Chris Thurlow spent 22 seasons coaching the Orono High School hockey team and then the Old Town-Orono cooperative team, including the last seven seasons as the head coach.
But he told the Bangor Daily News on Monday it is time for him to step down.
“I was pretty fortunate to walk into the head coaching post when we were loaded with talent and we had a lot of success,” said the 48-year-old Thurlow. “But we’ve been trying to rebuild the last couple of years, and it has been very challenging. Sometimes that rebuilding process takes a lot of you as a coach.”
Thurlow, who was an All-Eastern Maine Class B defenseman for Orono High School, said he was exhausted after the past season and didn’t know if he had the energy required to be enthusiastic every day.
“I thought it was fair not only to me but to the program to let someone else come in who has more energy to put into it than I currently have,” he said.
The open head coach position has been posted to RSU 34’s website, and the school district is accepting applications.
The Old Town-Orono Black Bears went 2-15-1 this past season and failed to qualify for the postseason for the first time under Thurlow as the head coach.
Thurlow guided the team to Class B North championships in each of his first two seasons (2018-19, 2019-2020) before losing to Greely of Cumberland Center in the state title games.
He concluded his tenure with a regular season record of 49-53-4, but his teams went 7-5 in the playoffs and won at least one playoff game in four of the five seasons they qualified including a stunning 3-1 upset win as the eighth seed over top seed Messalonskee of Oakland a year ago.
“That was pretty cool,” said Thurlow.
There wasn’t a Maine Principals Association season for 2020-21 because of COVID-19, although the teams did play other teams in their local area.
The Black Bears won the State Class B title in 2017-18 under Denis Collins. Collins stepped down after the season, and Thurlow took over.
The Black Bears beat Greely 3-2 in overtime in the state game.
That was a special memory for Thurlow.
“No one gave us a prayer to beat Greely,” he said.
Going to the state game the following year was another highlight. He knew they were going to have a good team, and there was a lot of pressure on them.
“It was a big relief to get back to the state game. We lost, but we won our league and there was a lot of pressure so it felt really good to kind of complete the task,” Thurlow said.
One of his regrets was the COVID-19 season because the team had strong players and beat Bangor by three or four goals during the local pod games. “We’ve never beaten Bangor,” he said.
Thurlow said he was glad he was able to be involved in the merger between the two schools prior to the 2013-14 season.
Since Orono had a low number of players and Old Town was coming off an 0-18 season, the two schools became a cooperative team.
“I take pride in being part of that, keeping the programs together. Everyone always wondered how it was going to be because Old Town and Orono were rivals growing up but it was a credit to the kids,” Thurlow said. “They got along pretty well. A lot of times, you couldn’t tell who was from which school. The kids bought into being a team.”
The goal that won the team’s state title in 2017-18 was scored by Orono’s Ben Alan-Rahill set up by Old Town’s Jake Dubay.
Thurlow admits that it will be strange not to be coaching after all these years, which included 10 seasons under Greg Hirsch and five under Collins, but he said he is looking forward to getting back into skiing. He said he didn’t have time to ski while he was coaching.
He will continue to follow the team and said its future is bright thanks to a large number of freshmen and sophomores who contributed last season.
“They could be back in the top four next year or the year after,” he said. “I’ll be cheering them on.”
