The fish in Cold Stream are going to have company soon.
And the fishing line that will be dropped into the stream will belong to Gerald Hutchinson Jr.
Hutchinson is retiring after spending the last 22 years as the athletic director at Penobscot Valley High School in Howland. He spent a total of 52 years between Penobscot Valley High School and the Hichborn Middle School, also in Howland.
He will be replaced by Jeremy Durost, who assisted him this past year and is the girls soccer and boys basketball coach at PVHS.
Hutchinson’s contract runs out on July 1.
Hutchinson had been the wrestling coach at PVHS for 25 years before stepping down in 2010 after amassing a 514-140-7 record and five consecutive state Class C titles between 1991-95.
He has been inducted into the University of Maine Presque Isle Sports Hall of Fame, the Maine Amateur Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame and the New England Secondary School Principal’s Associations’ Wrestling Hall of Fame.
“I’m going to miss it,” said the 74-year-old Hutchinson, a Millinocket native. “But I think it’s time.”
He added that his daughter, Heather Campbell, built a camp on Cold Stream and he wants to enjoy it with his family.
“I love to fish but hadn’t been able to do much of it. I bought a boat so I’m going to be on the water a lot,” Hutchinson said.
He said being inducted into three Halls of Fame and eclipsing the 500-win mark as the wrestling coach “are a very big deal to me.”
His resume is a long and impressive one.
The former math and driver’s education teacher began coaching a variety of sports when he came to the Hichborn Middle School after he graduated from UMPI, where he played three years of soccer despite not having played it in high school because his high schools didn’t offer soccer.
He was also a three-year manager for the wrestling and basketball teams at UMPI and was the school’s first sports information director.
It is at UMPI where he developed his love of wrestling. He took over the PVHS wrestling program in 1991.
The man people call “Hutch” has also spent more than 10 years umpiring baseball and softball games along with more than 20 years refereeing soccer, including 12 state championship games. He also officiated basketball games.
He has served on a number of Maine Principals’ Association committees and has done the scheduling for the 43 Class C and D Penobscot Valley Conference soccer teams on both the boys and girls sides. He had also scheduled golf and tennis matches.
“I loved scheduling,” Hutchinson said. “It’s challenging but I love working with numbers.”
When Hutchinson was in high school, he had been the manager and kept the statistics for the Stearns High School boys basketball and baseball teams, which were both coached by George Wentworth, who was inducted into the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame.
More recently, he had the pleasure of watching his two granddaughters collect three state championships between them at PVHS.
Rylee Buck was the shortstop on the 2017 softball team that snapped Richmond’s 88-game winning streak with a 4-0 win in the state Class D title game. Two years later, left fielder Emma Buck and her Howler teammates topped Greenville in the state championship game 11-6.
In 2021, Emma Buck and her cheerleading squad captured the virtual D title, ending Central Aroostook of Mars Hill’s seven-year reign as state champ.
Hutchinson and his wife of 50-plus years, Patty, also have three grandsons in Maryland through daughter Megan.
Hutchinson said even though he will be retired, you can expect to see him at PVHS games this fall.
“I’m still part of the community. I will miss the kids and interacting with them. But I will still go to their games. I love soccer and softball,” Hutchinson said.
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