Marisa Kelley said she is “very excited” to coach her alma mater’s girls basketball team at Hermon High School.
“This is my home. I went to school here and I played here,” said Kelley, who was an assistant coach for the Hermon High boys team last season under Mark Reed after spending the previous four campaigns as the John Bapst High School girls coach in Bangor.
Kelley played soccer, basketball and softball at Hermon High.
“As soon as the job opened up, it was a no-brainer,” Kelley said about her new role for the Hawks. “I had to jump on it.”
She said working under Reed was an “incredible opportunity” to learn from both Reed and assistant Matt Murray.
You couldn’t ask for a better mentor than Mark Reed,” Kelley said. “Just his knowledge of the game and the way he shows consistency and value to his players is unmatched.”
She said that both Reed and Murray are great coaches. Her biggest lesson was about how to approach coaching players in both girls and boys basketball.
“Personally, the biggest thing I learned is that they aren’t girls basketball players and they’re not boys basketball players,” Kelley said. “They’re basketball players and that’s how we have to treat them. They can reach anything as long as you allow them to have the chance.”
She said she had a “great experience” coaching at John Bapst. She felt she and former assistant Matt Smith did some “incredible things” with what they had there and said that he has continued that legacy as the head coach.
John Bapst reached the Class B tournament semifinals last season for the first time in several years.
But Kelley found it “really hard” to build a program at John Bapst because the private school attracts players from a number of different towns, so they don’t have a well-established feeder system. And they don’t have their own gym for games, just for practice.
They play their games at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
“It’s a completely different atmosphere at Hermon,” Kelley said. “You have your own practice facility and game facility, you have a feeder program and a community that wants to see you succeed. It’s a really good culture to come into.”
She said trust and respect will be key in winning over the players.
“They’re going to have to trust me and I’m going to have to trust them,” Kelley said.
“I think I have the skills to earn that very quickly and get us on the right foot,” Kelley added. “Nothing is going to be easy, but with my connection with the community and having prior experience at John Bapst, I really think we’re off on a good foot.”
Kelley captained the basketball and softball teams at Hermon and played for the 2010 softball team that won the state Class B championship.
She went on to play basketball at the University of Maine at Farmington.
She spent four seasons as Chris Cameron’s assistant with the Hermon girls and one year assisting Chris Woodside at John Bapst before taking over for Woodside as the head coach.
Liza Doughty Muth was the Hermon girls coach last season and guided the Hawks to a 10-8 record and a seventh place finish in the Class B North standings.
Tim Thornton coached the Hawks during the 2023-24 season after succeeding Cameron.
Cameron had spent eight seasons on the bench at Hermon and led the Hawks to two Class B North titles and an overall record of 112-33, including the postseason.
He left to become an assistant coach with the Colby College women’s program.
Kelley, who teaches third grade in the Hermon school system, said she has already been involved with the feeder system.
“We have some big events and ideas up our sleeves to make sure we are all connected and that we truly grow from the bottom up,” Kelley said.
She said the first day of practice, Nov. 17, can’t come soon enough. And she’s planning to wipe the slate clean.
“Everybody will start from the bottom. Nobody has a spot,” she said about the Hawks roster. “We get to build together and see what works.”
