Olore gives up PI baseball post
By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
PRESQUE ISLE — Tim Olore, who coached the Wildcat varsity baseball team the past 28 years, has decided to retire after a successful career.
Contributed photo/jMavor Photography
TIM OLORE encourages a player from the third base coaching box during a varsity baseball game this past spring. Presque Isle’s varsity baseball coach since the mid-1980s, Olore has decided to step down. He finished his Wildcat career with 266 victories and his team qualified for the playoffs in 23 of his 28 seasons.
“There was something inside me that told me now is the time to get done,” Olore said. “I still love the game and I’m as competitive as ever, but the time was right and I wanted to get done on my terms.”
Olore, 52, did not rule out coaching again in the future, but admitted if that happens it would most likely be in Florida, where he and his wife, Carole, have lived the past two summers after purchasing a home in the Orlando area in 2010.
He will continue his career as a teacher at Presque Isle Middle School and plans to coach the eighth-grade boys’ basketball team again this winter.
Olore built an impressive coaching resume, having recorded 266 victories (171 coming during the 18 seasons as a Class A program) against 203 losses, with his teams qualifying for the post-season 23 times.
“I’ve always been proud to be a Wildcat and am proud of what we were able to accomplish,” Olore said. “We had obstacles like the northern Maine weather and having to travel and play a lot of doubleheaders, but I felt we were always able to compete against the best.”
His 1991 team was Eastern Maine Class A runners-up. Under his tenure, the Wildcats won five Big East Conference titles. Olore was named the league’s Coach of the Year on three occasions.
He also served as director of the Presque Isle Recreation and Parks Department summer baseball program for 28 years, was the founder and director of Wildcat Baseball School for 14 years and organized spring trips for his varsity teams to Florida for 14 years and to Plymouth, Mass. and southern Maine for another 12.
“I gave up entire summers and April vacations to build a program for the kids, and I don’t regret one thing I did,” Olore said. “It was a lot of work, but it was fun.”
He said he also takes a lot of pride in the current baseball complex, which began developing in his early years as a coach and now includes lights and a press box and is a “great facility for the players and the fans alike.”
Under his coaching, 79 players were named conference all-stars, with three named MVP. He coached 18 senior all-stars, nine all-state players and two Mr. Baseball finalists.
Jim Saucier was Caribou’s coach from 1989-2003 and squared off against Olore on many occasions. He said he always respected Olore and the job he did with the Wildcat teams.
“He was one of the most prepared coaches I have ever seen,” Saucier said. “He always did a great job scouting his opponents and his teams were always ready to play.
“Tim was very intense and demanding, but that’s what made his teams so successful,” he added.
Olore said he was glad to have the opportunity to turn Presque Isle baseball into “a relevant program that was well-respected wherever we went.”
He was especially appreciative of superintendent Gehrig Johnson and past administrators Frank Keenan and Larry Hallowell, who he said had the faith to hire him in 1985. Olore said his wife has been “with me every step of the way and really sees what a coach goes through.”
Olore was a standout player at Presque Isle High School, graduating in 1979. He went on to attend the University of Maine at Presque Isle and played baseball there as well, making the All-New England team before graduating in 1983.
He went on to play in the Tobique League with the Presque Isle Sonics and later in the Canadian Senior League, where he was named rookie of the year, pitcher of the year and MVP.
He had a tryout with the Cincinnati Reds’ organization while in high school and was scouted by the Toronto Blue Jays as a collegiate player. Olore was inducted into the UMPI Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009.
