Kalle Oakes, Staff Writer
Longtime Lisbon assistant wrestling coach Ted Albasini has been working with some of the wrestlers since they were kids just learning.
LISBON — Art, and sports, imitate life.
No surprise then, that Ted Albasini adapts seamlessly to his unglamorous roles of fireman and janitor on the Lisbon High School wrestling team.
As if that didn't put enough hats on Albasini's head, Lisbon coach Mark Stevens calls his longtime assistant the "good cop" in the Greyhounds' camp.
And the job description grows.
Need a paramedic to pop a dislocated elbow and knee back into place? Albasini is your guy. Missing the dollars and cents required to foot the bill for a holiday tournament in New Hampshire or Vermont? Call Albasini. He'll probably find it.
Every successful high school sports program has a half-dozen people doing the thankless work behind the scenes to make things run smoothly. In Lisbon, the magician answers to one name.
"He's the unsung hero in every situation," Stevens said. "He has ways to make things happen, to fix broken things. He's a problem solver."
Funny, because Lisbon wrestling is such an if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it entity.
You can credit Albasini for much of that, too. As an assistant coach since the 2001-02 season, he has been on board for six of the eight Class C state championships in Lisbon mat history. Three other times in that span, the Greyhounds finished second.
Albasini also helped construct that success by guiding the middle school program from 2004 to 2010.
"A lot of it has to do with process. I'm all about steps. Mark is all about just doing it," Albasini said. "It works well for us, because when a guy doesn't know what he's doing, he sends him to me and we drill, drill, drill. All my middle school kids were drilling. That's the foundation."
If it's a small world, there are even fewer degrees of separation in the world of wrestling.
Stevens, the Lisbon native, and Albasini, the Californian, first connected in the mid-1980s when they were stationed together at Loring Air Force in Limestone. Albasini met Stevens through the latter's wife, Gretchen, with whom he was taking college classes.
Upon getting out of the service, Albasini landed a job with the Brunswick Fire Department. That coincided with his first stint as an assistant coach at Lisbon.
His second go-round came in the early 1990s. One of Albasini's neighbors had a son in the junior high program, so he volunteered his services to the head coach — Mark Stevens' brother, Rocky.
Lisbon High was defending state champion in late 2001 when Albasini showed up at one of the first practices of the season.
"He said, 'Could I work out with you guys?' I said, 'You look familiar.' And he's been with me ever since," Stevens said.
The coaches bring different styles to Lisbon's humble training quarters at MTM Community Center.
Albasini is the quiet bystander who dutifully sweeps the mats before each practice.
When a wrestler needs a clinic in the kinetics of a move or a simple pat on the back, Albasini is at his best.
"I think what makes our tandem unique is that we have that good-cop, bad-cop thing going. Sometimes we switch roles," Stevens said. "It works, because you've got to have some guy that snaps the whip, and another guy who says, 'Hey, you're OK.'"
"Mark teaches a move. I teach how to do the move," Albasini added. "I break them down. A move is usually broken down into five or six different steps. I do the technical stuff. He does the flashy stuff. He's very good at it."
Albasini's background as a first responder makes him the point man when the Greyhounds have an injury.
He steps up in times of financial emergency, as well. Out-of-state trips have been on the verge of cancellation when Albasini stepped up to make them happen, Stevens said.
True to form, Albasini shrugged when asked about his donations of time, talent and treasure.
"The trips are the best part. We do a lot of traveling. We have so much fun. When the kids give us their memories of high school wrestling, it's never on the mat. It's hard practices and the fun on the trips," he said. "They have to work so hard to get here and compete, so we make it fun."
Albasini's experience and dedication saved the day at the end of the 2012-13 season.
The state championship meet was postponed a week due to a winter storm. Stevens and his wife prepaid for a February vacation cruise to the Virgin Islands, and he was unable to attend on the rescheduled date.
With Albasini running the show and mom and dad getting play-by-play updates via cell phone, Mark and Gretchen's son, Zach, won his second individual state title by virtue of a tiebreaking maneuver in the closing seconds.
"That couldn't have happened without Ted," Stevens said. "I have total faith in him."
It's all part of the extended passing of a torch.
Zach Stevens is a senior, and Mark already has announced that this will be his farewell season as Lisbon's coach.
Nothing is official yet, but both men hope that Albasini will be next in line.
"I just retired from Brunswick Fire, and that was my whole goal when I retired," Albasini said. "I just got a job as a custodian from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. That was part of the deal. It had to allow me to coach."
And clean. And sweep. And heal. And encourage.
"You can't forget about guys like Ted," Stevens said.