Three years after resigning as coach, McLaughlin is back!
The intensity in Peter McLaughlin’s face grows stronger the more he talks about his Messalonskee boys’ basketball team. To say he is animated is a colossal understatement. This is supernova territory.
Three years after resigning as coach, McLaughlin is back, overflowing with energy, glowing with excitement, eager to lead the Eagles to their full potential – and maybe a lightyear or two beyond that point.
“I’ll be honest,” he said of his return to coaching. “It still feels like a dream. Three years away from it, I missed it more than you could imagine.”
McLaughlin left three years ago because of his move from teacher to administrator, becoming a Messalonskee assistant principal.
His resignation came after a nine-year stint as coach and a successful one at that, including a 2016-17 season in which he led the Eagles to the school’s first ever Class A North boys’ basketball title.
But juggling coaching responsibilities with administrative duties was not an option.
“The expectation of any administrator here is to be an administrator only,” he said.
So McLaughlin did just that – and without complaint.
“I don’t regret it,” he said of the decision to become an administrator. “I love what I do. I love it every single day.
But when the Messalonskee boys’ basketball coach position unexpectedly opened this fall, McLaughlin ached to return to the sidelines.
“It was brutal,” he said of the decision to step away in 2019. “Messalonskee boys’ basketball was an extension of my family.”
McLaughlin takes over a young team, one in which the sophomores (five) outnumber the seniors (three), but it’s a squad that excites him, one that he sees as just beginning to tap its vast potential.
“It’s been a learning process,” he said of the team’s development, “but we’ve made some incredible gains. I think the biggest thing for me is building the trust.”
In McLaughlin view, team and trust are a package deal. Take away trust and the team dissolves. Take away the team mentality and trust evaporates.
And in defining “team,” McLaughlin goes beyond his players. He includes Messalonskee principal Paula Callan and fellow assistant principal Scott Hallett. Without their willingness to take on some of his duties, he said, his return to the court could not have happened.
Messalonskee athletic director Chad Foye confirms that broader definition of team, and he’s enthusiastic about the old coach resuming his duties.
“My first year here [as athletic director], Pete was the coach,” Foye said, “so I knew how much time and effort he put into the program and the intensity he has. So I was confident this could work out.”