Longtime Milford athletic director Marc Maurais says he is stepping down at the end of the school year. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

MILFORD – Marc Maurais stepped into a difficult situation some 30 years ago when he took over as a young, 25-year-old athletic director at Milford High School.

In his words, he was “a young guy going into a big pressure cooker.”

The recipe worked, because the young guy survived the cooker and created quite a meal. Who knew that he would establish a Spartan era that will be part of the school and town’s history forever.

Maurais is calling an end to that era at the end of this school year, by the beginning of July. At that time, Milford will have a new athletic director for the first time in 30 years as he made it public in the last couple of weeks that he’s decided to step down.

Back in the early 1990s, Milford was transition. Souhegan High School opened, taking away students from Amherst and Mont Vernon. Milford Area Senior High School (MASH) became simply Milford High School.

“I think back a lot about those first few years and what a challenge, it was like a mountain to climb,” Maurais said. “There was just so much emotion with that whole split, Milford, Amherst and Mont Vernon. Back in those days, we had a whole lot of teachers who were coaches in the

building.

“The people I worked with were the Bill Browns, the Chuck Robersons, the Dana Bourassas, people who were in the building, gave me the history, and we fought together to keep all the programs that MASH offered. There were a lot of questions about cutting back. Our enrollment was cut in half … But what it did was give kids an opportunity here who may not have thought about trying a sport or a different sport.

“Those first few years were like a mountain to climb. But then we hit our stride, started to develop feeder programs and pride. It’s taken off.”

Maurais oversaw all of that. He is, incredibly, in his 30th year on the job, said he came to the difficult decision in December to step down at the end of the year to take advantage of the district’s early retirement program.

“That was huge,” he said. “The decision to go down this road was made in December. I’ve been keeping it close to the vest for awhile. It’s a very time consuming, stressful at times situation, and I was just ready for a change, and also thinking it’s time for a fresh person to come in with new ideas, the modern skills which I fully would say are not my strong suit. So I think the time is right.”

The 55-year-old Maurais added he doesn’t know what the future holds and has no immediate plans, but expects to work again, whether it be in education, athletics, or otherwise. As he said, told very few people of his decision but in the last couple of weeks has gotten word to many of his coaches, especially those who expect to be coaching in the fall, as he has put in for many of them to return.

Still, the decision was not easy. Back in the early 1990s, Maurais had been the athletic director up north at Pittsburg, where he also coached multiple sports, starting the soccer program there.

When he took the Milford job, he succeeded Bill Dod, who left to become Souhegan High School’s first athletic director. Maurais also succeeded Dod as the head baseball coach for four years at Milford before giving it up to focus solely on his AD job. Incredibly, he has not had any assistant the entire time, although the school’s office staff has helped with much of the clerical work.

Highly respected, Maurais fought the fight to prevent programs from being cut and Milford during his time not only added programs, but also renovated its small stadium with an outdoor track, and now as he leaves there’s a move afoot to try to get field turf installed.

He definitely leaves a legacy.

“It’s hard to know being in it what the perception is,” he said.

And now Maurais can leave with a job well done.

Of course there will be speculation as to who will be his successor; one likely in-house candidate may be Milford Middle School AD Don Gutterson, who also coaches the high school varsity boys basketball team.

“I’ve had a lot of very difficult mixed feelings for the past few months,” Maurais said. “Now I’m just trying to juggle with the spring season and trying to do as much as I can before my time is over to get as much done for next year.”

He has no official last day, but expects it to be sometime after the last middle of June.

Did he ever think he’d be at Milford for three decades?

“Never,” he said. “I knew back then MASH, the history of the school in athletics, I just didn’t realize the quality of the kids and the people in general here. It certainly wasn’t the plan all those years ago, but I’ve enjoyed it.”

But he hasn’t had a family vacation in 10 years. There have been several changes recently in administration.

“I think for me I leave it as work to be continued,” Maurais said. “I find myself struggling and wondering if I’m doing enough. We’re similar to other schools as we’re starting to see some of the numbers drop in terms of participation. How much that is from still recovering from COVID, which has not gone away, is (a question). We still have work to do in that

department.”

And there’s more.

“I think facilities here is going to be a need,” Maurais said. “I was thinking back about that time here and how great it was working and getting that track and field facility done. But now, trying to be a part of getting energy to get the stadium field turned into a (field turf) field. That really needs to happen, in my opinion. Especially in a school here where we have such limited property, and so many programs and community organizations can benefit. I hope you’re hearing more about that in the near future.”

It’s the final piece to the Milford facility puzzle, in the outgoing AD’s opinion.

“We’re almost there,” Maurais said about having a complete stadium facility. “We have a fantastic track that is properly maintained, we have LED lighting. Now it’s that surface.”

But it’s one thing that won’t happen nearly in time under Maurais’ list of accomplishments, of which there are many. Under Maurais guidance, the Spartans added programs, without much subtraction: boys and girls lacrosse, Unified basketball, indoor track, bass fishing, plus ice hockey in a co-op with Alvirne that is signed and sealed for another two years.

Maurais takes pride in all of that, since when he first took the job, with an enrollment cut, athletics could face the knife sharpener as well.

“They very much were looking at a couple of things with enrollment basically cut in half,” Maurais recalled. “Is it time to look at a user-fee system? That came my way early on and we were able to put that aside. For me, one thing I’ve been proud of is we’ve been recognized three different school years for the overall (NHIAA) sportsmanship award. Very happy about that, proud of that, it’s great on occasion to go to other schools, to meetings and hear people say, ‘Your kids and your coaches were great.’ That’s very important to me. That’s a big part of why I got into this. Youth sports has a way of building better people.”

Maurais has had his highs and lows. One high “way up there” was when, in early September of 2008, the Spartans played their first football home game in their new stadium and track after a year on the road.

“I’m looking at a picture right now of people in the stands, the track, the marching band,” Maurais said. “That was a pretty special day.”

A low? One of them was when popular boys basketball coach Dan Murray passed away suddenly in early February of 2021. “Absolutely, those were tough, tough days,” Maurais said. “But looking back on the positive side, those two undefeated years of Dan Murray with boys basketball, being unbeaten, the high of that. And then the complete sadness of what everybody went through with that unfortunate passing.”

Besides Murray, Maurais’ hiring of longtime football coach Keith Jones was one of his best coaching hires.

“Absolutely,” Maurais said. “It’s so difficult to maintain those coaches you want. But to have someone like Keith, who has done so many things and done them so well, for 20 years is really unusual nowadays. He’s just fantastic. A great friend.”

How did Maurais do it all of these years without a right hand person, clerical or otherwise?

“Oh boy,” he said, chuckling. “That could be another conversation. For me I’ve been very lucky that I’ve only worked with four principals – that’s pretty good for 30 years – who have allowed me the flexibility to try to call as many shots as I see them to get done what has to get done.

“And along with that is the secretaries and administrative assistants in the main office, they have helped to carry me. They have been the ones to help with things like preparing handbooks, typing award certificates at the end of the seasons, helping with all of the state deadlines.”

Maurais said he’s had great relationships with the NHIAA heads he’s dealt with: Jim Desmarais, Pat Corbin, and currently Jeff Collins. “That really has helped me a lot, with difficult situations to know you can pick up the phone and be steered in the right direction and help you through your situations.” In 2020, the NHIAA gave him the Anthony “Tony” Urban Award, named for an “unsung hero” of high school athletics. The year before, in 2019, he was named the Division II Athletic Director of the Year.

Maurais has had a very hard time with the decision, and a lot of mixed feelings. He didn’t gather his coaches together, and wanted to wait until the winter season ended. He’d drop the news into a conversation or two; anyone who asked, he’d give them the truthful answer.

“It’s just not my style to put a big thing together,” he said. “I’m not a big meeting guy with coaches; I meet with them daily individually, but as a group, no. I didn’t want to be a distraction. Even now it’s a little bit difficult. I don’t really know how to react, and I think some of them, they don’t know how to react to me. It’s a little awkward.”

“As an AD, he’d stick up for everybody else, and as a coach, that’s what you want,” Milford golf coach Bill Soubosky said. “I liked the way he operates and you can tell he likes the kids.

“Marc is always very thorough. Unlike other ADs, he didn’t have a secretary. He’s just a hard worker and he liked the job.”

To help prevent any delays, Maurais has prepped things for the fall, with coaches and equipment requests, etc.

“I’ve told coaches this is when I’ll probably be leaving, so these are the things you need to do so we can move on,” he said. “For instance, if it’s a brand new coach that was hired in September, they need to have those coaching certifications (completed), CPR, first aid, things like that. So there’s some coaches I’ve been trying to push a little along so there’s no holdup.”

Any other fall sports openings, those Maurais said he’d leave up to the administration. “Those aren’t something I feel I should get involved,” he said, saying that’s for principal Jan Radowicz to decide.

THE FUTURE

Does Maurais still want to stay in athletics?

First, he’s looking forward to taking his first summer off and that family vacation. He hasn’t lined up any future opportunities just as yet.

“I’m looking to see where I can feel like I can make a difference,” he said.

“That’s what I want to do. I don’t know if it’s in education, athletics or in some other field. But I need to be busy, need to be active, and want to be some type of a difference maker.”

Maurais said he plans for a routine early June with fall sports preseason meetings going, “so we’re not going to miss a beat there.”

He assumes his replacement will begin July 1 and he’d be ready to help if need be. He has not recommended anyone, but he does know “there will be quality people in the district and out of the district (who will be interested) that I have relationships with that definitely would be best for me to stay out of that and not have any influence on that decision.”

One thing people don’t know about Maurais is the fact he indeed did coach early on in his Milford tenure, as he did in

Pittsburg.

He does have an affection for baseball, so one has to wonder if he’d get back into coaching.

“I try not to hover around the baseball dugout,” he said. “Four years, those were great days. Loved those kids, loved my coaches. Depending on what’s next, you never know.”

And he coached back then against the man he succeeded, Bill Dod at Souhegan. “Now that was a rivalry,” Maurais said of the competition between the two schools, a rivalry that he agrees isn’t quite the same now.”

“Rollie Hardwick, Bill Dod, those are two guys I learned so much from them,” Maurais said. “Back in my early days, learned so much from Bill as a mentor. Back in those days we as ADs would talk on the phone or have meetings. Those days are not here anymore. Now it’s just a text or an email, so impersonal. But back in those days (Dod) was such a great friend, and still is, and we still get together on occasion.

“And Rollie is still, he is Milford. He’s still at ballgames and it’s great to have him as an athletics supporter. I wouldn’t have done as well without their guidance.”

Those long term ADs Maurais admits are a thing of the past.

“It is though, the 30-year thing, nowadays you don’t see it,” he said. “Years ago you’d see 40 or 50 years. But it’s a hard occupation. On occasion, it can be difficult.”

But you could say that Milford has been the home of three legends in New Hampshire high school sports:

Hardwick, Dod, and yes, Maurais.

“No, no,” Maurais said. “I don’t see myself there.”

And that’s why the Marc Maurais era will go down as a big deal for Milford athletics:

Because the AD never thought he was.