Lisbon and Gray-New Gloucester are each welcoming new athletic directors for the 2023-24 school year.

Zach Lutick becomes the new Greyhounds’ athletic and co-curricular director, taking over for Eric Hall, who took a similar role at Freeport High School. Nathan Priest is the Patriots’ new AD, taking over for Susan Robbins, who is now an assistant principal and athletic director at her alma mater, Belfast.

Lutick and Priest said the moves to their new positions were similar, with both wanting to be close to home.

Lutick is a 2009 Edward Little graduate and has spent the past seven years in the Auburn School Department, including spending the 2022-23 school year as Auburn Middle School’s athletic director.

“I was looking locally for athletic director, co-curricular positions, and growing up in the area of Auburn-Lewiston, I was familiar with the Lisbon area,” Lutick said. “I know it’s not far away from where I grew up, so I wanted to give back to the community to where home was.”

Zach Lutick, Lisbon’s new athletic director, stands for a photo in front of Thompson Field behind the school on Wednesday. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

While working at Auburn Middle School, Lutick coached soccer, track and basketball teams.

Lutick spent 2020 getting his master’s in sports management to become an athletic director.

“The pandemic certainly made it easier because I was working from home — so I could multitask,” Lutick said. “I was taking classes and working. I just plugged away and eventually got there.”

Priest was the athletic director at Morse High School in Bath for the past six years. He lives in Gray and has experience in Gray-New Gloucester’s athletic department.

“This is almost, in a way, a homecoming for me,” Priest said. “I coached here more than a decade ago. I coached cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field, and a season of Nordic skiing before pursuing my master’s degree and ultimately becoming an AD and going to Morse. Coming back to Gray and serving the community that I live in was always something that was appealing to me as a future plan. Having a shorter commute is certainly exciting, and reconnecting to the community and giving back to the community where I started to coach.”

Gray New-Gloucester’s new athletic director, Nathan Priest, stands on the Myles Burbank Memorial Field grandstand Thursday at the school in Gray. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Priest’s last day at Morse was on Friday.

While coaching at Gray-New Gloucester, he enjoyed working with kids, and that drove him to become an athletic director. Before becoming Morse’s AD, he was a Wellness and Membership Director at the Northern York County YMCA in Biddeford.

“I loved working with kids, and I still do, and I really loved coaching,” Priest said. “Combining that with I have a personal training background, group exercise, personal training and wellness. I thought to myself: What can I do to really maximize working with kids and wellness, athletics and sports? I thought becoming an athletic director, and having an overall impact on as many kids as possible.”

CLEAR VISIONS

Both new hires have a plan of what they want to accomplish and how they can improve their athletic departments.

“I am taking this first year and identifying some things that are going well and also whatever needs attention, and basically assessing the department of what’s working well and keeping those things moving in the right direction and identifying some things that need attention,” Priest said.

Priest wants to develop a short-term and long-term plan for the athletic department. One of the things talked about in the past at Gray-New Gloucester is upgrading the fields.

Priest confirmed it’s something he and other administrators will look at.

“That was a big conversation prior to COVID, and it sounds like there was some momentum to restructure or redo the athletic facilities at Gray-New Gloucester,” he said. “Sounds like COVID dampened that a little bit, but now there’s some momentum to bring that conversation back. So that’s being looked at, possibly adding turf, maybe not. That’s all discussions that need to be had.”

Priest dealt with a similar situation when Morse built the new school, and he was involved in the planning stages of the new turf field and the grass field that went in behind the high school.

Priest said that experience will help him with whatever Gray-New Gloucester decides.

“Just make sure have a lot of conservations when it comes to fields, especially turf — when you put turf down, the lines are generally a part of the field and having a lot of conservations of what your field will look like,” Priest said. “And get involvement in that, too, from the different groups that will be using it — athletes, coaches and maybe some community members of what that field should look like, improve it where the fan or viewing experience is enhanced in terms of seating or lighting, facilities, all that type of stuff.”

For Lutick, he wants to build up the relationship between Lisbon High School and the youth programs in town.

“We definitely want to maintain our success in all sports, but it would be nice to incorporate or get involved with the rec department to try to create more involvement or engagement at the lower levels,” Lutick said. “Numbers have dipped a little bit in the past year. So trying to see those kids at a younger age and get them involved and engaged in athletics is something I’d like to work on and maintain in the current department.”

Lutick likes how Lisbon’s co-curricular activities are set up and how they don’t interfere with athletics if a student wants to do both.

“I am also taking over the co-curricular director, so building up the co-curricular activities is also something I’d like to do as well,” Lutick added.

FEELING WELCOMED

Lutick and Priest said they have felt welcomed since being hired in their new positions.

“So far, it’s been really well,” Lutik said. “I have met with a few parents, and like I said, I have met with a few coaches. Everyone seems really excited to have the new sports season coming up and get the ball rolling.”

“It has been really positive,” Priest said. “I have felt very welcomed so far and supported already right off the bat. I have met the principal and the assistant principal, and they both have been great. They have been really welcoming. I haven’t spoken to all the coaches — I am in the process now of trying to set up meetings to meet our coaches. The ones that I have heard from have been very welcoming and very supportive.”