Gavin Kane has served as the head women's basketball coach at UMPI for 6 years. Kane, who was inducted into both The New England Basketball Hall of Fame and the Maine Basketball HOF, has led the Owls to a continued progression of success over the past 3 seasons. His Team finished 15-10 during the 2022-23 season while making the North Atlantic Conference Playoffs for the second consecutive year following the covid-shortened 2020-2021 season.
Kane is well known around the state of Maine for his unparalleled success as a high school coach, but also has NCAA Division I and Division III coaching experience with assistant coaching stints with the University of Maine - Orono women's basketball team (2009-2011) and the University of Maine at Farmington men's basketball team (1994-1996).
Kane's coaching resume includes 17 conference championships, 12 Western Maine Championships, seven State Championships, and an overall head coaching record of 522-117 at the High School varsity level.
Kane started his coaching career at Rangeley Regional High School where he took a program that had been 1-35 in the previous 2 seasons before his arrival and led the Rangeley boys varsity team to a 110-68 overall record from 1985-1994, highlighted by capturing the 1989 Class D State of Maine Championship. Kane moved to the college ranks as an assistant coach for Maine Basketball Hall of Fame member Dick Meader at the University of Maine at Farmington for the next two seasons where Gavin was involved directly with scouting, recruiting, practice instruction, and player development.
While also spending time as an assistant at UMF, Kane took over the girls varsity basketball program at neighboring Dirigo High School in Dixfield, ME. The next 13 seasons leading the Dirigo Cougars would prove to be one of the most dominant stretches in Maine High School basketball history as the Cougars would go on to amass a 263-17 overall record, including State Championships in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2005. Dirigo also broke a state record, winning 11 consecutive Western Maine Regional Championships from 1995-2005.
From 2005-2007, Coach Kane would take on the task of coaching both the Dirigo girls and boys varsity teams, before moving over to coach the boy's team exclusively for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons. During his four seasons at the helm of the Dirigo boy's program, Kane compiled a 74-10 record which included three consecutive Mountain Valley Conference Championships (2007-2009), a Western Maine Championship in 2009, and a State Runner-up. Kane was instrumental in the development of center Tom Knight who went on to play for 4 years at D1 University of Notre Dame.
In 2009, Kane returned to the college ranks serving as a D1 assistant coach for the women's basketball team at the University of Maine at Orono. During his time at UMaine, Kane led recruiting efforts across the United States and Canada. Along with recruiting, Kane spent time with opponent scouting and game preparation, player development, and held many administrative duties which included coordinating the UMaine Women's Basketball Youth Summer Camp. Kane successfully recruited Ashleigh Roberts to the Black Bears where Roberts would go on to be the 11th All-time Leading Scorer in UMaine Women's History.
After the 2010-2011 season, Kane returned to Western Maine where he coached the Spruce Mountain varsity girls, leading them to a combined 55-4 record, including back to back Mountain Valley Conference Championships in 2013 and 2014 before moving to his alma mater Mt. Blue High School of Farmington, ME. Kane coached the lady Cougars for two seasons from 2014-2016 before stepping away from Coaching for a season to watch his daughter Caitlin play college basketball at Maine Maritime Academy.
At every stop along the way Kane's philosophy has stayed the same. "My philosophy has always been based on work ethic, trust, commitment and togetherness," Kane said. "With these team characteristics I strongly believe that we will enjoy continued success here at UMPI
Kane was also announced as the UMPI Head Men's Golf Coach in June of 2019 and just completed his 4th season with the golf team. He coached High School Golf Teams at Jay and Dirigo High Schools. Kane was also, the Club Manager at Wilson Lake Country Club for 10 years and at Oakdale Country Club for 2 years.
