Pete Paladino remembers one night at Merrimack College during his assistant athletic director days when Boston University coach Jack Parker was livid, seeking out a Hockey East official after a game controversy.

“Uh, well, he’s up on the roof right now chopping ice,” Paladino told a bewildered Parker.

There was a leak in the roof at the school’s hockey arena, and Paladino needed all the help he could get.

Hey, when you’re helping to run an athletic program at any level, these things happen.

Fast forward to some 25 years later, when a 50-something Paladino would look gassed running up and down the soccer sidelines at Stellos Stadium when a ball boy or girl couldn’t be found. Or one that would do the job the way Paladino would have liked.

“People kept telling me, ‘Pete, you’ve got to take it easy,'” Paladino said.

Well, that day may finally come. Paladino has agreed to transition from athletics into a role at the school in alumni affairs. And, while the member of the Cardinals’ Class of 1981 will still be a fixture at the school, somebody else will be in charge of the athletics program, dealing with the coaches, the student athletes and yeah, the ball boys and girls.

At first, Paladino wasn’t sure he’d like to make the switch. For 32 years, all he’s done is work in athletics. He’s always loved game management. But then, he said, “It was like a moment of clarity. I can’t tell you what it was, but it was ‘Yeah, I want to do this.'”

Paladino has been dedicated to athletics most of his adult life between jobs at Merrimack College, Lawrence Central Catholic, and his alma mater, where he’s been the AD since 2012.

It was time.

“I can’t believe all of the good (family) stuff I’ve missed,” he said, ” because I’ve poured myself into the job.”

In these eyes, being an athletic director, especially at the high school level, is the toughest job in sports. You get pulled in 100 different directions, from parents to student athletes to coaches to the administrators you work for. You have to have patience, clear thinking, see the big picture and basically really love the kids and the school you serve.

Paladino has done all of that.

“I’ve always loved the games,” Paladino said. “I’ve never liked the X’s and O’s but I’ve liked watching the kids and when they did it well, they came off the field, it was all the stuff they do in practice …. all the stuff the coaches have taught them, and it works … just a smile on their face and a high-five from a coach saying ‘See, I told you you could do it.’ Just that sense of accomplishment.”

That’s what he’ll miss the most. Some of the toughest moments he’s had are the frank discussions with coaches regarding their jobs and futures at the school. Or making coaching hires that may have left some other good ones empty-handed. As he has said, “The coach is the key. I always tell them, ‘You’re role is critical.'”

And that’s why Paladino never really looks completely at the won-loss records.

“If a coach is running a great program, and the kids love him and they’ve got a competitive program and the kids are going on to colleges, I don’t have a problem with that coach,” Paladino said. “It’s not about winning.”

He’ll be happy to help begin the process for a new AD. These hirings are always tricky. Just ask the officials on the public side in Nashua, who basically couldn’t find stability in the combined job for North and South for years before striking it rich with Lisa Gingras.

In the building, you’ve got to think this could be assistant AD Steve Duprat’s time, but Guertin will clearly open the job up and go through the process. When Paladino was hired back in 2012, he made it immediately known he wanted Duprat to work with him in that assistant AD role, as he had under Tony Johnson.

But now that Duprat – who is also the BG girls varsity field hockey coach – has spent years serving his apprenticeship, you’d have to think now he would like someone assisting him, not the other way around.

And this is going to be a very different time. As Paladino said, no one knows what the fall will bring in terms of whether there will be kids in the building, kids playing sports.

“We just don’t know,” Paladino said. “Nothing is going to be the same, and there’s a million different factors.”

That might possibly help an insider like Duprat’s chances.

Either way, Paladino will be in the building to help whoever succeeds him, if that help is needed. But he’s certainly not going to look over anyone’s shoulder.

That’s the same philosophy he’s had in the AD chair. He’s always been a big believer in being a resource for a a coach, not someone who would be micromanaging them.

“If you work with (a coach), and start that relationship,” he said, “that’s where beautiful music can be made.”

In nearly eight years on the job, Pete Paladino has clearly struck the right chord at Guertin. And now the Cardinals will hope that tune continues smoothly.

Tom King may be reached at 594-1251 or tking@nashuatelegraph.com. Also, follow King on Twitter @Telegraph_TomK.

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