Concord High School’s new athletic director Steve Largy is no stranger to the community. He went to high school at Concord Christian, played sports in Concord and Hopkinton and also coached against numerous CHS teams while working at Nashua North and Goffstown High Schools.

He comes to Concord replacing Steve Mello, who retired at the end of the school year after 16 years on the job. Largy most recently worked as the dean of students at Goffstown High School, has spent 18 years in coaching, 15 in teaching and four years in administrative roles.

The Concord Monitor caught up with Largy to discuss everything from how he plans to adjust to this new position, to the Memorial Field project that he’ll be playing a relatively large role in moving forward.

Answers have been edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.

Concord Monitor: You haven’t worked as an athletic director yet before, so I’m curious what you think your biggest challenges might be as you step into this role?

Steve Largy: The network and the coaching trees that I’ve been a part of have given me glimpses, and maybe even behind-the-scenes vantages of what being the athletic director is all about. That being said, being in a new district, being in a new administrative team, there’s always a learning curve.

For me, I think it’s putting the time in, being in the office, connecting with people, being in the community, getting to know our coaches, getting to know important people both within the school district and then within the community itself. Steve (Mello) was here for 16 years, and so there’s a lot of institutional knowledge that comes with being in a role for that long.

I think most of all, connecting with our student-athletes here in the building and getting as connected as I possibly can with what’s going on, whether it’s out-of-season workouts that are happening here, whether it’s summer club things that are going on, camp opportunities, I’m trying to do everything I can to meet our kids. That’s where I think most of my time should be spent, learning this new environment.

CM: What’re you most excited about with this opportunity?

SL: One, the day-to-day of being an athletic director and participating in events and helping those events be as important in the community and as valued as a community like Concord, with a rich history, with a strong motivation to succeed and to excel in athletics. I think that’s, for me, one of the things that makes it most exciting.

Being a coach that’s competed against Concord High School teams and as a player that competed against Concord High School teams, I think that pride of being a part of the Crimson Tide family is something that goes with the expectation. I think that’s what I tend to thrive under, that expectation of success. To be a part of a community that wants to excel in the classroom, on the field, on the court, on the rink, of all the things that I’m most excited about, it is that spirit of competition.

CM: You also touched on building relationships with student-athletes and parents too, what’s your introductory message to them as to what your goals are with these programs and what you want them to know as you step into this role?

SL: As a parent myself, my goal would be to create the best environment that we can as an interscholastic environment for our kids and for them to come away with an experience at Concord High School in whatever sport they play in whatever capacity that they join our teams, that it’s not just a positive experience in terms of their general happiness, but also for their lifelong well-being.

For me, as a person that benefited from interscholastic sports, I looked forward to what was happening after the school day. There were challenges. There were challenges with teammates, challenges with coaches, but that’s where I learned to navigate those things and be independent and to have a voice and self-advocate. I think that’s what sports does, is it gives us a platform for our young student-athletes to learn to speak up and to learn to have that voice and to learn to lead and all of those things that transcend sports and that are so important in terms of being a citizen and a member of society and a life-long learner.

CM: I imagine you’ve been relatively brought up to speed on this Memorial Field project?

SL: Yeah I’ve been watching the YouTube meetings and keep myself in the loop as much as possible. Principal Herbert, Tim Herbert’s obviously had my ear, and I talked to (Superintendent) Kathleen Murphy at length about it, so I’ve seen the two meetings that we’ve had so far, watched the YouTube ‘game film’ you’d call it, so I would say fairly up to speed although I haven’t been in the room.

CM: How big of a role do you foresee yourself playing in these discussions as they move forward?

SL: I’m excited to be able to have a seat at the table and to have some input, and as somebody that’s seen firsthand with our project in Goffstown with the new field and turf and lights that got put in just last year and being able to have knowledge of how that project and process went down I think gives me some perspective.

What I’m excited about is kind of building those relationships between the school district and the city to do what’s in the best interest of not just our student-athletes in Concord but the entire community. I think that’s where I see my role. Obviously, I’ve seen field projects and what’s been successful in those projects and what’s been challenging in those projects and when those relationships are cohesive and people work together, it’s amazing what can be accomplished.

The scope and the scale of the Memorial Field project is, it’s exciting. It’s really exciting, and it’s also I think something that is going to benefit the entire community, whether it’s through interscholastic events that we’re hosting for Concord High School or Concord High School’s graduation or older members of the community being able to access tennis courts, I think it’s just a win for everybody involved, and I’m excited to be at the table.

CM: One of the pieces with this project involves potentially putting in artificial turf fields which you said you were part of with Goffstown’s field renovation. Is that something you’d be advocating for at Memorial Field?

SL: I’ve seen the success of it. I coached Nashua North football, we had access to Stellos Stadium which was, again, a city-Nashua School District project where the city really spearheaded the construction of that field, but the school district is the primary user. It’d be hard for me to fathom in a city like Nashua them not having Stellos as a turf field.

When you take the comparative districts that are around us: Dover, moving in that direction as well, Goffstown, obviously having moved in that direction, these are decisions that communities have made that sort of reflect an understanding that this is probably what’s in the best interest of the community, what’s in the best interest of student-athletes.

I was a coach on Goffstown’s field before it was turf and being somebody that really is a safety-first person when it comes to participating in athletics, I had way more concerns about our field as a playing surface before because you’d have rain, and you had a soccer game the night before, and you’re digging up the field with goal posts being moved around and things like that. From a maintenance and from a safety standpoint, and the places and the districts that I’ve been, I just see turf as being a necessity, not really a luxury, but something that I would strongly urge as a recommendation.

CM: Any other plans that you have or vision you have for things you want to do?

SL: I see myself as one of the ambassadors for our athletic program. I think our coaches do a tremendous job of being out there in the community. I think our booster clubs obviously have done a tremendous job bolstering the reputation of Concord athletics. It’s my job to support that, to set that vision as sort of a touchstone of having the values of sportsmanship, excellence, community mindedness.

What I like to see our kids doing is continuing to thrive in an athletics setting, but also that translating to their efforts in the classroom, their efforts in the community and really kind of working for the betterment of each individual student-athlete. We want to be the best, and we want to set a standard of excellence. We’re the capital city, and I really look forward to working with coaches to establish that vision and shape those values and see it translate to impacting students’ lives, families’ lives, parents’ lives in a really positive way.