Won 21 state titles, including 17 at Marshwood By JOHN DOYLE December 24, 2010 2:00 AM

DOVER — Rod Wotton spent the better part of five decades mentoring, teaching and coaching thousands of students and athletes. He’ll dedicate the rest of his years to loving and nurturing seven youngsters.

The venerable coach, who for nearly 50 years guided the football teams at South Berwick and Marshwood high schools in Maine, and St. Thomas Aquinas in Dover, called it a career after 342 wins, 21 championships in two states, and countless lives touched.

“It was time,” Wotton said after announcing his retirement to his team on Wednesday. “I’ve got seven grandkids who are into all sorts of activities that I’m missing during the fall. they all play a sport. They’re growing up fast, and they’ll be out and gone if I don’t get to see some of them.”

Wotton, 71, retires as the winningest coach in New England high-school football history, reaching that milestone in 2007 when he earned his 323rd career victory in the regular-season finale at Fall Mountain. At that game, the Fall Mountain public-address announcer introduced Wotton as a “legend.”

“I don’t like being called a legend,” Wotton said then. “It’s something you’re called after you’re dead.”

Regardless of his lack of comfort with the word, Wotton’s achievements are legendary. He won 17 championships in Maine in four different divisions as the head coach at Marshwood from 1966-92. He took over at St. Thomas in 1996 and won four Division IV championships with the Saints, his last coming in 2006, 40 years after his first at Marshwood.

Wotton’s career ended just short of a 22nd title, with his Saints falling 12-6 in the Division V championship game at Kearsarge. St. Thomas was the no. 2 seed in the tournament after going 8-1 in the regular season. Wotton’s last win was a 14-0 victory over Stevens in the D-V semifinals. St. Thomas also lost in the 2008 D-V title game.

Despite the loss in the championship game, Wotton said he has no regrets about how his final season ended.

“The kids left nothing on the table,” Wotton said. “They gave everything they had. Kearsarge was maybe a tiny bit better than we were. I’m extremely proud of them. We didn’t go out as no. 1, but we were darn close.”

For a man who loves family life as much as he loves coaching football, the decision to retire was bittersweet.

“It’s a tough day, but it’s been wonderful,” said Norma Wotton, Rod Wotton’s wife. “Our whole family grew up with it. It’s never going to be the same to go to football games when the players mean so much to you. They’re like sons. but wherever the (grandkids) have games, that’s where we’ll be.”

St. Thomas Athletic Director Jack Leary said Wednesday was a sad day for the school.

“We’re going to miss him a lot,” Leary said. “I’m happy for the kids who had the opportunity to be coached by him and sad for those who won’t.”

Leary said the search for a new coach will begin soon, and hopes to have the field pared down to a final group in March. He also said he hopes Wotton will be involved in the search for his replacement.

“I want Rod to be a part of the selection process,” Leary said. “We’ll look at all the candidates and have a selection by the end of March.”

A three-sport star at Spaulding High School and later a baseball player at the University of New Hampshire, Wotton graduated from UNH in 1961 and began his football coaching career that fall as an assistant at South Berwick High School in Maine. He became the head coach in 1962 and won his first state title in 1966, the same year the school moved to Eliot and was renamed Marshwood High School.

The Hawks went undefeated, won the Class D state championship and Wotton was on his way. He worked at Marshwood as a math teacher and later became a physical education teacher, a position he held until 1994.

Wotton stepped down as coach at Marshwood after the 1992 season, and had a brief and unsatisfying experience as an assistant with the UNH football program. He was soon bit by the coaching bug again and took over at St. Thomas in 1996, inheriting a program with a 15-game losing streak. the streak ended and the following year the Saints made the first of five straight championship appearances. they lost in the ’97 final to Somersworth, 45-0, but soon got it right with three straight titles in 1999, 2000 and 2001.

Wotton was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the early 2000s. Wotton cited health concerns as a reason for choosing to retire now, although he said there were no recent or immediate developments that hastened the decision.

“I don’t have the strength or endurance that I used to have,” Wotton said. “There are a lot of things I can’t do that I’d like to do (in) coaching. It’s just time. it just wears on you. That’s the name of the game, and now you have to live with it.”

While the disease affected Wotton’s movement and speech, it did nothing to diminish his coaching ability. Wotton’s wife, Norma, said that continuing to coach after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s helped Wotton stave off the debilitating effects of the disease.

“When we found out, he said ‘Well, I should go tell the boys I’m retiring,’” Norma Wotton said. “But the doctor said he should continue to coach. it was the best thing he ever did.”

So while coaching gave Wotton the focus and concentration necessary to keep Parkinson’s worst symptoms at bay, he now hopes spending time with his grandchildren and watching them play sports will have the same effect.

“I don’t know how I’m going to act in the fall,” Wotton said. “It’ll kick in around football season, but we’ll have to wait and see. I’ll be a spectator at a lot of games. My wife’s never been to the mountains to see the colors on the leaves in the fall, so I imagine we’ll go up there one day.”

Norma Wotton said the coach hasn’t slowed down a bit since football season ended, and said the couple has already been out numerous times this week to see his grandchildren.

“I hope I can go to games and shut my mouth,” Wotton said with a laugh. “We’ll just watch. I enjoy going to UNH games. I’ll see St. Thomas play, and we’ll probably go to Marshwood, too.”

Foster’s Daily Democrat sports editor Mike Whaley contributed to this report.

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