WASHBURN, Maine — Diana Trams had quite a run during her four years as the coach of the Beaver girls’ varsity basketball team.
Taking over for Mike Carlos, whose contract was not renewed despite leading the Beavers to back-to-back Class D titles in 2011 and 2012, Trams led Washburn to three more state championships and coached the 2015-16 team into the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Shead of Eastport.
However, Trams recently announced she is stepping down from the coaching post. Her children are now ages 11 and 6 and she said as a single parent, being away from them so much for practices and games four months out of the year for the past four years was difficult and “I want to be more present in their lives.”
“I will be forever grateful to [former superintendent] Ed Buckley for hiring me to fill the position and to [athletic director] Ron Ericson for having confidence and faith in my ability to do the job,” said Trams, the former Diana Belskis who starred at Ashland in the late 1980s and early 90s, “but although the administration was great and the community support fantastic, the toll of being away from my kids began to weigh on me.”
Following a divorce, she moved back to Aroostook County from Maryland in the summer of 2011 and is grateful that her parents, Peter and Nan, served as “surrogate parents” to her children during basketball season since 2012.
“As parents, I think we always strive to have the perfect balance between work commitments and family,” Trams said. “As a single parent I think that is magnified. It was hard to be away so much during that part of the year — coming home late after each practice or some days not seeing my kids at all if it was an away game.”
Ericson said Trams stepped in under unusual circumstances, taking over a team coming off consecutive state titles, but handled it admirably.
“Diana came into an unusual situation and she did very well and worked very hard,” Ericson said. “She is a very competitive person and she instilled that in her players. Her practices were organized and she demanded a lot from her players.”
He said her performance this past season, the only one that didn’t end with a title, ironically may have been her best.
“She got a lot out of a team that, coming out of the gate, was inexperienced,” he said, “but another basket here or there and they would have been in the state finals again.
“We are proud of what the team accomplished under Diana’s direction and we’re going to miss her, but we wish her well,” he added.
Trams said being involved with the Washburn basketball program was “a wonderful opportunity.”
“As a coach you are able to work to inspire athletes and encourage them to push past what they perceive as limitations,” she said. “It is an amazing feeling to empower young people, help them build confidence and continue to strive to work harder and improve.”
Trams said she considers her assistant coaches — Scott Olson, Andy Churchill, Tammy Tatlock and Jon Poisson — to be lifelong friends and were thankful for the time they put into the program “and everything they did to make the experience better for the girls who participated.”
“I think I had a tendency to take things too seriously at times, and they balanced me out rather well by infusing some humor,” she said.
Trams will continue to work in the district, where she serves as a guidance counselor.
She enjoyed coaching all four seasons and collected some special memories along the way.”
“It will probably be the little things I remember most like turning our pre-game practice prior to the state game in 2014 into a balloon stomping competition to lessen all the pent up anxiety and stress surrounding the potential fourth consecutive title,” she said, “and how could I forget the first moment the girls started belting out Motown hits during the pre-game at tournament my first year. The other team kept staring at them and I was just trying to avoid letting anyone see just how nervous I was. They were so incredibly loud.
“Truthfully, I was a bit mortified but deep inside silently overjoyed — just like a proud parent.”
