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STA’s Brown seen a perfect fit as BG names him new AD

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Jun 25, 2020

RYAN BROWN

NASHUA – When you examine it, Ryan Brown appears to be the perfect fit.

He has been the athletic director at a small Catholic high school in Dover for the last eight years. It’s the same school Bishop Guertin principal Jason Strniste came from a few years ago.

And thus Guertin on Wednesday decided on the 41-year-old St. Thomas Aquinas AD Brown as its new athletic director. He succeeds BG alum Peter Paladino, who after a nine-year run as AD shifts over to the position of Director of Alumni Affairs, Annual Fund, and Facilities.

Brown beat out a candidate pool of over a whopping 175 candidates, an incredibly high number for such a position.

“Ryan brings a broad range of athletic and educational experience to Bishop Guertin,” Strniste said in a statement. “He understands our whole-person mission and shares our school philosophy. He will offer much to our athletic programs as they build on a fine athletic tradition of excellence and pride that is shared among Bishop Guertin’s student-athletes, coaches, and alumni.”

“I’m thrilled,” Brown said Wednesday. “It’s one of the most desirable jobs as an athletic director I think in the state of New Hampshire. So that certainly appealed to me.”

Brown has been the AD at St. Thomas for the last eight years, and coached football for the 2017 and 2018 seasons as well as serving as a sub-varsity coach at times for hockey and baseball. He won’t be coaching at BG, he said.

“Starting off and getting used to a new school, there’s going to be a lot to get to know people and understand what makes that place run,” Brown said. “So taking on any sort of coaching would be a lot right now. That’s certainly not my goal going into it in any way.”

Brown is originally from Sandy Creek, N.Y., and played football as an offensive lineman at Middlebury College in Vermont, and has coached some Division III college football. He began his athletic administration as an assistant athletic director at a private school in New Canaan, Ct., and from there went to St. Thomas.

“The school I’m going to, Guertin, and the school I’m coming from are very similar,” Brown said. “Small Catholic schools, education of the whole child is the goal, athletics fits into that, educational athletics is a huge formation of a kid, it’s been part of the mission of the school. I think that’s true of the schools I’ve worked at.

“I’ve been familiar with Guertin, obviously, and Jason and I worked together for a little bit of time.”

Brown is also familiar with BG school president Linda Brodeur and also has worked on the state level with Paladino.

“It just felt like a really good fit based on my past experiences,” he said. “And moving forward, it’s a bigger school than the one I’m coming from, more opportunity, the Division I level. I’m excited to get involved in all of that and go from there.”

Brown has a clear vision of his role as an athletic director.

“My job is to kind of set a path for coaches to be able to successful, right?” he said. “Built around the initiatives of the school, provide the support and the resources they need to be successful and help bring programs together with parents, students and coaches all moving in the same direction.”

Brown was amazed at the high number of applicants for the job.

“I think it’s hard to get 175 people to apply for anything,” Brown said. “So for sure, it’s a huge number, it’s an honor to be picked out of that huge crowd.”

“It’s a reflection of the excellent athletic program at Bishop Guertin, the outstanding coaches and student-athletes, and the overall whole-person mission and high standards of our school community,” Strniste said in an email when asked about the high number. “Clearly, strong candidates were drawn to the opportunity to lead our program into the next chapter of Bishop Guertin’s proud athletic tradition.”

Brown lives in the seacoast area and said he’ll start off commuting. “We’ll figure it out,” he said. “It is what it is for now, it’s an hour drive. We’ll figure out all the details of that stuff as needed.

“My intentions are to be (at BG) long term. It’s a destination job, if you will.”

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