On the Road with Washington Academy: Jon Solomon on Bus Trips, Rebuilding Down East and the Kerouac Question

Nobody in Maine high school football logs miles quite like Washington Academy. This week's guest is Jon Solomon, Washington Academy's first-year head coach (and athletic director, and assistant principal), who talks through what it actually takes to get a team from Machias to Kittery and back on a school bus, and why his players don't think twice about it.

Housekeeping: Android and the Playoff Calculator

Two website notes open the show. The Maine Basketball Rankings app is now available on the Google Play Store for Android users, joining the iOS version.

And the long-requested Playoff Calculator is live. It takes Tourney Odds and lets you pick the results of upcoming games ("what if we beat these two teams and that team loses here?"), then simulates the rest of the season to show what happens to seeds and playoff chances. It works for football (Crabtree) and for soccer, field hockey and volleyball (Heal points). It's a subscriber feature, with a share button to send your scenario to your friends. If something looks off for your team, send it in. That's how bugs get found.

Life on the Bus

For Washington Academy, a two-hour trip is a short one. The school's athletic director once looked at a basketball schedule with a trip to Fort Kent on it and called it an easy year. Jon walks through the routine for the long hauls:

• A planned halfway stop near Bangor (a snack and a bathroom break, at minimum) to split a four-hour ride into two-hour legs
• Arriving no later than about an hour and a half before kickoff, with the team on the field around 45 minutes ahead
• Music and speakers welcome on the ride, until about 45 minutes out. Then the music goes off and the bus goes quiet.
• After the win at Traip Academy (66-6), a team dinner at Weathervane before the drive home, and a bus full of players singing what may or may not have been Taylor Swift on the back roads

Washington Academy does have its own charter bus. It's mostly been in Portland for repairs, including one recent attempt to bring it home that ended 45 minutes later when it couldn't get over 30 mph on the interstate. Jon will believe it's back when he sees it.

And the question for the write-up: is Jon the Jack Kerouac of Maine high school football, or the Neal Cassady? Since he isn't the one driving, the answer is Kerouac.

Building a Program Down East

Jon's path to Machias runs from Dorchester and the METCO program in Arlington, Mass., to playing football at the University of Maine, then coaching stops at Bucksport, Hampden Academy and Houlton, plus three years leading Boys & Girls Clubs serving Native American communities in Maine. He took the Washington Academy job on the third time it was offered.

What he's brought with him:

• An identity play. He installed one play first and keeps telling his players a day will come when it's fourth-and-long and they'll ask for it. At Houlton, that day came.
• Simple terminology. After watching Lobster Bowl players learn 60 plays in two days, he threw out his old playbook language so players can line up and play fast.
• Friday night as a community event. Cheerleaders now travel with the team (on a separate bus), Thursday team dinners include the cheer squad, and a trip to a UMaine game is on the schedule.

He also gets into the unusual challenge in Washington County, where roughly 140 kids play flag football from grades 2–8 and most players' first tackle comes in their freshman year. Plus: why Valley is playing in the Maine Independent Football League, and how six-man football keeps small programs alive.

Also in This Episode

• Coaching girls' basketball versus football, and the time Kolleen Bouchard who drew up a whole set on the clipboard in a timeout
• What Boys & Girls Clubs actually do (it's less Mr. T than the movies suggest)
• Why the Down East work ethic stands out, from offseason travel volleyball to fall ball baseball
• How the Lobster Bowl keeps Maine's football coaching community close
• One day of MPA power: move the two-week hands-off period to the start of summer, right after the spring state championships, so teams can work through July and roll straight into the season, and kids still get time at the beach

If you're headed Down East for a Washington Academy game, Jon's food recommendation is Helen's Restaurant.

This has been a production of Maine Basketball Rankings, your source for the most comprehensive coverage of Maine high school basketball, from Ashland to York and everywhere in between. Available wherever you get your podcasts, and in the Maine Basketball Rankings app on iOS and Android. If you enjoy the show, leave a review. It really does help.