New coach wants to bring varsity football back to Washington County
Ian Pratt is back coaching football in Washington County.
Pratt, who guided the Calais Silverados to Class C North playoff appearances in their first three seasons, will be the head coach for the eight-man Washington Academy club team in East Machias this fall.
He is replacing Rich Olivares, who is WA’s assistant head of school and baseball coach.
He is hoping to return the Raiders to varsity Maine Principals Association-sanctioned eight-man North Small Schools status in 2024.
Olivares led the Raiders to the championship in their four-team club league, which also included Presque Isle-Caribou, China and Berlin, New Hampshire.
Washington County has not had a varsity program since 2021. WA had to cancel its season because it had just eight players available for a controlled scrimmage at Ellsworth just a week before the team was going to make its debut in eight-man football.
Calais had a team from 2008 to 2011 before low numbers forced the school to shelve the program. That was in the 11-man football days. Eight-man football didn’t begin in the state until 2019.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” said the 51-year-old Pratt. “We have over 30 kids signed up for it. I can’t say enough about the teams in this league. It’s a good group. We’re all interested in giving the kids a chance to play football, having fun with them and teaching them about all the positives of football.”
Pratt has coached football at different levels in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, and Washington County for all but two years between 1999 and 2021.
He lives in Robbinston, which is a 52-mile drive to East Machias. His son, James, is a junior at WA and a cornerback on the football team.
Pratt, who owns two car dealerships in Calais, praised Olivares for the job he did resurrecting the program last season and leading it to a title.
Washington Academy will have a JV program in addition to a varsity team this fall, and Pratt said “that should help us a lot in the future.”
Washington Academy fielded its first varsity football team in 2011, and the Raiders reached the Class D North semifinals in 2018.
The Raiders went 0-7 in 2019 but had a large group of returning seniors in 2020 only to have the COVID-19 pandemic cancel the season.
One of the primary reasons football has struggled in Washington County in recent years is the lack of a feeder system.
Pratt intends to address that by trying to get football implemented in the middle schools with a co-operative team among several schools being possible.
The former Stearns High School multisport athlete said he wants his team to not only return to varsity status in North Small Schools eight-man class and be competitive but also “be a perennial playoff-caliber team.”
“I want to have great quality football again Down East,” he said.
He wouldn’t be opposed to WA being part of a co-op team if other Washington County schools had players who wanted to play varsity football at WA. The team starts practice on Aug. 7.
Pratt noted that football has always been well-supported by the community and students at their games.
“Football is more than just a sport,” said Pratt. “You become a young man. It builds a lot of character, resilience and discipline.”