– Fairfield football legend Pete Cooper
– Pete Cooper, Fairfield football icon.
The Passing of Pete Cooper: A Legend in Maine High School Football
FAIRFIELD — Years before Pete Cooper became a Maine high school football coaching legend, Mike Mealey knew from the start that something special was in motion.
Mealey was senior captain of the Lawrence High School football team in 1969, Cooper’s first season as head coach of the program. It would be the only season he played under a man who would become one of the state’s greatest coaching icons.
“We were 7-2 and had a heck of a year,” said Mealey, who went on to play at the University of Maine before joining Cooper’s coaching staff at Lawrence. “That was the beginning of Lawrence… We knew right away they were going to do big things.”
Cooper would certainly do so over the next three decades at Lawrence, where he became one of the state’s all-time great coaches and where the Bulldogs’ home field, Keyes Field at Pete Cooper Stadium, now bears his name. Earle “Pete” Cooper died Thursday evening at MaineGeneral Health in Augusta, his son Kevin said Friday. Cooper was 83 years old.
“My whole family knew (Thursday) was going to be a tough day,” said Kevin Cooper, 57, of Buxton, the football coach at Bonny Eagle High (Standish). “Many of his former players and colleagues reached out, which meant a lot to me. It’s pretty easy to see the impact he had.”
Longtime close family friend John Suttie, superintendent of RSU 23 in Old Orchard Beach, said Pete Cooper leaves a lasting legacy.
“I spent a long life with him,” said an emotional Suttie, who played on Lawrence’s state title-winning teams in 1983 and 1984 before coaching with Cooper at Lawrence and later at Bonny Eagle High. “When he was in high school, he was revered as a larger-than-life figure and he had the ability to make us play really hard; You would do anything for him.”
A Coaching Career Filled with Success
In his 28 years at Lawrence, Cooper won 10 regional titles and coached the Bulldogs to three of their four state championships (1973, 1983, 1984). Prior to his retirement, he was the winningest active coach in Maine high school football with a record of 205-96-6.
A few years after leaving Lawrence, Cooper joined the coaching staff at Bonny Eagle, where his son Kevin was head coach. There, he helped build another powerhouse as the Scots won Class A state titles in 2004 and 2005 with the elder Cooper as a team.
“He came to me as coach in 1999,” said Kevin Cooper, who led the Scots to seven football state championships. “Back then I needed coaches. I’m taking this brand new job and needed help. I needed a good coach. That’s how I saw it. It has become much more.”
Suttie said his time with Cooper on the Bonny Eagle coaching staff was the two’s best memories together. Suttie said Pete Cooper went from a stern disciplinarian at Lawrence to a “patient, grandfather-like” figure at Bonny Eagle.
Steve Letourneau, who played with Suttie and Kevin Cooper on Lawrence’s 1983 and 1984 state championship-winning teams, said Pete Cooper was a great communicator. Win or lose, he said, Coach Cooper always seemed to be on the same page with his players.
Cooper’s coaching style seemed to fit the young Letourneau’s needs perfectly. Not only did he challenge his players, Letourneau said, he also helped establish a culture in which those players challenged each other – and his authenticity only added to his long list of successful coaching attributes.
“He wasn’t the type of coach to cheer you on and praise you every five seconds, but the moment you improved on something he’d been telling you about, he was the first one (there) and showed great enthusiasm and excitement,” Letourneau said. “I’m a little guy and needed a little extra push, so this style of coaching worked for me.”
A Rivalry to Remember
During Cooper’s coaching tenure, Maine high school football had several other powerhouses. Among them was nearby Winslow, with whom Lawrence shared a rivalry that few teams in the state could rival in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s.
The Bulldogs and Black Raiders met in the Class B final three times: 1973, 1984, and 1986. Lawrence won the championship in 1973 and 1984 before Winslow prevailed in 1986.
Mike Siviski, 76, coached Winslow for 35 years before retiring in 2020. He said competing against Cooper and the Bulldogs brought out the best in both programs.
“A lot of times if you wanted to win something you had to go through Lawrence,” said Siviski, who won seven state championships at Winslow. “Everyone respected him. We had some super battles. It was really intense and without those rivalries, it just wouldn’t be fun. The rivalry between Lawrence and Winslow was something special. Pete was just fantastic. I am very sad about his death. We will miss him dearly.”
A Lasting Impact on Those He Touched
Letourneau, Mealey, and Suttie all had one last chance to spend time with Cooper before his death. Mealey paid him a visit last Monday along with a former Lawrence colleague and assistant, Dan Dangler. Suttie visited him last Friday and planned to do so again this Friday before learning of his death. Letourneau saw him on Thursday, just three hours before his death.
All three men agreed that these experiences will last forever. Cooper, Mealey said, was still as sharp as ever, and Suttie, who spent six hours at his former mentor’s side, said the two spent the time reminiscing about slightly different eras, as he did called it an “incredible day.”
“When I think of him now, I think of our time at Bonny Eagle, but his mind was still in the ’70s and ’80s,” Suttie said. “He was talking about beating Winslow in the state championship, and I said, ‘That was the best day of my life, Pete.’ We had so many great days… Without him, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Central Maine sports editor Bill Stewart contributed to this report.
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Fairfield football legend Pete Cooper passed away at the age of 83
Pete Cooper, Fairfield football legend, dies at 83.
