“When the post was open previously, I had thought about it at the time,” Remington said Monday morning after socceer practice with the Blue Devils. “The size of the school and team, that really appealed to me.”

So when the position became available this past offseason, Remington jumped at the chance. He weas hired last spring, replacing Butch Dow, who stepped down after four seasons with the Blue Devils.

“I thought this was a good opportunity,” Remington said. “I had been at (Class) B-size schools. I thought maybe I’d jump up to a bigger school and a bigger program.”

Remington was at Poland last year. That came after two seasons away from coaching while doing some officiating. Though coaching the Knights went well last fall, the chance to coach at Lewiston also made the commute easier.

“Poland was a great place to be,” said Remington, who teaches at Oak Hill Middle School. “I really enjoyed the team and working with Don King (the athletic administrator). The travel commute was getting tough on me. I’d be leaving school and have a 30-minute drive and then have 40 minutes to get back home.”

The fact that Lewiston has struggled in recent seasons provided Remington a tempting opportunity as well. Lewiston went 0-12-2 last fall and went 3-9-2 the season before. The Blue Devils haven’t made the playoffs since 2006.

“I thought this was going to be a great opportunity and challenge to try to build the program back up,” said Remington, who also had stints with the Oak Hill girls and the Maranacook boys.

The Poland vacancy was filled by Tim Dolley, the JV coach that worked with Remington last season. Dolley is the Knights’ third coach in as many years.

Remington coached the Lewiston team during the summer and had the chance to set the tone for this fall. He had anywhere from 22 to 28 players on a regular basis and had a few more try out in Monday’s first practices. In addition to summer soccer, the school had a strength and conditioning program in which the players were involved during the summer. Remington often attended for those workouts.

“I feel going into the season, being my first season here at Lewiston, I know them better than some of the other teams in the past,” Remington said. “I had more opportunity to see them, and that helps.”

The Blue Devils have been a hard-working team that have been competitive with many KVAC clubs, but Lewiston just hasn’t been able to turn some of those close games into wins.

Lewiston graduated some veteran talent in Morgan Bowen, Maegan Mathon, Sam Cote, Jess Cote, Cassie Regner and Mikaela St. Laurent, but there’s a solid nucleus of younger talent returning. Remington liked what the players showed this summer and sees potential for this fall.

“I think the teams in our league will be surprised by the level of play that we’ll be bringing onto the field,” Remington said.

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