Joe Oufiero, left, takes over for Scott Graffam, right, as head coach of the Oxford Hills boys basketball team this season. Oufiero is a longtime basketball, baseball and football coach for the Vikings. Brewster Burns photo
Oxford Hills will have new boys’ and girls’ basketball coaches this season, an unfamiliar experience for both programs. However, both coaches are quite familiar to the programs and to the school.
Joe Oufiero is replacing the retiring Scott Graffam as the boys’ basketball coach, while Cimeron Colby is taking over the girls’ program after the departure of three-time state championship coach Nate Pelletier, who left to become the athletic director at Windham High School.
Oufiero and Colby are longtime assistant coaches in basketball and other sports at Oxford Hills. Colby also was the head coach of the boys’ lacrosse team for 10 seasons.
Pelletier had coached the girls’ program since 2005. Graffam had led the boys since 2000, but it was his second stint with the Vikings.
He started his 41-year coaching career in 1983 at Oxford Hills. He later coached at Scarborough and Medomak Valley, his alma mater, before returning to Oxford Hills in 2000. During his time leading the Vikings, he led them to state finals in 1990 and 2022.
He was inducted into the Midcoast Hall of Fame in 2019 and the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022.
“I think the thing I’m most proud of about being at Oxford Hills was when I first got there in 1982, they hadn’t made the tournament in 20 years and I had to build a program from the bottom up,” Graffam said. “With the help of many, many people, not just me, we were able to build a program into a viable basketball community, because it’s football and baseball up here, pretty much, and basketball was just something to do in between those two seasons.”
Graffam, who retired from teaching five years ago, said his decision to retire from coaching was fueled by a desire for more time with his wife and to watch his grandson play middle school basketball.
Oxford Hills head coach Nate Pelletier reacts as his team takes a commanding lead early in the second half during a January 2023 game against Cheverus in Paris. Brewster Burns photo
Pelletier’s career move from Oxford Hills to Windham came a year earlier than expected – especially since his daughter, Ella Pelletier, is about to start her senior season with the Vikings.
Nate Pelletier said his goal was always to be an athletic director.
“I think that I was ready to move on and change my career,” Pelletier said. “I love athletics, I have a passion for all athletics, and I got to this year, already, to see volleyball in action, which something that Oxford Hills doesn’t have.”
Pelletier’s coaching career started as an assistant at Edward Little, then former Vikings and Red Eddies athletic director Jeff Benson encouraged him to apply for the girls’ basketball opening at Oxford Hills. He led the Vikings to three state titles (2019, ’20, ’23) and six appearances (’08, ’14, ’17, ’19, ’20, ’23).
“My wife and I raised our family here,” Pelletier said. “Our first kids weren’t even born when I started teaching here; and had two kids (Ella and Teigen), and just it was a great place to raise our family. It’s a place that we love to call home.”
Ella Pelletier recently signed to play basketball at Stonehill College, while Teigan – who played three seasons of basketball for Graffam and won state championships in football and in the high jump for Oxford Hills before moving on to St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire – has committed to play football at Harvard.
ASSISTANTS STEP UP
Colby’s three kids each went to Oxford Hills – Jayden Colby (Class of 2016) and Julia Colby (2020) both played basketball for Pelletier. His son, Cameron Colby, graduated last year. Julia Colby was named Miss Maine Basketball in 2020, and finished her college basketball career earlier this year at Division II Southern New Hampshire University.
Colby graduated from Oxford Hills in 1994. He was a three-sport athlete, participating in football, wrestling and lacrosse. After college, he returned to Oxford Hills in 1997 and coached those same three sports until 2009.
“When my girls started to get into sports, I stepped away from coaching, and then dove head-first in the basketball, coaching them from younger ages up through,” Colby said.
Since 2017, he has been Pelletier’s assistant with the girls’ basketball team, including all three of its state championships.
“I had a pleasure coaching on Nate for eight years, and it was the opportunity of a lifetime, really,” Colby said. “I got to pretty much learn under him, which you don’t always get (at) 40 years old.”
Pelletier said he’s happy Colby was tabbed to continue the program, because he “really understands the game of basketball.”
Oxford Hills assistant coach Cimeron Colby talks to Gabbie Tibbetts during a game last season. Colby replaces Nate Pelletier as the Viking head coach this season. Brewster Burns photo
“We’ve got a great staff that’s shaping up, and we have huge shoes to fill,” Colby said. “The program, in my opinion, in the past 15 years has been one of the elite programs in the state. To even approach that level is intimidating; that’s something that just doesn’t happen by accident.”
Oufiero’s experience is similar to Colby’s. He served as an assistant coach in football, baseball and basketball for the Vikings since 2002.
He was a football assistant alongside Colby and current head football coach Nate Danforth 20 years ago, and Oufiero said it has been surreal seeing the trio each move from assistant to head coaching roles this year.
As head basketball coach, Oufiero said he wants to continue the intensity and effort Graffam brought to every practice and game.
“He’s been my assistant coach for the last nine years, so he’s well prepared to do what he wants to do,” Graffam said. “It’ll be seamless, pretty much. His knowledge is good, as long as he can get some people around him that can help him like I was able to do.”
Oxford Hills Athletic Director Kevin Ryan said the two new coaches will bring a lot to their programs. He called Colby a “go-getter,” who’s heavily involved in the finer points of the game.
“I think that (Colby) learning under Nate is going to be a big attribute, but I think he’s got a lot to offer to the program, and I believe he’ll also get the most out of the girls,” Ryan said.
Ryan said Oufiero’s familiarity with Oxford Hills athletes will be an advantage as a first-time varsity head coach.
“He’s consistent throughout with his style of discipline, his style of work, his style of effort, and his expectations are consistent, which the kids are aware of, and they’re also familiar with,” Ryan said.