The University of Maine is losing one of its top athletic administrators.

Lynn Coutts, formerly the softball coach at UMaine, had been the school’s senior associate athletic director since 2015. John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Lynn Coutts, the senior associate director of athletics, is leaving UMaine to take a position at the University of Denver. Her last day was Friday.

Coutts, a 1987 Maine graduate and former softball coach for the Black Bears, had been in that position since 2015. She oversaw several aspects of the school’s athletic department, including compliance, Title IX, sports medicine and student-athlete conduct.

“I wasn’t looking to leave,” said Coutts. “It’s very tough to leave.”

Coutts, 54, will join an athletic program headed by Karlton Creech, the former UMaine athletic director who left the Black Bears in 2018 to become the vice chancellor for athletics and recreation at Denver, and head of the school’s sports facility. She said Creech reached out to her with an offer “and told me to look it over if I was interested to apply.”

She’ll begin her new job by the end of August but isn’t sure what her role will be. “It will be similar to the role I had here,” said Coutts. “I’m still waiting to meet with Karlton and his leadership team. All I know is that I will be part of the leadership team.”

Coutts has been part of the UMaine landscape since arriving in 1982 to play softball. While it’s difficult to leave, she said this was an opportunity she couldn’t let pass.

“I left as a 16-year-old from a small town in Canada with goals. I still have goals,” she said. “I don’t think I’m done yet. I know in the long run, and in the big picture, this will be the best for us.”

Mike Coutts, her husband, is the softball coach for the Black Bears. He will remain at that position this year, she said, “and then re-evaluate things at the end of the year.”

The Coutts have a daughter, Maggie, who will be a senior at Orono High. Their son, Jackson, will be a junior at the University of Rhode Island.