New Foxcroft Academy boys soccer coach is inheriting a strong team

By Larry Mahoney, Bangor Daily News Staff

For Mike Rowe, it was a matter of the commute.

He had been driving 42.2 miles one way to get from his home in Corinth to Mattanawcook Academy in Lincoln to coach the boys soccer team.

But when the Foxcroft Academy boys soccer job came open, he didn’t hesitate to apply for it, and he landed the job.

It is 18.7 miles from Corinth to Dover-Foxcroft.

“It’s a lot closer for me,” acknowledged Rowe, who is retired. “And I coached at the middle school level (in Dover-Foxcroft) for one year four years ago, so I know some of the boys on the team.

“It’s nice to be able to come back and coach them,” he added.

The 54-year-old Rowe is replacing John Cornett, who left to return to Georgia.

Rowe was the athletic director at Highview Christian in Charleston from 2014-19, and he coached several sports there including boys and girls basketball and soccer. He also coached JV boys soccer at Hermon High School.

Rowe is inheriting a team that went 8-3-2 during the regular season to finish fifth among 15 teams in the Class B North Heal Points standings last fall.

Foxcroft Academy beat 12th seed Old Town 2-1 in a preliminary round playoff game before losing to No. 4 John Bapst of Bangor 3-0 in the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, his Mattanawcook Academy team went 0-13 in Class C North and was last among the 15 teams. It lost to No. 2 Fort Kent 7-0 in its preliminary round game.

Rowe is a graduate of the former Higgins Classical Institute in Charleston, where he played basketball.

“That was the only sport we had,” he said.

Rowe is enjoying his new job.

“We have a lot of talent. We have a good corps of seniors coming back as well as a good group of underclassmen,” said Rowe, who has close to 40 players in the program. “We have some outstanding athletes.”

Rowe is a defensive-minded coach.

“I build from the back. We will be strong, defensively,” he said. “I’d rather win a game 1-0 than 7-6.”

But he added that he will encourage his backs to help trigger the attack by pushing the ball up to the midfielders and strikers.

“They can get the offense going. That has always been my philosophy, but I haven’t had the bodies to do it. Now I do so we should be pretty strong,” Rowe said.

He had only 17 and 18 players the last two years at Mattanawcook Academy, but he said having almost 40 this season has been “awesome.

“It’s great because it creates competition in practice,” he said. “The players have to work hard, and they push each other.”

He said he has some exceptional senior leaders, and “they are really buying in to what the coaching staff is bringing in.

“Our core values are team respect, commitment, sportsmanship and work ethic,” Rowe said.

Rowe is assisted by JV coach Faleesha Gaylord and volunteer assistant Joel Pratt.

Foxcroft Academy Athletic Director Jackie Tourtelotte said Rowe is a “very positive coach.”

“He encourages and empowers the players,” Tourtelotte said. “He has expectations for them and he holds them to it but does so in a positive way. And he has a competitive spirit.”