William “Bill” Casavant of Presque Isle and Steve Shaw of Mars Hill are the latest inductees representing the Northern Region of the Maine Sports Legends Hall of Honors. The honor is presented to men and women for their extraordinary commitment and work behind the scenes to help students excel in both academics and athletics. Both will be inducted at the Maine Sports Legends annual banquet, to be held in Waterville Oct. 7.
Bill Casavant
Casavant is a longtime educator, coach, official and radio broadcaster who is a former athletic director and current admissions director at Northern Maine Community College.
He was an outstanding athlete in high school in Holyoke, Mass. He graduated from UM-Presque Isle in 1972 and was a three-sport athlete in soccer, basketball and baseball, and even coached the freshman basketball team as a senior. Casavant received his master’s degree in education from UMaine in 1980.
His professional career began in Limestone and he spent eight years there, teaching physical education and coaching soccer, basketball and baseball. In 1980, he became the Director of Physical Education, Athletics and Intramurals at Northern Maine Vocational Technical Institute (now NMCC). Coaching basketball, first at UMPI and then at NMVTI, he was named conference coach of the year three times and led the Falcons to two conference championships. Casavant was inducted into the UMPI Owls Athletic Hall of Fame in 1990.
In 1996, Casavant was named director of admissions at NMCC and gave up his coaching position. He remains active in athletics as a baseball umpire, having served in that capacity for 37 years. He is the interpretor and assigner for the Northern Maine Board of Approved Baseball Umpires and has umpired nearly 40 high school regional and state championship games.
Casavant also served as a soccer official for 25 years and as a basketball official for five seasons.
Casavant is also renowned as the radio voice of high school basketball in Aroostook County, beginning at WEGP in the mid-1980s and continuing with Channel X Radio through the last season. During his 23 years, Casavant received the Big East Recognition Award in 2004 and the MIAAA Award for Electronic Media in 2006.
He is leaving the broadcast booth this winter to serve as an assistant basketball coach at Caribou High School under his oldest son, Chris.
Casavant is a member of Presque Isle Country Club and serves on the Presque Isle Recreation Advisory Board. He and his wife, Daryl, have three grown sons, Chris, a physical education/health teacher at Caribou High School; and Matthew and Nicholas, who are both Maine State Troopers. He has five granddaughters and another on the way in the fall.
Steve Shaw
Shaw is a longtime educator and coach who serves as the athletic director for the Easton school district.
He graduated from Aroostook Central Institute and was later awarded a bachelor’s degree from Gordon College in Wenham, Mass. and a master’s in education from the University of Southern Maine.
He was a two-sport athlete in basketball and baseball at both ACI and Gordon. He served in the United States Army for three years with a tour of duty in Vietnam. While in the service, he played on several Special Services basketball teams and competed in the Fifth Army Championships. In 1975, he played for Venture for Victory Basketball and toured Kenya, Ethiopia and Egypt, competing against those country’s national teams.
Shaw has been employed by the Easton School Department for 38 years. In 1969, he became a history teacher and the boys varsity basketball coach. His teams made it into the Eastern Maine Tournament in 13 of his 15 seasons at the helm. Under Shaw’s leadership, the Bears won the EM tourney in 1980.
In 1990, Shaw took a coaching position at his alma mater, now Central Aroostook High School, and led the Panthers into the EM tourney four consecutive years. His 1993-94 team captured the school’s first boys state championship. He was selected Class D coach of the year both in 1994 and 1995.
He is well regarded both as a classroom teacher and a coach for the high standards he set for both his students and athletes.
In addition to his duties as athletic administrator at Easton, Shaw still plays basketball on a regular basis. He has served as a basketball field tester for Nike shoes for the past 20 years and gives shooting clinics and basketball clinics throughout the United States and Eastern Canada.
Shaw is involved in numerous professional associations, serving as chairman of the Mars Hill Planning Board, a former member of the Easton Kiwanis Club and on the Maine Sports Legends executive committee.
Shaw is currently associated with Sports Power International, a touring team made up of former NBA Christian players. He has acted as an assistant coach for the organization and is a patron of the team.
