By Ashley St. Michel
Staff Writer
    Martin Ryan is passionate about athletic administration.
    “I enjoy the challenge of hosting large events,” he said. “That’s always been a thing that I like to do –  the planning portion of it.”
    Ryan, who replaced Rich Buzzell after only four months, is Kennebunk High School’s newest athletic director. Ryan was born in Templeton, Mass., which is where he said he immediately found a love for athletics.
    “Way back I was a high school athlete,” he said. “I was involved in soccer, basketball and baseball.”
    Ryan attended Narragansett Regional High School in Baldwinville, Mass., where he progressed as an athlete. When he attended American International College, in Springfield, Mass., his athletic skills shifted to football. Those skills eventually grew into a love for the sport.
    “When I graduated from college in the field of education as a teacher I was able to go into coaching football,” Ryan said. “That progressed into basketball and baseball for about a 10 year span.”  
       In 1979, Ryan moved to Maine as the football coach and teacher at Wells High School. After six years coaching he became the full-time athletic director.
    “I was with them for 22 years,” Ryan said. Now in his sixth year with Kennebunk, serving five of those years as an athletic administrator, Ryan said he has been in the profession about 28 years – and he has the awards to prove it.
    In 1987 Ryan was the Athletic Director of the Year in the state of Maine. In 1994, he received the National Athletic Directors state award and merit.
    “A nice honor that I received more recently in 2005 was the National Athletic Director of the Year,” Ryan said. “That’s the only person from New England that has received that award.”
    When Ryan received the National Association for Sport and Physical Education award Rulon Gardner, who received a Olympic gold medal for wrestling, was also being inducted into the same organization’s Hall of Fame.
    “He and I have built a relationship,” he said. “I brought Rulon to Maine and he did a presentation for Kennebunk High School. Those are some really nice memories I have of being involved.”
    Ryan said Gardner went on to meet with the Kennebunk wrestling team individually and did two other assemblies at Noble High School and Sanford High School.
    Ryan said he has been, “fortunate” his employers have been comfortable with his professional development. Part of that development has included an executive director position of the Maine Athletic Directors Association since 1993 and his “once held” presidential position of the National Athletic Directors Association.
    “When you get to be the president of the National Athletic Directors Association you are always concerned about local school issues and then you have state and then you have national issues,” he said. “You get a chance to be involved in most of the decision making.”
    Even before he became president of the association Ryan was already involved. He helped in the development of the first strategic plan the association would adopt during his term. Ryan said after he had served his term as president, the association asked him back five years later to sit in as the Chairman during their second strategic planning session.
    “It’s pretty good when you get to be involved in the actual planning of a national organization of 6,000 to 7,000 members,” he said. “It doesn’t phase me anymore to go to a meeting in Louisiana, not know a single person there and be the focal point of the meeting.”     
   Aside from his work in Kennebunk, Ryan also spends a lot of time working with the Maine Principals Association (MPA).
   “He is one of two athletic directors who work as liaisons with the MPA,” said Dick Durost, executive director of the MPA.
     Durost said Ryan has the knowledge and the love of athletics and the understand of what athletics does for high school students.
    “I think he’s just simply a leader, organizer, a detail-orientated person and all those things come together to make him good at what he does,” Durost said. “He takes pride in competitions and that the competitions are done in a right way.”
    One of the ways Ryan has been trying to incorporate good sportsmanship is through the “Sports Done Right” program. According to the club's Web site, “Sports Done Right” focuses on seven core principles and supporting core practices that describe what healthy sports programs look like. The seven core values include areas of philosophy, values and sportsmanship, sports and learning, parents and community, quality of coaching, opportunity to play, health and fitness, leadership, policy and organization. The initiative was funded by a congressional allocation secured through the office of Senator Susan Collins and was launched Oct. 30, 2003.
   Ryan said Kennebunk High School’s involvement with the “Sports Done Right” program was on the agenda for the University of Maine Center of Sports and Coaching board of directors. Ryan said the high school has been assessed by the “Sports Done Right” program members, who then gauge whether or not the school would meet the credentials for becoming a “Sports Done Right” school.
    “If we do, we would get a five year certification, a five year endorsement from them,” Ryan said. “It’s significant and we take pride in how our kids behave, coaches behave and how our spectators interact.”
   He said Kennebunk was among six or seven other Maine schools that have received the recognition.
  Throughout his career, Ryan said there has been one person who has never stopped supporting him and his endeavors.
  “I am very fortunate that I am married to a woman who has been with me since we were juniors in high school,” he said. “It has not always been easy, the key question for us is, 'will you be home for dinner tonight?' and my answer is, 'I’m going to check my schedule.'
  Ryan said although he hasn’t continued the long hours of a coaching career, he still spends a lot of time away from his family.
    “Two years ago, I had something like 284 home events,” he said. “I know many administrators who, at times, say time is a big factor in their home life and it is in mine as well.”
    Ryan said he also takes pride in the local accomplishments that couldn’t have been achieved without the help of the community.
    “The things we’ve been able to do, the services we provide to our kids and fans have all been done through, what I like to call, the GM-Ford budget process,” he said. “It’s not the Cadillac-style budget process. It’s good, solid, reliable quality and we take good care of what we have and are respectful of that and thankful for that.”
    Some of the budget processes have included a refurbished gym floor and new gym lights, new fencing and more seating on the stadium field.
    “Through a great effort through our athletic boosters and the community we have gone from seating about 1,000 to almost 4,000 people now,” Ryan said. “And it’s all a labor of love to do it. It didn’t cost us millions of dollars to do that either. We took down bleachers and moved them ourselves. We saved significant funding.”
    Ryan said the school has added more “levels” to their athletics, including a varsity volleyball program and what Ryan said were “the beginnings of talks about getting a ski team going.”
    However, Ryan said he has a few concerns about the future of the Kennebunk athletic program.
    “I have reservations about consolidation efforts and what impact that is going to have on schools and the educational impact that will have and where the athletics falls into that academic mission,” he said. “If you are not going to try to bring in new money and in turn try to reduce expenditures, that’s significant.”
    Ryan said the consolidation plans include reducing transportation costs.
    “I can’t even budget enough money right now because of the cost of fuel,” he said. “It would make my budget go into orbit.”
    Ryan said playing only one exhibition game on the road has helped cut the costs for the high school, but he still is unsure of the future.
    “I think a major challenge in the athletic program is going to be to hold on to what we have,” he said. “There will be some very challenging decisions to make in the future about athletics and extra-curricular activities in measuring their value and their importance.”
    As for the future of his athletic involvement Ryan said he is not sure where he will end up.
    “Down the road my vision is to go one more year if I can, which will give me a total of 40 years in education,” he said. “Certainly after that I may work on a part time basis in athletic administration, because I think I have something to offer because of my background and experience.”