BF's Brigham to assume AD role at Springfield

A new face will lead Cosmos athletics next year. The Springfield School District recently offered its open Athletic Director (AD) position to current Bellows Falls Middle School AD Cagney Brigham, who accepted the full time position and is set to start sometime this summer, according to Superintendent Zachary McLaughlin.

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2017-06-29 / Sports BF's Brigham to assume AD role at Springfield By CAMERON PAQUETTE cameronp@eagletimes.com SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — A new face will lead Cosmos athletics next year. The Springfield School District recently offered its open Athletic Director (AD) position to current Bellows Falls Middle School AD Cagney Brigham, who accepted the full time position and is set to start sometime this summer, according to Superintendent Zachary McLaughlin. “I’m looking forward to him getting out in the community,” McLaughlin said in an interview Tuesday. Brigham comes to the position having served as AD at Bellows Falls Middle School for the last two years. The North Walpole resident also coaches the Keene State College basketball team and has coached varsity basketball, and varsity and junior varsity baseball. He said that he wanted to transition into a larger athletic director position, and with the proximity and “rich tradition” of Springfield athletics, Brigham saw it as a good fit. “I thought this would be a good opportunity to get the program back to where it was,” Brigham said. Brigham said one of his goals will be to aid continuity of sports participation through the grades —from elementary school to middle school and through to high school. “Trying to find ways to connect youth sports, middle school sports and high school sports is a huge thing,” he said. “If we can accomplish that we’ll be on the right track.” He said that school district data shows a drop in participation between 8th grade and freshman year in high school, and that his focus will be on keeping the numbers up year to year. Brigham will replace outgoing Athletic Director Timothy MacDonnell, who will be leaving the district after accepting a job as a math teacher at Hartford High School in Hartford, Vermont in May. MacDonnell is also leaving a math teaching position in Springfield. McLaughlin said that they are “still working on the dollar amount,” but that they are looking at a 220-day contract for the full-time, non-union AD position. He said that the athletic director position is in the $50,000 salary range. “A lot of people” were interested in the position when the school district posted it in mid-May, McLaughlin said. School officials conducted two rounds of interviews with candidates before settling on Brigham for the position. “He talked a lot about the kids and athletics as a means of developing character in kids,” McLaughlin said. McLaughlin said that school officials were also impressed with what his references had to say, as well as with his reported transparency and public outreach. “People had a lot of positive things to say about his straightforward nature,” he said. “He’s very good about reaching out to the public.”