Attention to detail fuels Hamlin’s basketball success on court and sidelines

Ashley L. Conti
Maine Basketball Hall of Fame inductee — Class of 2016 Maine Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Tony Hamlin listens as Steve Pound, executive director of the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame, introduces the rest of the Class of 2016 inductees during a press conference on Wednesday at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.

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.

MILO — Many of the earliest days of Tony Hamlin’s basketball career were spent in Phil Gerow’s barn playing two-on-two games with his buddies before his school day began.

“That was back in the fifth and sixth grade,” he recalled. “It was pretty small, but guys were waiting in the loft for winners.”

More than five decades later, Hamlin’s competitive career also ended in a barn of sorts — the Bangor Auditorium where he guided his alma mater, Penquis Valley High School, to the 2013 Class C state championship in the final tournament game before that building was torn down and replaced by the Cross Insurance Center.

That 61-54 victory over Boothbay marked the final game of Hamlin’s 31-year coaching career.

“To win the last game at the Auditorium, I knew I was done and to end it like that and walk away was special,” he said.

Between those pick-up games in Gerow’s barn or on the outdoor court next to the old Milo High School and that last departure from the historic Auditorium where he is believed to be the only coach to win tournament games in five different decades, Hamlin’s influence on basketball in Maine has taken on myriad forms — highlighted by 401 victories and three state championships as a coach.

“He’s probably the most cerebral coach I’ve been around,” said former Lawrence of Fairfield coach Mike McGee during a 2013 interview after Hamlin’s retirement. “I consider him one of the best coaches in the state, if not the best.”

McGee’s sentiment is backed by a resume that has earned Hamlin a place in the third class of Maine Basketball Hall of Fame, which will be inducted Aug. 21 at the Cross Center.

“I grew up on Willow Street, a short dead-end street with 14 boys living there within 3 or 4 years of each other,” said Hamlin of his modest roots in the sport. “And I can remember distinctly the smell of autumn and the leaves burning and going to the town hall and seeing the shellac on the floor, smelling the wood and practice starting as a sixth- or seventh-grader.

“All I wanted to do back then, the height of my goal, was just to make the team and be on a bus and wear that junior high uniform.”

Hamlin’s career soon took him to Milo High School to play under coach Dennis Black and then for his final two years to Penquis Valley under Carroll Conley after the area schools consolidated into SAD 41 during the late 1960s.

While those teams did not experience postseason success, Hamlin’s experience as a tough-minded point guard earned him a walk-on berth on the University of Maine freshman basketball team for the 1970-71 season. That kicked off a four-year relationship with Skip Chappelle, who was in his third season of coaching the Black Bear freshmen.

“As a player in high school I could score, but basically I ran the team, played defense, distributed the ball and knew where the ball had to go in certain situations and that’s what I did at Maine,” said Hamlin.

Both moved up to the UMaine varsity the following year, Hamlin as a sophomore team member and Chappelle as its new head coach.

Together they experienced considerable success. Maine’s 15-10 record for the 1971-72 season was the program’s first winning mark in eight years, and the Black Bears went 13-10 and 14-10 during Hamlin’s final two years with the Black Bears before they dipped back below .500 the season after he graduated.

“Tony wasn’t the top scorer, but he did two things that are a real base for coaching a team and that’s defense and assists,” said Chappelle. He could finish plays with an assist or a hoop and he always played good defense.”

Hamlin started his last two years at Maine and captained the Black Bears as a senior in 1974.

“I majored in basketball with Skip at Maine,” said Hamlin, “because it was four years in the gym from Sept. 3 to the end of March.”

After Hamlin graduated from Maine in 1974, Chappelle helped him land his coaching job at Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield where he guided the Huskies’ boys varsity and postgraduate teams simultaneously for three years and led the postgrads to two New England championships.

“It wasn’t planned, but once I got started I knew I was going to (coach),” said Hamlin. “I think I had an aptitude for it, but I also had the practice structure because the way Skip broke down drills gave me a huge advantage.

“Our practices was all two-, four- or six-minute segments. We never scrimmaged when I coached, and we didn’t scrimmage when I was at Maine, It was all teaching.”

Hamlin soon moved downstate to become head coach at Morse High School of Bath for four years before taking the same post at South Portland beginning in the early 1980s.

“When I was down there I was going against coaches like Bob Brewer, Ron Cote, Bob Brown, Art Dyer and Tommy Maines, and they all knew what they were doing,” said Hamlin. “That part of it forced me to get better. I improved more quickly than most because I was getting my butt kicked.”

Hamlin’s seven-year tenure at South Portland was highlighted by the 1983 Class A state championship and a second Western Maine crown in 1985.

“I think the big thing with Tony was his demand for detail,” said Brown, who preceded Hamlin at South Portland, in a 2013 interview. “His kids always played hard regardless of the situation, and regardless of whether it was offense or defense his kids were always well organized and knew what he expected from them.”

Hamlin took a nine-year hiatus from high school coaching after the 1988 season until he brought his defensive-minded brand of basketball back to Piscataquis County and his alma mater in the late 1990’s.

“We played really hard-nosed defense at South Portland and took care of the basketball,” said Hamlin, “so when I came back here in ‘96 I started watching games and it would be 84-78 and everybody was running up and down the floor and if you were up five with a minute and a half left you still chucked it.

“We were going to play a different brand of basketball.”

Hamlin’s defense-first mentality helped Penquis win its first Eastern Maine Class C title in 1999, and the next year the Patriots upended Boothbay 58-45 for their first state championship in school history.

“It was really surprising because I had been told by some coaches that it didn’t matter what we did, they were too good,” said Hamlin. “They were 21-0, had beaten (Portland Class A schools) Deering and Cheverus in Christmas tournaments, won every scrimmage and were so big they were like a college team.

“But to win the first state championship here in basketball here was huge. It was big for me because it was my fourth year here and there was some controversy about me coming back so it kind of validated what we were doing.”

Hamlin’s Penquis teams went on to compile a 231-110 record over 17 seasons with 15 postseason appearances, five trips to the Eastern C final, three regional crowns and two state championships — including the 61-54 victory over Boothbay in 2013 that closed down the Bangor Auditorium.

During that last championship run, Penquis yielded an average of just 35.3 points in its four tournament victories.

“The old adage that defense wins championships is an adage for a reason,” said Hamlin.

“We always spent 80 percent of preseason on the defensive end of the court, and we never ever went 5-on-5. By the first game we weren’t very good offensively, but by the end of January we were going to be good because the offense is going to catch up and the defense is still going to be there.”

Hamlin, currently the athletic administrator at Penquis, has spent considerable time since his retirement from coaching as a driving force behind the establishment of the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame along with executive director Steve Pound.

“What we want to do is make this the gold standard for halls of fame in Maine,” he said. “I know the Maine Sports Hall of Fame is big and so is the baseball hall of fame, but because basketball has such a unique place in Maine culture you want to have this be a unique experience.”

That effort has included the establishment of a physical presence for the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame, within the hallways of the Cross Insurance Center, an annual induction banquet and the ultimate goal of becoming the premier historical repository for basketball from around the state.

“It’s a huge obligation that we want to try to fulfill over the many years,” said Hamlin. “But the hall is something we’re pretty proud of and I’m personally proud of what it’s doing and where it’s headed.”