Dirigo’s new athletic director, Sara Thurston, prides herself on putting students first — even when that includes running a marathon.

Thurston ran the 2017 Maine State Marathon in Portland alongside former colleague Georgia Valley, other teachers and students from the Leavitt Area High School Running Club.

“Even though I was an athlete growing up, and I really appreciate people who run, I was not a runner — ever,” Thurston said. “But I had this group of students when I was teaching at Leavitt who actually convinced me to train and run a full marathon with them.”

Thurston said that as a child she did “everything that I got a chance to do,” in sports, including competitive gymnastics, soccer, basketball and softball. She graduated from George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill before attending the University of Maine in Orono and graduating in 2003. While at UMaine, she played Division I volleyball for two years after the school re-established the program.

Thurston said that after college she was a part-time athletic director and full-time physical education and health teacher at a small K-12 school, which helped “get her feet wet,” in the high school athletics space.

She also coached volleyball during that time at the University of Maine at Farmington, before being hired to teach full time and coach at Dirigo. She spent a year as the JV softball coach and then became the varsity team’s head coach in 2010. She led the Cougars to the Western Maine regional title and an appearance in the Class C state championship game in 2012.

Thurston eventually moved on to Leavitt Area High School, where she taught and was the head coach of the girls cross country team for about six years.

She landed back at Dirigo as a teacher in 2021, and was hired earlier this year to replace Nick Karavas as athletic director.

Along with teaching and coaching, Thurston is a past president of the Eastern District for the National Society for Health and Physical Education, and a past president of the Maine Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

Her husband, Cliff Thurston, is from Peru, and his family owns the four-generation Thurston Family Farm on Mineral Springs Road in Peru. Sara said having pre-existing community roots ensures she has no intention of leaving Dirigo.

Earlier this year, Regional School Unit 56 changed its traditional high school athletic director position, which has been held by an assistant principal, to a district-wide director of athletics and student activities. This means Thurston oversees all extracurricular activities, and not just sports.

“My role looks a lot different than it has historically. I now oversee everything that is happening beyond our classroom activities for our students, from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade,” Thurston said. “So, it includes all the athletics that we do, but it also includes things like our drama club and debate club. Any of the clubs or organizations that happen within our district also land on my plate, too.”

Thurston said she’s enjoying putting the puzzle pieces together on a student’s entire educational experience, and most often it includes some form of extracurricular activities.

“When you’re teaching, a lot of times you see what you’re most directly connected to. But I’ve realized I’m zooming out on education as a whole, in the whole experience for students, for kids as they’re growing up,” Thurston said. “Being involved beyond my classroom experience as a kid growing up was really influential in my development, of becoming who I am, and if I could get back into that, I wanted to jump on that opportunity to provide that for kids in our community as well.”

The biggest benefit her new position has for the school is avoiding scheduling conflicts with sports practices and non-athletic clubs such as band or drama. This is even more important at a small school like Dirigo, with just over 200 students, Thurston said, because it’ll allow students to be involved in as many different activities as they can.

“I am really looking forward to being able to help our coaching staff; I really enjoy helping lighten people’s loads,” Thurston said. “So whatever I can do for my coaches to make it easier for them so they can just coach, I’m looking forward to that.

“I’m looking forward to making it so kids can not worry about all the other stuff, just show up and do their thing.”

While she’s a little over a month-and-a-half into the position, Thurston said she “could not have walked into a better situation,” and emphasized how strong and experienced the coaching staff at Dirigo is, with a couple of new coaching hires joining the mix. She added that the coaches are willing to learn and adapt to new scenarios, which is important in the growing community.