Dexter’s Guiski a coaching fit for milltown’s basketball
Editor’s note: Several sports personalities with Penquis-area ties have been named members of the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2016, among them the late Ed Guiski of Dexter, former Penquis Valley of Milo player and coach Tony Hamlin, and former Foxcroft Academy stars Kevin Nelson and Dean Smith. The Observer will profile each of the honorees during the next few weeks.
DEXTER — As Peter Murray considered his first meeting with Ed Guiski after landing a job as a teacher and freshman basketball coach at Dexter Regional High School during the early 1980’s, his expectations already had been forged.
“As a kid growing up in East Millinocket I knew of Ed because of the rivalry between Schenck and Dexter at the time,” said Murray, who played high school basketball at Schenck of East Millinocket. “He and (Schenck coach) Ronnie Marks had an almost personal rivalry as the two coaches, so I kind of already knew of him.”
What he knew of Guiski, a towering presence at 6-foot-5 with an intense on-court demeanor, left Murray a bit intimidated.
“I was nervous,” he admitted. “Frankly I was a little afraid of him.”
“Then when I came to Dexter in the fall of 1983 that’s the first time I actually met him and he was not what I expected, let’s put it that way. What I had seen as a kid growing up and watching him with his fiery sideline personality, he turned out to be really quite the opposite. He was really a big teddy bear.”
Murray went on to serve as an assistant coach under Guiski for a decade before taking the varsity post when Guiski retired after 26 seasons — a stint that combined with three subsequent years as the school’s girls varsity coach produced 329 wins and helped land the Winslow native a spot on the third induction class of the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame.
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Guiski, who died in 2013, will be inducted posthumously during ceremonies Aug. 21 at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
“He always had a calming influence over us,” said Steve Bell, who played for Guiski at Dexter during the mid-1980’s and now is the school’s principal, during a 2012 interview in advance of his coach’s induction into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame.
“We were just kids, we didn’t know how to react, but we’d be one or two points up or down in a game and he’d be so calm. He always had that confidence in us and it made a big difference.”
Guiski’s coaching career was part of a sporting life of considerable accomplishment.
He earned 16 letters in football, basketball, baseball and track at Winslow High School before graduating in 1955, then spent a postgrad year at Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield where he, played on the Huskies’ undefeated football team as well as center and forward on a basketball team that qualified for the New England championships.
“We played all the college [football] teams and all the prep schools back then, and nobody could take Ed down,” said John Carroll, a former teammate of Guiski’s in prep school and college during a 2012 interview.
Guiski and Carroll earned athletic scholarships to Boston University, where Guiski played football and basketball for two years before joining the Army. While in the Army from 1960 to 1962, Guiski made the final cut of 10 Army candidates for the 1960 Olympic Basketball Team.
“Ed just loved the game of basketball,” said Carroll. “He played football and liked it, but not as much as basketball.”
After leaving the military Guiski enrolled at what is now known as the University of Southern Maine, where he still holds the school record for his career average of 15.2 rebounds per game.
Guiski took his first coaching and teaching jobs at Windham High School, then moved in 1967 with his young family to Dexter where he developed a basketball program known for its defensive intensity.
“He had every kid working his tail off in every practice, and obviously defense was his forte and man-to-man defense in particular,” said Murray. “When he had the players he’d press a little bit, but generally he’d play man-to-man halfcourt defense and make it very difficult for you to score.”
The milltown native also found a comfort zone coaching milltown kids along with longtime assistant Lloyd Conners and Murray.
“When they say that a team takes on the personality of its coach, I think Ed was a perfect match for this town and this community,” said Murray. “It’s really a blue-collar community with hard-working kids, not always the most talented kids but they were going to give every ounce they had.”
The serious side of Guiski’s coaching style also revealed itself in meticulous practice planning.
“He’s probably the best practice coach I’ve ever been around,” said Murray. “The practices were very, very intense, and that’s not always that easy to do, but then when you got to a game it was almost relaxing and a little easier because you just went out there and they’re automatically going to play at the intensity level they practiced at. He was really, really good and what I’d call generating game intensity in a practice situation.”
But it wasn’t all serious with “Big Ed.”
“My first year here when I got hired as the freshman basketball coach I immediately became connected with the basketball team and between he and Lloyd Conners, those were the two people I spent a lot of time with with regards to basketball for the next 10 years,” said Murray.
“He took me under his wing and was very friendly, very helpful and a little bit of a practical joker. He’d try to play practical jokes on me because I was the new kid on the block, but it was all in good fun and it wasn’t what I expected.”
Dexter’s halcyon days under Guiski came during the mid-1980s when he led the Tigers to back-to-back Eastern Maine Class B titles and the 1986 state crown, the only gold ball won to date by the school’s boys basketball program.
“During the 80’s his two sons (John and Alex) were involved and he was closely related with all those kids,” said Murray. “Any coach who’s coached his own kids knows when you have your own kid on the team it almost feels like all of the kids are your kids because you probably coached them in rec league, opened the gym and let them in when they were little, and followed them up through middle school so by the time those kids hit high school they knew he was all in with them.”
Dexter won the 1985 EM crown only to drop a last-second battle in the state final to Lake Region of Naples.
“In ‘85 when we lost to Lake Region at the buzzer basically, that was tough,” said Murray. “That summer was a rough summer, but to follow it up the very next year and get back to the state game and win it, I think that was the culmination for him.”
It wasn’t easy. The Tigers reached the state final against Gorham only after outlasting Rockland in an epic five-overtime Eastern Maine final.
“Our coaches felt sure we would win and that rubbed off on us,” said Bell. “Rockland kept hitting incredible shots to tie it up, but they felt the way we were playing that eventually we’d catch a break and we’d win the game.”
A three-time coach of the year honoree by the Maine Association of Basketball Coaches, Guiski retired from the Dexter bench in 1993 but returned four years later for a three-year stint as the Tigers’ girls basketball coach in a gymnasium that by then was renamed in his honor.
“I was a little bit surprised with Janet to let him do it,” said Murray, “but probably she sensed he was anxious for the gym and he was just what they needed for a couple of years to get them to that next place.”
Guiski was 31-23 as the Dexter girls basketball coach, including 14-4 during his final season in 1999-2000.
“It was interesting to watch because our practices would overlap and I’d be able to sneak in and watch the last five minutes of his practice,” said Murray. “I got to watch him interact with girls and really take on a different personality because I think he knew the intensity level he coached the boys with wasn’t going to work with the girls.
“He was able to be just intense enough because the girls wanted that intensity to a certain level, but he knew where the line was. It was a strange evolution to watch but he was very effective at it.”
Guiski’s teams made 19 tournament appearances overall during his 29 years as a varsity basketball coach at Dexter, 18 on the boys’ side.
“As an athlete he performed at all levels and had success at all levels,” said Murray. “As a coach, it’s the ultimate to be able to get the state championship and win it and to bring that gold ball home, and that was very, very important to him.
“I know he was very proud of it and very happy for the kids. It was kind of the cherry on top of his career for him. I’m glad he got it.”