Chris Nelson will not return as Gray-New Gloucester High School head football coach next season.

Nelson, the coach the past two seasons, said he was informed on Nov. 7 that “my contract would not be renewed” for next season by athletic director Melanie Craig when she gave him his end-of-season evaluation.

Craig did not confirm that Nelson’s contract would not be renewed. She said she couldn’t comment on personnel matters. She said she meets with all coaches for an evaluation at the end of the season. All stipend positions, such as coaches, in the school district are one-year contracts, Craig said.

“Every year in June, we post all of our stipends and all coaches/advisors need to re-apply if they are interested in continuing in a particular position,” Craig wrote in an e-mail. She said Nelson could reapply for his position.

When asked about the job Nelson had done in his first two seasons with the Patriots, Craig declined comment.

Gray-New Gloucester finished 1-8 this fall for the second straight year. But Nelson said that with a young program like Gray-New Gloucester’s, progress can’t be measured simply in wins and losses.

“We’ve had rough seasons the past two seasons, but if you watch film from last year and then this year, there’s been a 180-degree turn,” said Nelson, who was one of only two African-American head football coaches in Maine this past season.

Bernie Audet, father of Patriots senior fullback Nick Audet and co-president of the Gray-New Gloucester football boosters, said he was “disappointed” to hear that Nelson would not be back next season.

“The improvements were not measured in games won,” Bernie Audet said, adding that he was not speaking on behalf of the boosters club. “As a parent, I saw improvement in the ability to score touchdowns, move the ball on offense and stop opponents on third down. Unless you’re knowledgeable about the sport, you might not see the improvement.”

Bernie Audet credited Nelson with getting his son exposure to college coaches. Nelson coaches at the Boston College Football Camp in the summer and last summer, Bernie Audet visited and saw first hand the connections Nelson has.

“He’s plugged in and well liked by college coaches,” Bernie Audet said. “He opened doors for my son. He was indirectly responsible for getting my son a scholarship.”

Bernie Audet said Nick loved playing for Nelson and is still deciding where he’ll play in college next season, with several offers currently under consideration.

While Bernie Audet said he won’t second guess Craig’s decision, he did express concern that a third varsity coach in six seasons of existence for Patriots football will make it tough on players.

Craig said she’s confident in the future of the program.

“Our numbers are in good shape,” she said. “It’s a program the community is very passionate about. We’re actively implementing plans to move the program forward.”

Nelson, who was hired under former athletic director Jeff Robbins, said he hoped to stick around long enough to build a stable and competitive program at Gray-New Gloucester.

“I told (Robbins) I want to be here for 10 years,” Nelson said. “We live in Standish. I have a 7 year-old and 4 year-old. By the time 10 years go by, they’d be in high school so I could stop coaching and watch them play. I wanted to be here 10 years to build a program like Mountain Valley and Cape (Elizabeth) and those schools, make it a community program so that every Friday people want to go to the game because we’re going to be playing our butts off, trying to win.”

It was difficult to compete with teams like Cape and Mountain Valley, Nelson said, because many of his players had not played much football prior to high school. He was teaching the fundamentals of catching, running and blocking in practice, while players on the top teams had learned those years before in youth football. A Gray-New Gloucester youth program, incorporating players as young as fourth grade, was recently put in place, Nelson said.

The Gray-New Gloucester position was the first head-coaching job for Nelson, who worked as an assistant for a number of high school programs in southern Maine over the past decade and a half. Prior to taking over the Patriots, he served as an assistant for Windham under Matt Perkins for four years, working with the offensive and defensive lines as well as special teams.

Perkins recommended Nelson for the Gray-New Gloucester job.

“One thing that really jumped out with Chris during his time (with Windham) was he was really respected by the kids and the other coaches,” Perkins said. “He just got along with everybody, a very positive person. Everybody enjoyed him. He’s a hard-working guy who’s really dedicated to what he does and tried to make the people around him better.”

While Perkins declined to comment on Nelson’s situation at Gray-New Gloucester, he said he remains in contact with Nelson, considers him a friend and would recommend him for other coaching positions in the future.

Nelson isn’t sure where he’ll go from here, but plans to coach again soon.

“I’ll wait until the early spring to see what opens up,” he said. “I might be an assistant somewhere or see if a head job opens up. Or I might just take a year off, re-gather and see what happens.”

He said one important factor he’ll look for in any future position is stability of the program.

“For the time and effort it takes to get a program up and running, I’m not going to do it if people won’t support me,” Nelson said. “It’s like banging your head against the wall.”