DOVER-FOXCROFT– When Toby Nelson took over as interim boys varsity basketball coach at Foxcroft Academy, Nelson knew that he had at least one month with his team. Nelson now has much longer than that. On Thursday afternoon, the interim tag was removed and Nelson was named varsity coach for the Ponies.
“I am beyond excited for the opportunity to coach this group of young men,” Nelson said, “I learned a lot about myself this past season. You always have a tinge of self doubt but after we got into the schedule, I really felt like I belonged there on the sidelines. We had a really coachable group of kids that wanted to get better and wanted to win. That helped a lot.”
The Ponies were well out of a tournament spot when Nelson took over on January 3rd. The team kept improving and had big heal points wins over Hermon and Washington Academy. Those wins got Nelson’s group into the Class B tournament where they played a preliminary round game against MCI. Foxcroft would fall to the Huskies by a score of 75-69 in a game the Ponies showed a lot of fight, including battling back from a significant deficit in the final minutes before falling just short.
“We have a good group of kids coming back and our incoming freshmen a more strong in skill and numbers. We can’t change overnight, but we can change some things to point us in the right direction,”Nelson said. “It’s no secret I love FA. I am humbled when I think of the coaches that came before me and I just want to make sure our kids learn something about basketball and even more about life. If that happens, wins will come.”
Nelson, the Chief Communications Officer at Foxcroft Academy, had been a freshman and JV coach at FA for the last three years before moving to the varsity team. He is no stranger to the game of basketball as he has either played, officiated, or broadcasted it in Maine for the last 35 years.
Tim Smith, Associate Head of School and Athletic Administrator at FA said in a social media post, “as an administration, we were happy with the job that Toby and his staff did with the basketball program through the end of the season. We picked up a few really nice wins and had the opportunity to compete in this year’s playoffs. That’s all positive, but the growth of our student-athletes on and off the court during that time is an even better story.”
Foxcroft picked up three of their five wins during the 2019/2020 season after Nelson took over, including the wins over the third seeded Raiders and fourth seeded Hawks.
