WEST CANAAN — Rodney Brown has quickly adjusted to life as Mascoma High’s first full-time athletic director.

Originally from Berwick, Maine, Brown attended Saint Joseph’s College of Maine and then started working at North Berwick’s Noble High School in as a special educator and behavior specialist. He was also a soccer and indoor track coach for the Knights.

During his time at Noble, he made the decision to start taking classes at Southern New Hampshire University to get his master’s in sports management with a certificate in athletic administration. After 12 years at Noble and with the postgraduate degree in hand, Brown moved to Goffstown, N.H., to be the teen and sports director at the Allard Center YMCA.

This spring, he saw the job posting at Mascoma and jumped at the opportunity. Now, he’s more than six months into his first year on the job.

Brown answered questions during a recent interview in his office at Mascoma about how his past shaped him, what he’s learned so far and what he has in plan for the Royals. What follows is an edited transcript.

Valley News: How are things six months in?

Rodney Brown: You know, honestly, I’ve really enjoyed my time here. So far, the community’s been great. One thing that really drew me to Mascoma was that close-knit community. I heard about it a lot from other athletic administrators about how strong of a community it was here for athletics, and now I get to see it firsthand.

We had a very successful fall. And when we traveled, we had a great crowd no matter where we were. You could always depend on seeing that sea of purple there. That’s nice to see that kind of support. I’ve been very, very fortunate to have such great support within the school community. It’s the students, it’s the teachers, my administrative team. I can’t thank them enough for all the support as I’ve made the transition.

VN: So what’s a semi-regular day look like for you?

RB: We don’t have any games scheduled today, so it’s a lot of administrative stuff. We we had a wrestling meet here this weekend, so it’s just getting all the administrative pieces of that together. Taking care of making sure the referees get paid, for example.

Then it’s making sure we’re all set up for our next games. Making sure transportation is all set up, so I’ll confirm with my transportation department and make sure we’re good with that. And then between periods I’ll peek out and check in with kids, see how they’re doing during lunchtime. Just have some conversations with them to catch up. I’ll catch up with administrators, see if there’s anything that we need to touch base with.

VN: You got the job in July, and then the school year was getting started. Was it just kind of learning as you go and making sure everything goes off without a hitch at the beginning?

RB: Whenever you come into a new school community, it’s like just going with how the business kind of works. I was very, very fortunate to have Mr. (John) Kelly (former Royals athletic director) lay a pretty good foundation here for me. And I’m just building off of that and what the other administrators that were here before me did. It was a really nice, seamless transition.

VN: What are some new programs you’ve started so far?

RB:I’m very excited; we actually presented it to the school board and we did a little bit of legwork here in the fall. We have a schedule set up to have our first varsity girls soccer program coming up here in the fall. So that’s pretty exciting.

VN: What are the next steps for that?

RB: The job’s posted, and we’re hoping to get a candidate hired by early spring so that they’re able to contact athletes to really start that relationship.

There’s definitely an excitement in the community, and there’s definitely a need. They really wanted this, so now it’s like we have this program and now we gotta get that interest back. Previously, it was that the girls were on the boys team, and we really wanted to make sure that the girls had that same opportunity.

I think it’s long overdue. We needed the girls to have their own soccer program. Before we said yes to the varsity schedule here, we went around and canvassed the school and really asked. The kids had a resounding yes to it.

VN: You haven’t had to let go of any coaches yet. What will your evaluation process be?

RB: It’s been a great year. Just to make the transition and know people are in place and to only have a few assistants here or there to hire has been nice. I try to peek into a practice every day, check in and see how they’re doing.

Making sure the coaches have everything they need and just making sure that they know I’m a presence and I’m around.

Being a former coach myself, it’s just nice to have a well-rounded staff here. I can say, “Hey, we’ve got a very strong coaching staff here that the kids can really rally around and learn a lot from.”

VN: And the girls soccer coach will be your first hire?

RB: Yeah, it’s exciting. And again, being a former soccer coach myself and everything, it’s going to be an exciting process. I’ll be one of the people on a panel that’s going to make sure that we hire somebody that’s very excited about the position and really pushes the players.

VN: What’s the toughest thing you’ve had to do so far on the job?

RB: It’s never nice to call in a student and tell them they’re ineligible. That’s the biggest thing because the kids, they pour in everything they have. They have that great balance between academics and athletics, and they’re really putting in that commitment.

It’s a great adult conversation that you have with that student. And they’re mostly positive; you work to get them on the right path. It really refocuses them as well, too. I want them out there (playing), but class always comes first.

And again, the student component of this is the biggest piece. Regardless of what you do as an athlete here, it’s about what kind of a citizen, what kind of person you’re going to be leaving as.

Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com.