WATERBORO — As Tim Spear assumes his duties as Massabesic High athletic director, he doesn’t have to learn his way around the school’s campus.

He knows every inch of it.

He knows all the student athletes, too.

And for that matter, he knows what type of athletic esprit d’corps he wants to bring to the school, as it grapples with the challenges of funding and particpation.

After all, you can’t help but learn a lot about the pulse of a school community after years of wrapping it’s ankles, icing its shoulders, and taking its temperature.

That’s what Spear has done since 1999 as the school’s head athletic trainer.

Now he’s ready to tackle a new and bigger challenge.

“I feel pretty good about it,” said Spear. “There’s a lot of things I think we can do. It’s not going to happen overnight. We’re in a great area.”

Spear takes over for Chris Daigle, who resigned the post after two years.

He’s says he’s ready to hit the ground sprinting, and put the task of breeding a culture of athetics on the campus and in the community, as his first order of business.

“The first thing we need to do here,” he said, “is to get our student-athletes excited about playing athletics again. I think we’ve seen a downturn in the last few years in the number of kids participating in our programs. From the middle school right up through the high school. I don’t know if our kids have been all that excited to play athletics and this program, and generate that pride we’ve had in the past. Certain programs (Spear cited football and wrestling as examples) have had that, but as an athletic program as a whole, we need that.”

Generating excitement about school sports is one thing.

Generating revenue to support the program, as well as upgrade the facilities, is another.

Like many school districts, Massabesic has had to make some difficult budget choices for the upcoming school year.

The athletic budget came in for its share of shearing, with such cost-saving measures as dropping sponsorship of Middle School football, and putting greater fund raising responsibility for the hockey team on the shoulders of the boosters, having been put into play.

Spear said that dealing with those problems are part of putting the atheltic program on the upswing.

“Budgets issues are a main concern,” he said. “Our district is trying to be as frugal with our money as possible. But we have some great projects we need to do at Massabesic. A new track. New bleachers for the football field. There are some big projects that need to be in the works, somehow. We need to figure out how we can do that and have the community support that we need. We want to put people in our stands. If we can show off our school, we gain support.”

Few come to athletic administration via the sports medicine route.

Most ADs are former coaches or teachers.

However, Spear, who lives in Waterboro with his wife Mandy and four year old son Ryker, said he’ll put his medical training to good use in his new role.

“I think it’s a great benefit coming from the athletic training world,” he said. “It’s a very natural progression. I was working with coaches, with kids, and their parents on a daily basis. They needed me to make sure their kids were ready to play. Both preventing injuries, as well as managing them. So the communication piece was huge. And that’s one of the main responsibilities of an athletic director. To be a good communicator.”

And that includes communicating to the student-athletes themselves.

“If we can get our kids excited,” he said, “our levels will be much higher.”

— Contact Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.