TEN QUESTIONS FOR ART KILBORN:

Q: What are the most important qualities you look for in an athlete?

AK: Dedication, loyalty and a work ethic. Someone who will be loyal, not just to me, but to the rest of the team. Athletic ability would be further down the list. I like a kid who has a lot of heart. Some of the better players I’ve coached over the years were not very big in size, but they were big in heart.

Q: What is your most memorable coaching moment?

AK: I had a lot of fun coaching my son, so it would have to be something during those years. I can remember one play vividly. Our quarterback, Matt Hancock, throws it up for grabs and David, with three defenders on him, knocks it up in the air and manages to catch it. He’s carrying two kids from the 20-yard line and a third jumps in there. Now he’s carrying three kids inside the 10-yard line and finally a fourth kid comes up and brings him down.

Q: What was your most memorable playing moment?

AK: I remember a lot of moments in basketball, football and baseball, but I have a good memory of being carried off the field after a win over Kent in our last game of the year. It was a dramatic win.

Q: What is the most challenging aspect of having a son on your team?

AK: I think being fair to him. In the beginning , when he was a freshman in high school in football, I really didn’t think he was ready for the varsity level. He had good skill and size for a freshman and we had a good freshman team and he was a big part of it. But after our second or third game, one of my assistants came to me and said we had to get Dave in there. But that was a tough thing.

Q: What’s it like having a stadium named after you?

AK: It’s quite an experience. I often wonder if any of the kids who go there and see the name associate that with me.

Q: Who is smarter, golfers or football players? (This is a more interesting question because Kilborn’s ace golfer at Lake Region – Kyle Holden – is sitting next to him and suddenly paying attention).

AK: Golf is a thinking game. Football is not really, but you still have to think. But in golf you’re your own worst enemy. If you don’t mentally prepare yourself for that hole or that course, you are not going to play very well. In football you have a chance to get back if you make a mistake. You pick yourself up, try harder and make the other guy make mistakes. Football is a game of mistakes.

Q: What sport, that you have never played, do you wish you had taken up?

AK: Maybe hockey. That wasn’t popular at all when I was a kid. I could skate. I used to participate in barrel jumps when the carnivals came into town. I’d rather not argue now how many barrels I could jump.

Q: What would you like to accomplish in your remaining coaching days?

AK: I’d like to see my son win a state championship. We thought that might happen a couple of years ago. We came close. I’d like to see them do that. They have the right stuff at Gorham and they are very supportive of him. The kids there now understand what it’s all about. And they can play football.

Q: What’s the difference between high school football in the 1970s and high school football today?

AK: The size of the kids. Everybody is a giant today. And another difference is the youth football programs. It prepares them for high school. We didn’t have that. And if they run the same offense, like at Gorham, the kids already know the plays.

Q: If the forward pass was ruled illegal during your football coaching days, what would you have done on third and long?

AK: Punt.

TEN QUESTIONS FOR DAVID KILBORN:

Q: What is your favorite memory from your playing days?

DK: There are a lot of memories. It could be playing in the state championship basketball game against Dexter and winning the state championship. I can still remember walking into the Civic Center in Augusta. Dexter was red and their entire stands were red. That was something, along with our ability to bounce back and win the game.

Our last football game my senior year was a great day too. We played York at Lake Region and we were both 7-1, having lost to Marshwood. It was a great offensive game for us and we won 51-27. Everything came together. And I remember we had SATs that morning and a teammate Gary Stewart walked out of the SATS, he was so nervous. He scored five touchdowns that day.

Q: What is your favorite memory from your coaching days?

DK: There have been a lot so far. But I would say it was a game at Lake Region, our first trip up there (for Gorham) in 2001. We were up 20-zip after the first half, and lost 22-20. But it was the same day they dedicated the field to my dad. That was a good memory.

Q: What are the most important qualities you look for in an athlete?

DK: Somebody who’s never going to die, never going to give up, who’s willing to go that extra mile and won’t cut corners. Somebody with that blue collar work ethic.

Q: If the double wing formation was ruled illegal today, what would you run next Friday?

DK: Gosh, I guess it would be the wishbone.

Q: You know, of course, that would probably be cheating too?

DK: I know. I’d love to be comfortable passing more, maybe have a one-back shot gun, but…(shakes his head and shudders just imagining it).

Q: Who is the best athlete you’ve coached?

DK: Maybe Kendrick Ballantyne, and Nick Russell was a phenomenal athlete at Gorham too. I had a couple of girls at Lincoln Academy. One was Sheana Isabel, a tennis player, believe it or not. She was very rugged and tough, which I liked.

Q: Who was the best athlete you played with or against?

DK: Probably Bobby Wilder, a quarterback at Orono. Or Mike Buck. He and I were freshmen the same year and he ended up playing quarterback in the NFL, for the Saints. But I should pick a lineman, shouldn’t I? Scotty Howe was a good lineman up there and Justin Strzelczyk, who played in the NFL for the Steelers for many years.

Q: What do you listen to on your car radio?

DK: Country. 95.5 is always on. Or it depends what’s on for games.

Q: What is the most important piece of advice you got from your father?

DK: The biggest thing I got from him was the integrity component. To be successful in sports you have to work harder than your opponent and work harder than the guy next to you. Then good things will happen. It’s not a win or a loss that is important, it’s making good things happen. Some of my dad’s best memories were times he didn’t win, but the team bonded.

Q: What’s your favorite Oakhurst product?

DK: It would have to be skim milk, right?