Playing football for two years in the army was an outstanding experience in the athletic life of Coach Sidney Drain, Maine West's gymnastics mentor. Coach Drain was an end on the Fort Knox Tankers in the Second Army division. Among his teammates were Ray Berry at the other end position and Paul Hornung at halfback. Berry and Hornung are now playing professional football with the Baltimore Colts and Green Bay Packers, respectively.

In the fall of 1952, Coach Drain started his college career at Western Illinois University where he majored in business education and physical education. He went out for football and gymnastics, lettering in gymnastics his freshman year and in football his sophomore year. Because

football conflicted with gymnastics meets and practices, Coach Drain dropped out of football and applied all of his abilities to gymnastics. He was conference champ in side horse and parallel bars his junior and senior years. The Western team gained a fifth ranking in the nation during Coach Drain's senior year.

At Maine East, Coach Drain's first teaching job, he started the school's first gymnastics team. After two years of teaching, he was drafted into the army.

Coach Drain came to Maine West in 1959 after earning a M.A. degree in public school administration. He teaches commercial law and coaches both the varsity and frosh‑soph gymnastic teams.