David Creech takes over as Yarmouth’s athletic director this school year. File photo

YARMOUTH—David Creech is the sixth athletic director in the history of Yarmouth High School and like Jack Stroud, Ken Roberts, Rachel Bouchard, Thor Nilsen and Susan Robbins before him, Creech has quickly discovered just how passionate the town is about athletics.

“(Yarmouth) is such a great community,” said Creech, just days before the start of the fall sports season. “Parents, boosters, coaches, everyone has been warm and welcoming. I’m thankful for the embrace of the community coming in. The community supports every aspect of the school department. It’s been a great transition.”

Creech has a long association with Maine high school athletics as an athlete and coach, playing four sports at Caribou High School, then, after playing basketball at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina and at the University of Maine-Farmington, serving 17 years as a cross country, basketball and track and field coach at Sanford and Kennebunk, where he also taught mathematics.

Creech took a step back from coaching and became an administrator after starting a family.

After spending 10 years as an administrator in Kennebunk, he became the principal at Scarborough High School for five years, then spent the 2018-19 school year as the principal at Winthrop High School.

While he enjoyed his administrative role, Creech felt the desire to have more interaction with the student body and when the Yarmouth AD position opened, after Robbins left after 14 years (she is now the athletic director at Gray-New Gloucester High School), Creech felt that there were several reasons for him to apply.

“I loved being a high school principal, but I felt like I’d been removed from working with students and staff,” Creech said. “Athletics has always been a passion. When this came open, I felt like things had come full circle for me. (Yarmouth Superintendent of Schools) Andrew Dolloff was the superintendent in Kennebunk, so I know what a strong leader he is. As a principal (at Scarborough), I collaborated with Eric Klein (now the principal at Yarmouth), so I know what a strong principal he is. I got the a sense of a great community that supports all of its programs and I knew the leadership that was in place. This is the only athletic director job I decided I would apply for.”

Dolloff has welcomed Creech with open arms.

“We are very excited to have Dave on board,” Dolloff said. “He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the position. He has been hard at work building relationships with our athletes, coaches, and staff and it is pretty apparent that his 30 years of experience around high school athletics and school leadership is allowing him to assimilate quickly to the position. Dave is one of those guys who pays a lot of attention to detail, but has an outgoing personality that allows people to quickly warm up to him. Those qualities will make him an excellent athletic director and I’m looking forward to seeing where he leads our athletic department.”

Creech has been busy since his hiring meeting with coaches and confirming his belief that he is in an optimal position.

“I want to really connect with my coaches, district leadership and maintenance crew,” Creech said. “We’ve already started collaborating on our vision moving forward. There’s a common thread where we’ll be great in terms of working together and I love that.

“The single most important asset of my leadership is relationships. Whether it’s as a teacher, coach, assistant principal, principal or athletic director, building great relationships is the foundation. I’m a relationship guy. I love connecting with people. My role is to serve this community. I encourage people to reach out and let me know what’s going on.”

With fall practice now underway, Creech gets a front row seat as Yarmouth figures to once again compete for state titles in multiple sports. While the learning curve continues, the fun is just beginning.

“I just love watching our coaches coach and watching our kids compete,” said Creech. “Even though summer has been very busy and I still have a lot to work on, the excitement happens when the student-athletes are here. I’m going to enjoy hitting the ground running.”