Mr. Amore started work in the athletic office last month.

Richard W. Dionne Jr.

EAST PROVIDENCE — Over a decade removed from when he first expressed an interest in the job, Gregg Amore has busily begun his tenure recently as the new director of athletics for the East Providence School District with an ambitious but seemingly authentic agenda.

Mr. Amore, 50, initially applied for the post but did not receive it when then Athletic Director Phil Ricci retired at the conclusion of the 2004-05 term. Mr. Ricci's assistant at the time, Paul Amaral, was selected. He served the role for eight years before Bob Duarte, also an assistant AD when hired, was promoted to the position at the start of the 2013-14 school year. Mr. Duarte resigned from the job this past winter, creating the opportunity for Mr. Amore to once again cast his hat in the ring.

"The job is something that has always interested me," Mr. Amore said last week in his high school office. He was officially appointed as athletic director by the School Committee at its June 14 meeting. "I applied 11 years and unfortunately didn't get the job. I've always thought this job fit my skill set. I'm a life long Townie. I think this is a good career move for me. It's something I think I can do for the next decade or so."

For the better part of the last three decades, 27 years to be exact, Mr. Amore was an instructor in the East Providence High School Social Studies Department where he taught United History, Advanced Placement U.S. History, a class on contemporary issues as well as Civics and Government courses. He said the decision to leave instruction was difficult, but one he was ready to make.

"I liked teaching," he explained. "I can honestly say that I had only a handful of bad days during my entire 27 years. So I still enjoy teaching. I still have the passion for it, but in education, unless you go into administration, there's not too many places you can move where you can kind of refresh. And I just think it was a good opportunity for me to have a new challenge and try to make some improvements to, support the program that supported me when I was a kid. I was an East Providence athlete. I benefitted greatly from my time as a Townie athlete, so this is my chance to give back."

Mr. Amore was a standout hockey and baseball player at EPHS during the mid-1980s. He later played baseball and graduated from Providence College where his coaching career began. He would eventually return to Townie athletics as an assistant coach for baseball and hockey before becoming the head coach in each sport, spending about a decade each in the dugout and behind the bench. He was last the EPHS head hockey coach in 2009.

"The vast majority of my teaching career also included coaching here. Up until 2009 I was the hockey coach here, but I had coached hockey and baseball here, one way or another, basically since I was hired," he said.

Mr. Amore would like the coaches as EPHS to follow a similar track as he did, which means being both a mentor in the classroom and in the athletic arena as well. He understands, however, the requirements currently commanded in the education profession especially don't always allow for coaching and teaching simultaneously as they once did.

"It's getting more and more difficult to find coaches because lots of people coming into teaching today are overwhelmed with the burdens of that position, so they don't have time to coach. I think my biggest challenge will be to find a core of coaches, support them in every way and keep them here as long as possible," Mr. Amore said.

He continued, "Already, we've lost Alex Butler (who recently resigned) from basketball, and that's a tremendous loss to that program and the athletic department. We're going to have find a replacement and then support that replacement so that we have another Alex Butler. So, that's the challenge. We have to build a coaching core and then a coaching tree. A lot of the younger people coaching here today like (boys' volleyball coach) Dan Cabral, I coached. I hope that continues with people like (head football) Coach (Jay) Monteiro and Coach Butler (who remains as girls' volleyball coach). They have kids who they've coached now coming back to coach themselves. That's what one of my goals is, to build the organization up so we have East Providence people coaching. And not necessarily that came here or played here, but people in East Providence with a connection to the school."

Building relationships, a bond between the community and the East Providence School Department are a couple of aspects Mr. Amore said he would like to emphasize during his tenure. Though the halcyon days of Townie athletics may be gone, when East Providence High School was a dominant force in just about every sporting endeavor it undertook, E.P. teams can and do still for the most part compete with the best the state has to offer.

"I think the comparison to yesteryear is unfair because our student population is 1,400 now. That's the smallest we've ever been. So when you're 1,400, you're in the middle of the back, but I guess still at the higher end. But in the heyday of East Providence athletics we had 2,200 kids here and that was just for three grades. Now we have 1,400 for four grades," Mr. Amore said. "But in saying that, I think we have some successful programs. We have excellent coaches. I think we do have to do better job of promoting what we do here in the athletic department. Anyone that goes to games, anyone that watches our student athletes perform knows we have talented kids. More important, they're good kids, solid kids. And we have good coaches, nice facilities that are getting better every day.

"Now, look, we're never going to get the kid who plays hockey at a very high level because our hockey program can't give that to them. We don't have a rink. We don't have a youth program. It can't be there. The 'country club' sports, golf and tennis, we compete where we should compete. But in the 'majors,' in baseball, basketball and football, we still compete. The football team was best public school team in the league last year. And I think if you're a public school team now, you can't dominate as a public school team anymore. So you try to do the best you can until you have that group of kids who did what they did last year in football, which was exceed expectations and play really well."

East Providence athletes and students notably transcend many of the stereotypical beliefs about high school. That ability to achieve scholastically and in sports is something the new athletic director wants to instill in current pupils and those who will potentially attend EPHS in the future.

"I think I would to stress to our coaches and our student athletes that sports are an extension of the classroom," Mr. Amore said. "That this is part of their academic experience as well as they're athletic experience, and I think that's been part of the culture, but I want to make sure that gets reinforced. I'd like to get our student athletes involved in the community more as volunteers either through clinics with youth sports or in some other way. I'd also like I mentioned before promote the school more. We need to get out there in the youth leagues, get our coaches involved. We need to advertise us a little bit more. And we need to promote that in the community and make sure people look at East Providence High School as an option."

To do all these things mentioned, Mr. Amore is reverting the East Providence Athletic Department to what it was when the director position became a full-time job. The city's budget crunch last decade and into the early 2010s saw the full-time secretary job eliminated. Also, the original assistant AD post wasn't filled for a period of time, neither was that of a second assistant contractually negotiated with the union once the secretary position was removed.

Mr. Amore will have two part-time assistants. EPHS teacher Nick Shattuck was hired for one of the jobs during the previous term. He shared the AD duties on an interim basis with EPHS Vice Principal Araxie DeBlois following Mr. Duarte's resignation. The interview process for the other assistant post is taking place this week.

"When this job (AD) became a full-time position there was a full-time secretary and an assistant AD. Over the course of the past 10-plus years the secretary position has been removed and the last couple of years there was no assistant," Mr. Amore said. "We're going back to way it was. This is a big time consuming job in terms of coverage. We have the high school and two middle schools, so no one person can be at the high school, at the middle schools, covering a softball game or a golf match at the same time. So, it's essential we have a couple of assistants not only to help out with the administrative aspects but also with the coverage of the games."

In the end, Mr. Amore said he has the resolve to implement all of the changes he suggests and expects to serve in the position of athletic director throughout the remainder of his career in education.

"I'm committed to it," he added. "I wouldn't have applied for the job if I wasn't."