By BRENDAN MCGAIR

Sports writer

LINCOLN --- In the end, Charlie Hien simply couldn’t stay away.
The town of Lincoln, and in particular, the Little League community, is grateful Hien decided to scrap his “retirement” plans after just one summer.
They say you can’t revisit the past. Hien is out to prove you can travel back to a time that provided so many scrapbook moments, moments that he frequently shares with the current crop of Lincoln 11- and 12-year-old All-Stars.
“I talk about my father (the late Randy Hien) all the time with the team,” Hien said. “Every time I mention him, a tear comes to my eye. He brought me the passion to coach Little League.”

Wait a sec. Charlie Hien is back? Didn’t Hien mention around this time last year that it was time to step aside? Didn’t he publicly state his intentions to spend more time with his wife Stacy and 10-year-old daughter Haley?     
Hien expressed his desire for all of the above as he sat in the stands at Saul Tarlow Field in Central Falls last July, watching as the 2007 edition of the Lincoln Little League All-Stars were taking a team picture in center field.
“I’m always watching from the outside,” he said that day. “I’ve put my blood, my sweat and tears onto that field. My favorite team isn’t the Boston Red Sox, it’s Lincoln Little League.”
There is no better way to say this, but 12 months later, Hien is back were he belongs, back coaching the Red & Blue.
He couldn’t be any happier.
“I never realized how much I missed it,” Hien was saying Tuesday afternoon at Sam Moore Field, keeping an eye on his team's practice session in the background. “I just love Lincoln Little League.”
Hien originally plotted his return to the dugout to coincide with his brother, Randall Hien, once he becomes eligible for All-Stars. That happens to be next year when Randall turns seven.
“Randall’s my step brother, but he’s the a spitting image of my dad,” said Charlie Hien. “I coached Little League with Randy for so long (the father-son duo have been side-by-side since Charlie graduated from Eckerd (Fla.) College at age 23. Charlie’s now 38), it’s going to be like I have Randy all over again.
“I’ll have little Randall instead of big Randy. I can’t wait to get on the baseball field with him.”
The “return” Charlie speaks so fondly of was supposed to happen next year. His summer months were supposedly going to consist of family activities, which happened to be the case a year ago.
“We went to Six Flags, Water Wiz and Block Island,” said Charlie. “We had fun. I was comfortable doing what I was doing.”
Then, completely out of the blue, the itch returned. The fever grabbed hold of Charlie and led him to watch last year’s state tournament in Wakefield. That was followed up with drives to Bristol, Conn., site of the New Englands where Randy and Charlie brought six Lincoln squads.
“I really started to miss it,” said Charlie. “It was a homesick feeling.”
The summer faded, eventually giving way to fall and winter, but Charlie still couldn’t get the images out of his head. “It became such a part of my life. It was something that my dad and I loved to do,” Charlie said. “I’m watching in Bristol, and all the memories were coming back to me.”
Go back to July 2006 when rumors spread like wild fire around the King Philip Complex in Bristol that this was Charlie’s swan song as an assistant to Randy. Randy wasn’t going anywhere, but all changed due to the tragic events that unfolded two months later, when the Lincoln Little League patriarch was struck and killed by a motorist on Walker Street.
Charlie was planning on popping by practices and games just because Randy was still going to be running the show. “It throws everything for a loop; everything changed when my dad died,” he said. “I knew the team was in his hands, and I was probably going to come by every day and have my input on it.
“But I needed a little time off for the [family] responsibility. I had done this since I got out of college. I had never taken a summer to myself.”
Now in his 14th summer coaching All-Stars, “Manager” Charlie believes the time he spent away from the Little League Camelot he and his father built from the ground up helped ignite his passion to dive back in. He was able to get in touch with his roots while spending some much-deserved QT with the family.
“Last summer really rejuvenated me.”
It also helped shape Charlie’s future. He’s 100 percent sure that this All-Star go-around with this particular age group will be his last until Randall becomes 11.
Charlie has big plans awaiting him, so big in fact that they are going to carry him out of the country. Daughter Haley is an academic sort, an “A student” says her dad. She was accepted to the Caribbean International Academy (CIA), located in St. Martin.
Classes begin August 18 and Charlie plans on joining Stacy and Haley following the All-Star break-up gathering.
“Some of Stacy’s classes include scuba diving and marine biology. She’s going to become multi-lingual,” said Charlie. “We’ve got an apartment which is only a short drive away from my mother (Susha). All we need is furniture.” 
Charlie plans on flying up to Rhode Island every month just so he can check up on the family business, The Living Room in Providence. The clan will return when Haley is set to head to Lincoln High School.
Commitment is not a new concept to Charlie Hien. Before the sun-drenched beaches come a-callin’, he has an obligation to fulfill, something that is no question near and dear to his heart.
There’s just no other way to describe this man’s passion for Lincoln Little League.
“I asked my wife ‘How would you feel about me doing one last year?’” said Charlie. “For a while, this is my last hurrah.”