For Greely High School boys’ soccer coach Michael “Mike” Andreasen, winning comes from focusing on the journey, not the destination.

“What I’ve learned over the years, if you focus on championships … they don’t come,” said Andreasen, also known by his players as “Coach A.”

“I think sometimes we worry so much about the final destination, winning this, winning that, when really the season is a marathon, it’s not a sprint,” he said.

Sometimes teams finish first in the marathon. Last fall, this culminated in Greely’s boys’ soccer team winning the Class B State Soccer Championship. They had an undefeated season, the first in school history.

“I know coaches use the old cliche, a once-in-a-lifetime type of team, but in this case I kind of believe it. It was a group of kids that were on the same page, rolling in the same direction,” said Andreasen.

The same philosophy of patience and stamina applies to Andreasen’s career in coaching. In January, Andreasen’s 33 years of coaching soccer at Greely High School and this stellar season earned him the National Coach of the Year for Large Schools Award from United Soccer Coaches.

“It was really, really nice,” said Andreasen. “Although we had a really, really good year, I think a lot of it is the fact of it’s a lifetime achievement thing, too.”

Andreasen has coached boys’ soccer at Greely for 27 years, and girls’ soccer there for six. He also teaches history at Gray-New Gloucester High School, coaches their girls’ basketball team, and ran the Cumberland Soccer Club for many years. Andreasen has won the State Coach of the Year several times for both soccer and basketball, but to be honored at the national award ceremony in Chicago was an unexpected highlight, he said.

“I was driving to a soccer practice when I got a phone call. It was 9:30 at night, and some gentleman from Indianapolis … calls us and says, ‘Hey, you’re the national winner.’ And say, holy moly,” said Andreasen.

Andreasen was also honored at the Maine State House for this national recognition on April 16. Rep. Anne Graham, D-North Yarmouth, welcomed Andreasen and read the sentiment to the House. She has a personal connection to Andreasen as well. He not only coached her children in soccer, but her husband Ron Graham has been Andreasen’s assistant coach for 18 years.

“My family moved to North Yarmouth over 30 years ago. We met Mike and his wife, Kim, as he coached and ran the Cumberland Soccer Club,” said Anne Graham in her remarks read on the House floor.

“Mr. Speaker, taking words from Ted Lasso, ‘Football is life’ fits Mike and his family (and my family too),” she said.

Ron Graham has observed and collaborated with Andreasen on the soccer sidelines for almost two decades.

“He’s very deserving of this award,” said Ron Graham. “He’s been doing it forever.

“He’s a very good coach, he’s very knowledgeable about the sport,” he said.

Andreasen said that over his years of coaching, he has learned that it is not about wins in the end, but the relationships formed. It’s what has kept him coaching this long, he said.

“And as long as I continue to feel like I’m helping the development of kids in their growth, then I’ll keep coaching.

“People said to me, when do you think you got to retire? And my answer to them is: When it’s no longer fun,” he said.

Andreasen said he views the National Coach of the Year award as a community accomplishment, not an individual victory.

“I look at coaching awards more so as a team award, because they’re the ones, obviously, that got me there,” said Andreasen.

“The communities of Cumberland, North Yarmouth, are so passionate about soccer, and they’re so supportive of soccer,” said Andreasen. “I think this is a testament to our community.”