During Brian Curtin’s tenure as St. Joseph’s College athletic director, the school added added men’s and women’s teams in lacrosse, swimming, indoor and outdoor track and field and alpine skiing as varsity sports. St. Joseph’s athletics

Brian Curtin has resigned as St. Joseph’s College’s senior director of athletics, the school announced Monday, after 14 years in which he oversaw a period of significant program growth and facility upgrades.

Curtin’s last day at St. Joe’s was Friday. He will start his new job as an assistant director with the United States Center for SafeSport, a Denver-based nonprofit focused on ending all forms of abuse in sports this Friday.

“I’ve always felt coaching was an honorable profession and a privilege,” Curtin said. “I’ve tried to make part of my career being around and trying to help mentor coaches and make the experience good for athletes.”

A 1987 graduate of St. Michael’s College in Winooski, Vermont, and a former college basketball coach, Curtin came to the Standish college in 2006 as a novice administrator. At the time, the school was an independent Division III program sponsoring 11 sports. Under Curtin’s tenure, it added men’s and women’s teams in lacrosse, swimming, indoor and outdoor track and field and alpine skiing. Curtin also presided over the school’s transition to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference in 2007, revived the school’s athletic hall of fame, and spearheaded construction of the Monks’ $5 million lighted turf and track complex, which opened in 2017.

During Curtin’s tenure, the Monks won 31 conference titles with 25 runner-up finishes and 32 NCAA tournament appearances, with consistently improving student-athlete grade-point averages.

“Brian had a great work ethic. He put in endless, endless hours with lots and lots of energy,” said St. Joseph’s President Jim Dlugos. “He’s a great organizer of people, with good strategic vision. The qualities that made him attractive to SafeSport.

“He is a real gentleman and really represented the best of St. Joseph’s College, not just athletics, but our community’s core values.”

Curtin said he believes his new job can “potentially help athletes and help sport.” The Center for SafeSport, formed in 2017, is authorized by federal law to be the exclusive authority to respond to alleged sexual abuse and misconduct charges with United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee sports and their recognized national governing bodies.

The organization also develops resources and policies to safeguard athletes from bullying, harassment, hazing, and other physical or emotional misconduct.

“It’s mission (is) to make sure that the United States’ society of sport has as its focus, always, the athlete. I think that’s what has always been my job,” Curtin said.

Dlugos said the school is beginning to develop its search plans to find Curtin’s replacement. Rather than naming an interim athletic director, the school will rely on current administrators to run the department in a team approach, with a replacement expected to be named by July 1.