Liza Doughty Muth has helped lead the Hermon High School girls basketball team to Class B North championships as a player and an assistant coach.
Now she will have the opportunity to do it as the head coach.
The two-time Bangor Daily News All-State Schoolgirl third team selection and Husson University of Bangor Sports Hall of Famer is replacing her former high school coach, Tim Thornton.
Thornton replaced former Hermon coach Chris Cameron last season and coached a youthful Hermon team to a 5-13 record.
Muth had been an assistant under Cameron and Thornton and she was also the head coach of the Hermon Middle School A girls basketball team.
“I’m super excited to work with girls within the community I grew up in,” said Muth.”There were so many people who spent so much time to help me out and now I get to give back to them.”
Muth began working at the rec level and then got involved in the Junior Hawks travel program. She is the president of the travel program and will also coach at least two teams. She has been the middle school head coach and varsity assistant for “six or seven years.”
She also coaches for Matt MacKenzie at the Eastern Maine Sports Academy in Veazie.
“It has been a lot of fun getting back into this the last several years,” said Muth.
She said one of her primary goals is to create a systematic approach from recreational level to travel to the middle school and the high school.
“I want to get everyone working together and make sure we’re all on the same page so as the girls move through (the system), they will not only have a better idea of the skills we’re going to (develop) but they will learn the verbiage and the language,” she said.
She will stress the fundamentals and will put a lot of work into them so her players will be able to be efficient in basic aspects of the game like rebounding.
“And I hope to get us to play a little more faster-paced game as we go along and move without the ball a lot more,” said Muth. “Defense is also very important to me.”
One of her other “big goals” is to have everyone involved in the offense.
“I don’t want to have just one or two standouts,” said Muth. “This group definitely has the potential to have that (balanced scoring).”
Her oldest daughter, Lydia, was a sophomore on the varsity this past season after being a swing player (varsity and jayvee) her freshman year. She will be a junior. Youngest daughter Madelyn will be a freshman.
She has coached her daughters at other levels and is looking forward to coaching them at the varsity level if they make the team.
“I will be harder on them than my other players. They’re going to have to earn things just as much if not more than the other kids,” said Muth. “But they’re excited and I’m excited to have the opportunity to coach them as well as their teammates and friends.”
Her husband, Jeremy, is the “best support system ever” and she also said Thornton and Cameron have been major influences on her.
“Without Chris, I don’t know if I would have gotten as deeply involved (in coaching) as I have. I’m grateful for all of his support and everything I’ve learned from him along the way as well,” she said.
Cameron called her an “incredible asset to the Hermon basketball community for years.
“As a player, she was a four-year point guard and led the team to a regional championship and state championship appearance (in 1994),” said Cameron, who is now an assistant coach for the Colby College women’s team in Waterville. “That leadership and vision of the game makes her a great coach as well. She was a crucial part of our coaching staff that helped us get to four regional championship games and two state title game appearances.”
