SHS Welcomes New Athletic Director to SHS

Scott Paine is thrilled to be working as the new Athletic Director for Scituate High School. Paine is familiar with high school sports, as he grew up in Hanover and attended Thayer Academy to play hockey. From there, he played football at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. Paine left college to work for his family’s auto body shop, where he helped grow the business with his father. In addition to working for the family business, Paine started coaching JV hockey in Norwell.

After being immersed in Nowell’s athletic culture, Paine began working part-time as their athletic director–where he worked for 13 years. Due to Norwell’s wide range of athletics, Paine found it difficult to run the program by himself, so he left Norwell and became the AD in Hull, where he was already familiar with the superintendent at the time. Interested in a change, Paine was enthusiastic to take the job as Athletic Director in Scituate. 

Paine said the greater number of programs at SHS–compared to Hull’s–was a major motivation to switch locations. With a passion for working with young adults and a love for sports, Paine felt the position as SHS’s Athletic Director was an ideal opportunity. He also noted his 10-minute drive to SHS as a benefit. 

When asked about the highlights of his career, Paine recalled when he was working as the AD in Norwell: his student, Andrew Lawson, had Down syndrome and was involved in the athletic department. He participated in basketball and track, and Paine admired him for his work ethic and good attitude. Paine said Lawson acted as his teacher and “changed his life.” After Lawson passed away in 2018, the annual Andrew Lawson Invitational Basketball Tournament was organized to honor his legacy. 

Looking to the future, Paine would like to emphasize sportsmanlike conduct for athletes and fans alike. Explaining that students are “representing the high school and the community,” Paine wants SHS to be the Patriot League school that “everyone looks up to.” Paine considers an unfortunate locker room incident that occurred after the SHS boys’ hockey team lost at TD Garden as a stain on the athletic program. Although he can understand the emotions the players were feeling, Paine said in his experience, self control is extremely important in sports.

Hoping to get more high school fans from all grades involved in sporting events, Paine thinks offering free admission to students who attend games held at SHS should help. According to Paine, if there is increased participation, everyone has a role on the team, even if it’s not a particularly successful sport. In regards to the lower attendance at girls’ team games (compared to boys’ team), Paine feels it’s a “cultural issue that we need to address right away.” In addition to equality between teams, he feels the role of the boosters organizations represents an important consideration, as some teams have more available funds than others. 

Included in his goals for the year, Paine is working with the girls’ golf program to facilitate its status as a varsity sport. He also wants to create more middle school programs to complement the current wrestling, softball, and cross country programs.

In addition, Paine said he is interested in creating a unified sports program, so students with disabilities can play within teams at SHS. His goal in Scituate is to make people feel valued. To do this, he’d like to use a hands-on approach, address hard topics and events, and promote open communication between the administration, coaches, students, the community, and himself.