KENNEBUNK — Far from burnt out on the game he loves, Charlie Burch has decided to take his coaching talents to the next level.

The Kennebunk boys lacrosse coach for the last 12 seasons has decided to step away from the team and join the coaching staff at the University of New England as its top assistant, he said on Monday. He’ll remain a U.S. history teacher at Massabesic High School.

“Everyone (in my family) thinks it’s a right idea and the right time,” Burch said.

He joins the college coaching ranks that currently employs his two step sons — Nick Myers is the head men’s lacrosse coach at The Ohio St. University and Pat Myers is the top assistant at the University of North Carolina.

How Burch, who turned 55 last week, came to this point was just a matter of timing, he said.

He had worked with Nor’easters coach Jon Hunt at camps and offered to volunteer with the team during the fall, but he underwent rotator cuff surgery at the beginning of the school year and only made a few practices.

This past spring, though, Burch was with the team up to three days a week, went on a few road trips and was on the sideline for a handful of home games, mostly helping with the defense.

“(Hunt would) ask me questions, I’d give him advice,” Burch said. “Then he called me up this spring and said one of his young assistants wanted to step up the ladder and if I’d be interested in working with him. We had some talks and I talked a long time to my wife about it.

“I talked to Nick and Pat about it — got advice from two guys in the family coaching at the college level.”

Working with NCAA players, Burch remembered his playing days at Colby College and leapt at the opportunity to be among them.

“I realized how much fun it used to be,” he said, “and how the kids who play there are playing for the love of the game.

“The factor was to go coach at the next level. There’s no travel involved, I don’t have to move and I can keep teaching, obviously.”

Burch leaves the high school game with a career record of 289-102-1, a mark that includes 12 years as the head coach at Cape Elizabeth (1986-1997), where he went 160-39 while the sport was in its early stages of development in the state.

He joined the Rams in 1998 and led them to consecutive Class B runner-up plaques in 2006 and 2007. Additionally, he’s coached 20 High School All-Americans in his 24 years, was a six-time league Coach of the Year, and was named the 2009 U.S. Lacrosse Maine Man of the Year.

This past season, Burch coached Kennebunk to a 7-7 record and a trip to the Western Maine Class A semifinals, where it lost to Scarborough on Saturday. He admitted that coming into the year he was unsure if the team would even make the playoffs.

“I’m pretty proud of what we did this year,” he said, “for as many freshman as we had to play. I knew it could be a struggle to make the playoffs with the schedule we had, but to go as far as we did, they can be pretty proud for being such a young team.”

Just 11 shy of the 300-win plateau, Burch said that while it was a goal of his to attain, he couldn’t pass up this chance to coach at the college level.

“It was a dream of mine and to get there would be an exclusive club in high school or college,” he said, “but I wouldn’t just keep coaching high school to get (win No. 300) over this opportunity. But you never know, if something comes up five years from now, (maybe) I can get those 11 wins.”

Burch joins a Nor’easters program coming off their most successful season. They finished with a school-record six wins and earned their first postseason berth.

“We are extremely excited to add Charlie to our staff,” Hunt said in a release, Monday. “He will provide us with a deep understanding of the game, and he knows what it takes to be successful. Charlie’s expertise and experience will be huge assets for our program.”

The task of finding Burch’s successor will likely fall to Thor Nilsen, Kennebunk’s incoming athletic director, who will take over for the retiring Marty Ryan on July 1.

Also, Burch becomes the third York County high school coach hired by UNE within the past year. Last summer, former Biddeford hockey coach Jamie Gagnon was tabbed as an assistant to UNE hockey head coach Brad Holt. In April, former Biddeford softball assistant coach Dan Letellier was named as UNE head softball coach.

— Contact Chris Brockman at 282-1535 ext. 317 or at cbrockman@journaltribune.com.