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Milford’s Gutterson’s work has just begun

Don Gutterson

MILFORD – Don Gutterson was in the hot, stuffy equipment room last week at the town’s Middle School, sorting out all the athletic gear, etc.

School may be out for summer, but Gutterson’s work has just begun.

Gutterson, who has been in the Milford system for 20 years, was named as the new athletic director at Milford High School, filling the shoes of 30-year AD Marc Maurais, who is retiring from the district.

Gutterson was long rumored to be Maurais’ successor when it was made known this spring that the job would be open. He was the AD at Mascenic Regional from 1990-98, and has currently been the AD at Milford Middle School, as well as being the Spartants boys varsity basketball coach.

So he knows what the job entails, for sure.

“It’s where I’ve wanted to end up, anyway,” the 59-year-old Gutterson said, noting that his days of being a fulltime phys end teacher were starting to be taxing. “I’ve always wanted to be a full-time AD.”

Gutterson is not only familiar with what the job entails, but he also knows Milford very well. And he had a good guide over the last few years in Maurais, whose last day after 30 years on the job was this past Monday.

“I think one of Marc’s strengths was he was always pretty even-keel, he always listened to people and then made a fair decision,” Gutterson, who also coached in Londonderry as well as being the AD at that system’s middle school for a couple years, said. “I want to continue that. I think that’s an important attribute to being an athletic director. Being able to listen, then make a decision, and sometimes people might not like the decision, but at least I’m able to listen and move on from there.”

Gutterson has sent an email to all the coaches, and has spoken with a few as well.

“There’s actually only a couple I don’t know,” he said. “A lot that I’ve gotten to know pretty well over the years, a bunch of them who were coaches here at the middle school before they moved up to the high school.”

Gutterson clearly supports the grass roots move to try to get the high school stadium to replace its grass field with field turf. He cited “improving the grounds and the facilities” as one of his priorities.

“The outdoor sports in the spring and the fall, we have a lot of teams that play and practice off site,” Gutterson said. “So it would be nice to get people to be here on site, and a turf field would help in that.”

He’s also like to improve the gym and get more seating.”

Seeing Maurais’ tenure end in Milford by his own choice this week was sad, as he was all about Milford athletics for all of three decades.

And Gutterson says that’s what he will be.

“I just like being able to see kids in all sports gain success, and working with the coaches,” Gutterson said. “Kind of help build the programs.”

One of Gutterson’s first duties will be to fill a few coaching openings for the fall: Varsity fall spirit, JV boys soccer, JV girls volleyball, and varsity boys and girls cross country. Those interested can go to milfordk12.org to get more information or to apply.