Coach, player who helped Cape Elizabeth football win title reunite at UMaine
Maine running back coach Sean Green encourages running back Nick Laughlin between plays during the team’s scrimmage Monday at Alfond Stadium in Orono. Green coached Laughlin at Cape Elizabeth.(Rich Abrahamson/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
View 7 photos
ORONO — Nick Laughlin reached down to the brace around his left knee and fidgeted with it, making sure it locked on nice and tight. If he was being honest, the brace was a little uncomfortable.
“I’m still getting used to wearing a brace,” Laughlin said after the University of Maine football team’s intersquad scrimmage Monday afternoon. “I’m just going to have to deal with it.”
Laughlin is on the mend from the torn ACL that ended his breakout season with the Black Bears on Oct. 11, 2025. While the brace is foreign and awkward and takes getting used to, a key addition to Maine’s coaching staff does not.
The new running backs coach, Laughlin’s position coach, is Sean Green, who was Laughlin’s high school coach at Cape Elizabeth.
After coaching Cape Elizabeth to the Class C state title in 2021, and Laughlin to a Fitzpatrick Trophy finalist season in 2022, Green moved on to Portland. There, he coached the Bulldogs to the Class A championship in 2024 (Cordell Jones, who was a standout at Portland under Green, is a freshman wide receiver with the Black Bears). Last season, Green was the quarterbacks coach at the University of New England.
Related
More commentary from Travis Lazarczyk
All the time he was away from Laughlin, Green followed his former star’s career. When the opportunity came to coach him again, as well as all the talented backs in Maine’s offense, of course Green was excited. Laughlin is still the same smart football player he was in high school, still the hard worker Green met as a high school freshman years ago, only now with more experience. He’s still a Weeble as a ball carrier, able to take contact and stay on his feet.
Advertisement
“Nick is the most consistent football player I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if there’s anything I’m seeing that’s surprising me,” Green said. “I think he’s a guy who can affect the game in a lot of ways. The run game, the pass game, and he’ll be on special teams units as well. I expect some big things from him this year.”
Green kept things to himself as he went through the interview process with Maine head coach Jordan Stevens, never tipping off Laughlin about the potential reunion. Laughlin got the news in a team meeting.
“Coach (Green) couldn’t say anything to me. But when I found out, I was super excited to have a great coach on the staff,” he said. “He’s a smart guy, and he’s coming in here and he’s leveling up our football IQ every day and coaching us and getting us better. … There’s no surprise that at Portland, they went and had a state championship run both years, and at UNE one of their best seasons. I’m definitely excited to have him here.”
Being together on the field again brings back memories for both. Yes, they won that Class C Gold Ball five years ago in a 51-8 rout of Winslow at Fitzpatrick Stadium, but it’s the regional final at Leavitt that Laughlin and Green recall with the most fondness. That was a 25-23 win, with the Capers running out the final 10 minutes of the game and scoring on the final play to secure victory.
Cape Elizabeth’s Nick Laughlin break through a tackle attempt by Winslow’s Travis Reed during the 2021 Class C state championship game. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
“Ten minutes, six seconds, 56 yards, 18 plays, all runs, four fourth-down conversions. Nick had two of them,” Green said , rattling off the numbers as if the game had just ended. “It was a great game.”
Before he felt his knee pop while scoring a touchdown in the first quarter of a win at Merrimack last season, Laughlin was enjoying a strong season. He had 34 carries for 164 yards and that touchdown, while catching 11 passes for 202 yards and two more scores. It was an abrupt conclusion to a season that began with promise when he moved from wideout to running back in the spring.
“I was finally getting my vision as a running back going. We just ran an inside zone down on the 1-yard line. I had a big D-lineman roll up on me. I felt it all go. I knew right away,” Laughlin said.
Now healthy and getting back in the running back rotation, Laughlin feels good. Once he took that first hit, it was just football again.
The relationship with the knee brace? That’s going to take getting used to. The relationship between player and position coach? That’s as solid as ever.
Copy the Story Link
Tagged: cape elizabeth capers, Sports Columns, travis lazarczyk, UMaine Black Bears
Travis Lazarczyk has covered sports for the Portland Press Herald since 2021. A Vermont native, he graduated from the University of Maine in 1995 with a BA in English. After a few years working as a sports. More by Travis Lazarczyk
