Monday night was an occasion to honor the players of the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference and Mountain Valley Conference.

Awards were handed out for athletic and academic achievement at championship games played at Cony High School and the Augusta Civic Center. Coaches of the year were also recognized. And although they didn't receive nearly the ovation the players did, they had a greater impact on their programs than anyone else. That's just the way it is at the high school level.
KVAC Class A boys coaches of the year included Cony's Tim Bonsant in the South while Bangor's Roger Reed and Brewer's Clayton Blood shared the award in the North. Bonsant, in his first season at Cony after 14 years at Erskine, had the Rams playing the best ball in the second half of the season. Blood is also in his first year and led the Witches to a 14-4 record after they went 6-12 a year ago. Reed has won seven state titles at Bangor but may have done one of his best coaching jobs this season since the Rams graduated 11 players from last year's squad and are back in contention.
Skowhegan's Heath Cowan was KVAC North girls coach of the year while Edward Little's Craig Jipson earned the honor in the South. Cowan led the Indians to the top seeding in Class A East for the first time after they began the season at 4-3 while Jipson has built the Red Eddies into a perennial power.
The greatest turnaround seasons occurred in the Mountain Valley Conference where Madison's Mike Packard was honored as boys coach and Carrabec's Scott Jones was girls coach of the year. Packard led the Bulldogs to a 13-5 record and a fifth place tournament seeding after the team had not even sniffed a prelim game in five years. Jones led the Cobras to a 13-5 record a year after they went 3-15.
High school basketball coaches receive low pay and high stress for the long hours they put in, not to mention scant praise. It's nice to see them get their due.