Few places could have pulled Jeff Ramich away from Leavitt Area High School.

In just two years as the school’s athletic director, Ramich felt he had found a second home at the Turner school. But there was someplace else that had been like a second home the Lisbon native’s entire life — Brunswick.

“We’d always go to the Brunswick-Topsham-Bath area our whole lives,” he said. “I know that area very well. My kids learned how to skate at Bowdoin College.”

Ramich’s trips to Brunswick are about to become even more frequent. He has been named athletic director at Brunswick High School. His first official day is Monday.

This isn’t the first time Ramich has flirted with the idea of working in Brunswick, but the timing to actually do it is finally right.

He considered applying for the AD job at Brunswick when it opened up eight years ago but didn’t because he only had four years of experience as a co-curricular director at Lisbon High School at the time.

He nearly took a pass again this spring when the man who filled that opening, Gene Keene, stepped down to become AD at St. Dom’s.

“I really, really enjoyed my time at Leavitt,” Ramich said. “Everybody out there was great, from the administration to the kids to the parents. The coaches were outstanding. Some of them were my good friends that I’ve known for a lot of years. So it was difficult to even put my name in the hat.”

The chance to better his family’s financial situation with college a year away for his son, Cam, plus the proximity to his Lisbon home, ultimately led Ramich to apply. He was approved by the Brunswick school board last Wednesday.

“I’m excited to be at Brunswick,” he said. “I’m looking forward to continuing the success that the teams have already had and building relationships over there.”

Leavitt teams collected some hardware during Ramich’s brief tenure, which began when he succeeded longtime AD Doug Conn in 2011.

The football team reached the state championship game in the fall of 2011. The following winter, the girls’ Nordic skiing team won the Class A crown and the basketball teams both made tournament appearances in Portland. That spring, the baseball team reached the playoffs for the first time since 1998 and softball made a Cinderella run to the Western B final. The success continued in 2012 with a Class B title in field hockey.

While proud of that success, Ramich downplayed his role in it.

“All I did was make sure the buses were ready for them,” he said. “Make sure they had the right equipment and paid officials. That’s all I do.”

“I told someone there the other day that it seems like I’ve been here a lot longer than two years because of the relationships and the friendships that I’ve built, and I’m going to miss everybody out there,” he said.

Prior to his two years at Leavitt, Ramich spent one year as co-curricular director at Gray-New Gloucester and nine years in the same position at Lisbon, his alma mater. He also served as a teach and coach at Sugg Middle School and Oxford Hills High School since beginning his career in education in 1990.

Ready to stress sportsmanship within his department and show support for all other departments, Ramich said he doesn’t expect first foray into Class A administration to be much different than his experiences in classes B and C.

“The only thing that will be different is lacrosse in the spring time,” he said. “Everything else, I’ve done before. My 10 years of experience as a co-curricular director, you’re talking about 50 programs. You’re talking about all of the sports and teams, but then you’ve got band and match team and drama and all of the other organizations and co-curricular activities. It’s almost a wash. It’s not going to be anything different than what I’m used to.”

Leavitt has not named an interim athletic director but has begun the process of finding a replacement. Tryouts and practices for fall sports begin Aug. 19.

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