CARIBOU, Maine — The former Caribou High School boys soccer coach, Mark Shea has been coaching middle school girls’ soccer in Caribou the past five years but is moving back up to the varsity ranks this fall.
Shea was selected to replace Todd Albert, who stepped down in April after 17 years in charge of the Viking girls. Shea becomes the seventh coach in the 35-year history of the girls’ soccer program at Caribou High School.
“I am just super pumped to be coaching high school kids again,” Shea said. “Don’t get me wrong, I really loved coaching at the middle school level and it was a great way for me to transition to coaching girls and I was able to coach my two daughters, but I feel like I am ready to be back at the varsity level.
“Every day you have to have your eyes on the prize, where you can teach more complex concepts and where, for the most part, the kids want to be pushed to work a little harder because they know that hard work pays off,” he added.
Shea said it should be beneficial having coached a majority of the returning varsity players when they were in middle school.
“We know each other and we’re going to hit the ground running,” he said.
Hope Shea, an all-state player, just graduated, but the new hire will get to coach another daughter, Edie, a sophomore who started on last season’s team which finished No. 1 in Class B North before being upset by Hermon in the quarterfinals.
Shea was the boys’ varsity coach at CHS from 2000-2010. While he shared coaching duties with current athletic administrator David Wakana, the squad was Eastern Maine Class B runners-up in 2001. Under Shea, the Vikings recorded a school-best 12-2 regular season record in 2007 and that squad featured All-New England selection Kyle Corrigan, who set the school’s single-season goal scoring record with 27.
Shea served as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, the University of Maine at Presque Isle, in 1994 and coached the junior varsity boys at Caribou for one season (1999) before taking on the varsity position.
Shea also has an extensive resume playing the game. He played varsity soccer at Lawrence High School in Fairfield, graduating in 1989. As a junior, he earned a spot on a statewide all-star team that traveled to London, England, to play in several games. He went on to compete at UMPI from 1989-1993 and spent part of the 1996 season with the Reno Rattlers of the United Systems of Independent Soccer Leagues, the third tier below Major League Soccer, as a member of the reserve squad.
The new coach is looking forward to putting his stamp on the program.
“I try to teach my players to know their position inside and out, to know what to do when they have the ball and how to help out when their teammate has the ball,” Shea said. “And every player on my team knows how to defend. Being aggressive, but playing under control, is central to how my teams operate.”
He looks forward to carrying on what has been a rich tradition of soccer in the community.
“Caribou girls soccer is a top-tier program and has a reputation, year in and year out, of being one of the most competitive programs in the state,” Shea said. “I feel like I can continue that tradition by helping the girls, as individuals and as a team, to truly believe in themselves, to play with confidence, and to do more than they think they are capable of.”
Shea is the venue manager at Nordic Heritage Center and Fort Kent Outdoor Center. He and his wife, Megan, have a blended family of five children.
