When Harry True tells the story of how he chose his wife, Sandra, the setting is, of course, a basketball court.

“She is the only one who could beat me in 21,” the 78-year-old True says, “so I married her.”

Family and basketball are still intertwined for the man who has been teaching the sport to young people for 49 years. His son, Paul, is head coach of the girls team at Lake Region High School, and when the Lady Lakers take on Presque Isle for the Class B state title tonight in Bangor, Harry will be there on the bench, an assistant to his son.

“He holds his temper in much better than I did,” Harry says about the youngest of his five children. “He knows how to teach basketball, and those kids love him.”

Harry True not only brings decades of coaching experience to the bench, but 42 years of teaching experience, as well as a life of service.

He grew up in Gorham and played baseball and basketball at the University of Southern Maine, where he’s in the athletic hall of fame. True served in World War II and in Korea. He taught history, geometry and physics, among other subjects, and he also served as headmaster at both the Maine Central Institute and Fryeburg Academy. In addition, he’s been a state legislator and a local selectman in Fryeburg.

And for nearly a half-century he’s been coaching basketball.

“The first nine years I coached both boys and girls together,” he says. “I used to be in the gym from 2:00 to 9:00, and my wife would say, ‘Why don’t you sleep there. You might as well.'”

His children became quite familiar with the game, especially Paul, who was always shooting around or hanging out on the bench.

“We had the keys to the gym and that’s where we grew up,” Paul says.

Not long after he took over as coach at Skowhegan, Paul asked his father to be an assistant for him. After seven years with the Indians, Coach True took over at Lake Region last year. His favorite assistant came with him.

“It’s just been fantastic,” Harry says. “He does what he thinks and every once in a while he asks me, ‘How do you think this will work?’ Whenever I say something he knows that it’s up to him, and that’s the way it should be.”

Lake Region athletic director Todd Sampson calls Harry True “a great resource,” and says the man hasn’t missed a day of practice in two years.

“He’s just that father figure. The kids call him ‘Coach Bampa’,” Sampson says. “He loves every kid that comes through the door.”

“He brings fun to our practices and games,” says Lakers senior Samantha Allen. “He’ll come up with these random comments that we’re not really thinking about, but then he brings it up and we say, ‘Oh yeah, that’d be a good idea.'”

After Lake Region beat Fryeburg Academy in this year’s regional semifinals, Harry was feeling a bit torn about beating the school where he’d been a faculty member for so long. True noted that he’d taught the parents of four of the players on Fryeburg’s roster.

Two days later, the Lakers won the Western Maine title with a victory against York, and one of the most moving images after the game was the embrace between Paul and Harry.

“It’s very fitting and familiar that we’re here together,” Paul says. “He’s been a hero to me my whole life, and to have him here with the team is something special.”