Mike Hagerty, the boys’ soccer coach at Yarmouth High since 1997, and a 14-time state champion, making him the most decorated coach in Maine history, announced Wednesday that he is stepping down. 

Hagerty has been wrestling with his decision since at least the end of last season (which naturally, resulted in a Gold Ball), and after much deliberation, met with Sarah Holmes, Yarmouth’s athletic director, last week, then informed his players of his decision Wednesday morning.

“Tough meetings, tough decision. It’s bittersweet for sure, but the time is right,” said Hagerty, who elaborated in a press release.

“The time has come for me to step down as head coach of Yarmouth soccer. I am deeply grateful to the Yarmouth community for embracing me and my family three decades ago and for the unwavering support I have received here.

“Our tremendous success has been a community effort. It reflects our entire program, which includes Yarmouth Community Services, Yarmouth Colts Soccer Club, Frank H. Harrison Middle School Athletics and Yarmouth High School Athletics. I am incredibly proud of the entire program we have developed in Yarmouth, especially our youth program, one that will ensure our high school program stays competitive and successful for years to come.

“While the games and titles we won are a source of great pride, what I will treasure most are the relationships established during my tenure. Those relationships will continue to be a source of great joy for the rest of my life. I plan to stay connected to Yarmouth Soccer at all levels and will always be their biggest fan. I also plan to stay connected to soccer in Maine in other ways, and I am excited to see soccer in our state continue to grow and develop.”

Holmes weighed in as well with a comment in a press release.

“Coach Hagerty has worked tirelessly to create a soccer program in the Yarmouth community that has fostered the love and development of the game from the age of 3 through high school,” Holmes said. “The dedication, energy and knowledge he has shown to this community has continued to elevate the game of soccer and create something that we can all be proud of. With this solid soccer foundation that has been built over the last three decades, we can continue to look forward to soccer success for years to come.”

Legacy

Hagerty was a standout player for Bill Moses at Deering High School in the mid-1980s and after graduating in 1986, went on to play at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

He got his coaching start with the Deering girls, a relatively new program, as an assistant to Gene McClure in 1990, took over the varsity team in 1993 and after missing the playoffs his first two seasons, reached the pinnacle for the first time in 1995, leading the Rams to a 16-2 record and their first Gold Ball, a 4-3, four-overtime win over Brunswick.

“Winning that first championship for Deering is one of my all-time favorite things,” Hagerty said.

“There was no doubt I wanted to coach. I coached youth basketball clinics when I was in high school and I got as excited for those as I did my games. I was so fortunate to have people like Gene McClure and Bill Moses in my life and I hoped to have the same impact on others.”

In 1996, Hagerty took the year off from coaching, teaching in Yarmouth, earning his Masters degree and serving as a soccer official.

The following year, Hagerty was hired by Ken Roberts, the first of his six athletic directors with the Clippers, to take over a boys’ soccer program that had won state titles in 1973, 1982 and 1989 (a shared title with Ellsworth). The previous season, Yarmouth went 7-7-3 and lost to York in the then Western B Final.

Hagerty, who replaced Jeff Neal, now the boys’ coach at Windham, struck gold immediately, literally and figuratively, leading the Clippers to a 14-3-1 record and the Class B championship in 1997, downing Maine Central Institute, 2-1, in the final.

“I got a taste of how good it could be in Yarmouth when I was student-teaching with Rich Smith (the longtime Clippers girls’ soccer coach),” said Hagerty. I saw the youth program and I knew Yarmouth was a town ready to explode in soccer. It exceeded my expectations.”

Over the next six seasons, Yarmouth averaged over 10 wins per year and twice got to regional final (losing to York in 1998 and Scarborough in 1999) but couldn’t reach the state game, due in large part to a Falmouth juggernaut that won four consecutive crowns from 2000-03.

“We won the first year when we shouldn’t have, then we should have won the next two years, but didn’t,” said Hagerty. “The community was patient and I never felt the pressure to win.”

Finally, in 2004, the Clippers broke through again, capping a 15-2-1 campaign with a 1-0 win over Ellsworth to capture the Gold Ball.

Yarmouth repeated in 2005 (going 13-2-3 and blanking Presque Isle, 3-0, in the state final), then upset Falmouth in an epic regional final in 2008 before holding off Presque Isle, 1-0, to capture another Gold Ball.

The Clippers won again in 2010, going undefeated (17-0-1) for the first time, getting past Falmouth in another unforgettable regional final (on Cotter Jackson’s overtime goal) before handling Ellsworth (5-0) in the state game.

After falling short in 2011, 2012 and 2013 (when a powerhouse team was upset by Greely in the regional final), Yarmouth embarked on a run of dynastic dominance not seen before or since.

The Clippers won Class B in 2014 (1-0 over Ellsworth), 2015 (3-0 over Erskine Academy), 2016 (5-2 over Winslow) and 2017 (2-1 over Winslow). Yarmouth was upset by Cape Elizabeth in the 2018 semifinals, marking the first and only time since 2011 that it didn’t at least reach the regional final, but bounced back in 2019 to win the crown (3-1 over Caribou) and after the 2020 postseason was lost to the COVID pandemic, rolling to championships again in 2021 (3-0 over Winslow), 2022 (3-2 over John Bapst) and 2023 (7-0 over John Bapst).

In total, Hagerty has a career record of 371 wins, 72 losses and 58 titles, with a mark of 344-63-48 in his 27 seasons with the Clippers.

Hagerty was named Forecaster Coach of the Year following the 2004, 2008 and 2017 seasons and was named our Northern edition Coach of the Decade for the years 2010-19. He has also received numerous state, regional and national awards.

Hagerty paid tribute to the hundreds of players and many assistants that helped him excel.

“Yarmouth has great kids who are competitive in all sports,” Hagerty said. “We had so many great teams. Undefeated teams, teams that overachieved, teams that had multi-sport athletes, teams that had 11 soccer players, teams that started 11 seniors.

“I’ve had a perfect storm of support from the community and my coaches. I’ve had unbelievable assistants since the very beginning. Several had sons who played for us.”

Hagerty, the longtime husband of Cindy and father of six, got a chance to coach his son Michael and nephews, Aidan and Liam (another nephew, Declan Hickey, was on the junior varsity team this year).

“Coaching Michael and Aidan at the same time was really special,” said Hagerty. “In the 2016 state game, I looked out and my son was in goal and my nephew was at left back. That was a highlight.”

Friends and rivals

In the early years, Yarmouth’s biggest rival was Falmouth, but after the then-Yachtsmen and now-Navigators moved up to Class A in 2013, the Clippers’ biggest obstacles became Cape Elizabeth and Greely. The longtime coaches of those schools paid tribute to Hagerty after the announcement.

“Michael’s treasure to the town of Yarmouth was the time he put in,” said Falmouth’s Dave Halligan. “He put in the time with the program from the very start, from first grade all the way up to 12th. He’s going out on top and leaving the program in a great place and a mark of a great coach like Michael is that they’ll be successful after he’s gone because of what he’s built.”

“In my opinion, Mike Hagerty is one of the best, if not the best, high school soccer coach I have ever seen,” said Mike Andreasen of Greely. “What most impresses me is his ability to administer an entire program from the youth level to the high school program and as a result, his teams never have a down year and are always competing for, and usually winning state championships. He is a man of great personal integrity and requires the same from his teams. Yarmouth always played the right way and exhibited class in victory and in rare defeat. He is a true champion of promoting Maine soccer.”

“Coach Hagerty’s incredible success I believe comes from so many things,” said Ben Raymond of Cape Elizabeth. “He is an outstanding coach that is able to put his players in positions on the field where they will be the most successful, he develops talent, his players are constantly improving and he is willing and more importantly able to change and adapt to what his opponents do or are doing during a match. He has consistently brought out the best in his players and helped them continue to grow as soccer players and as young men.

“He is fully embedded into the community of Yarmouth, not just the soccer community, but all aspects of the town. He has always had high expectations for his players and his teams and helped them to reach those expectations and he has had outstanding relationships with his players and encourages their passion and love of the game. The consistency of his teams over his career is unmeasured. I know competing against Yarmouth has always been a highlight for our teams, when we always know we are going to face a well coached, very skilled, driven and passionate team that will force us to be at our best.

“Competing with Coach Hagerty over the years has made me a better coach and mentor to my players, not just in the sport of soccer but across all three seasons. What Coach Hagerty has been able to do with Yarmouth soccer is something I strive to do with Cape soccer, swimming and lacrosse. Coach Hagerty has raised the level of play in the Western Maine Conference and in the state as well. I will miss coaching against him a great deal next season and high school soccer in Maine will miss him as well. Congratulations to him on a great career.”

Yarmouth girls’ coach Andy Higgins, who spent several years competing against Hagerty when he was the boys’ coach at Gray-New Gloucester, also paid tribute.

“‘Hags” impact goes well beyond a massive number of wins and well-earned titles,” Higgins said. “He preaches the importance of being a good teammate, while being a great teammate himself across all settings. We talk a lot about ‘Iron Sharpening Iron,’ and without a doubt, ‘Hags’ has sharpened a lot of iron during his historic reign. He has positively impacted countless players, coaches and colleagues. For all those he has impacted, we are forever grateful.”

Future plans

Hagerty is hoping that his former player and current assistant coach, Justin Morrill, will be elevated to replace him, but Yarmouth will go through the traditional hiring process.

“Coach Hagerty has left very large shoes to fill and we are dedicated to finding a successor who exhibits the community pride that Coach Hagerty has shown here in Yarmouth since 1997,” Holmes said.

Hagerty, a longtime teacher at Harrison Middle School in Yarmouth, who has also stepped down as middle school basketball coach, is continuing to work with the Maine Lightning soccer program, which he co-founded and co-directs.

Hagerty said he wouldn’t completely rule out a return to coaching down the road, but has no plans to do so, and he promises not to stray too far from the program he’s come to love like no other.

“I didn’t want to hang on too long,” Hagerty said. “I wanted to leave too early instead of too late. I’m still loving it, but our program is bigger than one person and it should be. I’m excited to watch the program continue to thrive.

“I genuinely feel so much gratitude for where I landed. It’s been much more than I could have ever imagined and I can’t imagine that anyone had it better.”

Press Herald staff writer Steve Craig contributed to this story.

Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net.