, 42, says the meditation exercise performed in The Cage, which doubles as an equipment room, teaches his Panthers visualization. If done properly, it mentally prepares them for big meets or games, the ones in which championships are won or lost.
"He brought us down there and told us to close our eyes and to relax," Tebbetts says. "We were like, 'What is he doing? This makes no sense.' He said to think of the beach, then think of each one of your events, and then do them in our heads. We could picture ourselves doing the events. We could actually visualize doing our events. It really calmed you down."
"The beach is a warmup," adds Wilson, who lives in Winslow with his wife, Leslie. "It gets them to that place. It relaxes their muscles, relaxes their minds. We usually do this right before a state championship meet or game. We walk through the process of having a good day. What does it smell like? What does it feel like? It helps control their emotions. It's tough to relax before a big meet or game. It's all about understanding the mentality of it.
"I always say here, it's all about closing the deal. If you've come this close, if you come to a championship meet, then close the deal."
The Panthers often do.
The indoor and outdoor track and field teams have won a combined eight state championships since Wilson took over the programs in 1997. Throw in a 1996 Class B state title while coaching the Mt. View High School girls soccer team, and the list of career crowns tops out at nine -- and counting.
The Waterville boys track team is heavily favored this spring to win its third consecutive Class B state championship.
"At the meets, you don't want to talk to him," says Waterville senior Zach Jordan, who competes in mostly sprints. "We have gut-check days, usually Tuesdays and Thursdays. He'll tell us they will be tough days, and you can be positive about it. If you are, they go good. If you look at it negatively, the practices will just suck. It's just the way it is."
Innovative
Even when not coaching, Wilson is coaching, or at least preparing to coach.
Confused? Don't be.
Wilson, whose parents -- John Wilson and Margery Irvine -- are English professors at the University of Maine in Orono, attends as many coaching clinics and seminars as his budget and time allow.
Each summer he attends a USA Track & Field coaching education program. He earned his Level I certificate three years ago and recently completed extensive Level II programs that focused on endurance and jumps.
In 2006, the program was held in Virginia. Last summer, Wilson ventured to Chicago for more training. USA Track & Field defines Level I as basic knowledge course training. Level II provides "more in-depth training in an event specific group."
"It's incredibly demanding," says Wilson, who adds that the school's booster programs help defray the costs -- each weeklong program is $600. "You go for 10 hours a day, but the stuff you learn is amazing. You never know who you will meet."
Wilson's roommate last summer was Cuba native Javier Sotomayor, who won Olympic gold in the high jump at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Sotomayor, who jumped 7 feet, 8 inches, was at one time considered the best high jumper in the world. He still holds the world record with an astounding 8 feet, 1/2 inch, which he jumped in 1993.
"He didn't speak much English, but I picked his brain," Wilson said. "In between classes, I talked to him and asked about techniques."
The knowledge gleaned would soon be passed on to unsuspecting Panthers.
"He'd go to all these out-of-state clinics, spend money out of his own pockets and always came back with new things," says Alex Lefebvre, another one of the track program's top all-time athletes. "When he'd come back, we'd all say, 'What kind of workout did he come back with now?' He's not afraid to try new coaching methods. And they usually work."
When he's not traveling, Wilson is reading, learning and developing new strategies.
"When I was a kid, I read every book I could on sports," says Wilson, who was born in Kansas but moved to Maine when he was 3. He was raised in Troy. "I grew up on a farm, milked cows with my own hands, rode horses, pitched hay, all of that. We didn't watch television, so we read. I was steeped in stories of athletes.
"I have all the books on Xs and Os. You have to know all the Xs and Os if you want the kids to respect you. You can't 'BS' your way through it because the kids will spot that in a heartbeat."
"He's a ravenous reader," Waterville Senior High athletic director Doug Frame said. "He reads any type of periodical on coaching. He's truly a student of sports. He looks at the physiology of high jumps, corner kicks. He looks deeper than just the game itself. He immerses his whole life into the sports that he coaches."
A 1985 Mt. View graduate, Wilson never competed in track and field growing up. Furthermore, he started coaching almost by accident. He said he was out running one day in 1990 when then-Mustangs coach Frank Pellechia stopped him and asked if he'd like to join the staff as a volunteer assistant.
"I didn't know anything about coaching, but I did it," Wilson says. "Two years later, he left and I inherited the program from him."
Wilson was hired to coach Waterville's track teams -- indoor and outdoor -- in 1997. In 1998, he became the girls soccer coach at Waterville, although the stint didn't last long. Wilson was not re-hired for the position after the season because a dispute with a parent. He describes the 1998 season as "difficult."
"I got caught in a parent battle," he says. "It wasn't fun."
Wilson returned to the Waterville girls soccer sideline last fall and promptly took the Panthers to the Class A final, which they lost 2-1 to Gorham.
Although firmly entrenched as Waterville's track coach, Wilson bounced around as a soccer coach. His stops included Lawrence High School (volunteer), Thomas College (women) and then Messalonskee in 2002. He coached the Eagles' boys soccer team from 2002-2006.
"He was my favorite," says Messalonskee senior Matt DelGiudice, a three-sport standout who played three seasons for Wilson. "I remember the day he told us he wasn't coming back. I shook his hand, gave him a big hug and told him I would miss him. There were tears shed on my part."
Demanding
Wilson freely admits he loathes losing.
"Losing bothers me on a very deep level," he says. "I put so much time and energy to help these kids that I want to see them do well."
Although he insists he's mellowed a bit during the last decade -- "I wouldn't have a voice left if I hadn't," he says -- Wilson expects nothing short of complete effort and preparation from his athletes.
"I have a lot of respect for him," Messalonskee track and field coach Scott Wilson (no relation) says. "He works the kids hard, real hard, but it pays off."
Says Frame: "He's not afraid to step on someone's toes if they aren't following the line of expectations. He holds them accountable."
Doug Frame's daughter, Morgan, who does a little of everything for the Waterville track team, agrees, saying there is no gray area with the coach when it comes to expectations.
"He never gives up on us," she said. "He knows we can always be something more. We work hard every day in practice because that's what it takes to win championships. You never really reach your potential as an athlete until you have Wilson as a coach."
Many Waterville athletes apparently share that view -- 75 kids came out for track and field this spring, or about 12 percent of the school's students.
"We win. People know that," Morgan Frame says. "Even though he's the hardest coach who you kind of dread, everyone wants to be coached by him, because you'll know you'll win."
"I don't know what it is," Wilson adds. "I just know that I'm doing something I was born to do."
Bill Stewart -- 623-3811, ext. 515
bstewart@centralmaine.com
Reader comments : 1
Click here to view or add reader comments