AUBURN — Less than two weeks after a pair of high-profile resignations opened jobs at Saint Dominic Academy, one post has been filled.

Keith Weatherbie, a longtime athletic director and teacher at Cape Elizabeth High School, who for six years has coached and taught at St. Dom’s, has been hired as the school’s head athletic administrator.

“Seeing the applicants and knowing the situation, I knew I wanted to do something,” Weatherbie said. “The two weeks I spent there filling in for (former AD) Gene (Keene) when he was on leave, I loved it. It brought back all the things I remembered about being an athletic director. I loved the whole thing, it was a great group of people and it was also the time the baseball team was on a run. I really, really enjoyed it. So I made a proposal to (St. Dom’s principal) Joline (Girouard) that I would be interested in doing it, but I would only do it if I had an assistant.”

A chemistry teacher at the school, Weatherbie wants to remain in that capacity, as well.

“I love that,” he said. “I love the teaching.”

When Girouard and school president Don Fournier agreed to the idea, Weatherbie signed on.

“It was my idea,” Weatherbie said. “I love the school. I’ve been there six years now, and I love it. The kids are great, there are great people there. But I didn’t like what happened at the end of the school year, so I’m kind of hoping I can come in there and right the ship, get things back to where they should be.”

As for an assistant administrator? Enter Katherine (Vincent) McKay, a St. Dom’s alumna and also a former administrative assistant in the school’s athletic department.

“Kat was an ideal person to do it,” Weatherbie said. “She had been there, she’s an alum. And she’s done a great job coaching softball at Poland. She’s a fantastic young lady.”

“It will be a lot different this time, more responsibility,” McKay said. “I’m really looking forward to learning from Keith. He’s very highly respected in the world of athletic administration, with the (Maine Principal’s Association) and everything he’s done over the years. I have a feeling I can learn a lot from him.”

McKay plans to continue coaching varsity softball at Poland High School, as well.

“I talked to (Poland athletic director) Don King and he was very excited for me, very supportive,” McKay said, “and Keith said he wants to be able to let me coach in the spring, and as long as we can work that out and it will balance, I want to stay coaching. I’ve really enjoyed my years at Poland.”

But St. Dom’s, McKay said, still holds her heart.

“I definitely feel like St. Dom’s is my home base,” McKay said. “I feel like I know the school pretty well. I’m learning the operating piece of it now, but as far as how things work, I’ve been on the student side of it, I’ve been in the athletic office as an assistant, and now my role is just going to increase. I think with Keith’s help, I’ll definitely be able to pick up rather quickly.”

Weatherbie, meanwhile, is rejuvenated after the late spring run, though he isn’t pleased with the circumstances under which he rediscovered his passion.

“This all happened so fast,” Weatherbie said. “Gene Keene was terrific. He did a great job as the athletic director here. It’s a real shame that he resigned from the program and how that all happened.“

Keene’s last day was Tuesday, June 23. Earlier that week, boys’ ice hockey coach Steve Ouellette also resigned. Though the two resignations were not related by a single incident, Keene cited parental pressure as a factor in his decision, saying, “I sometimes think that, for a small percentage of parents, they feel they have a sense of entitlement, that if things don’t go exactly the way they want, they want change. I understand that to a certain extent. But that makes it hard on the coaches. It makes it hard on everybody there.”

Ouellette cited family reasons for leaving his position, but the decision followed closely behind the abrupt departure of an assistant coach, and there were rumblings of some of the same parental concerns Keene offered.

“What happened a week ago when Gene Keene resigned and then Steve Ouellette resigned, in the athletic world it was not a good time for Saint Dominic Academy,” Weatherbie said. “Gene did a fantastic job there. I like Gene a lot.”

“And Steve coached for me at Cape Elizabeth, and he did a fantastic job for me there,” he added.

Ouellette won a Class B state title with Cape Elizabeth under Weatherbie before returning to his alma mater to coach.

Weatherbie will be the Saints’ third athletic administrator since longtime coach and administrator Bob Boucher passed away in 2007. Lee Hixon replaced Boucher and held the position for six years. Keene started at St. Dom’s in 2013 and was on staff for two full school years.

“I’m going to do whatever I can to get us back to where we have been in the past,” Weatherbie said. “I can’t guarantee how long I’ll be here, how long I’ll do it, but I want to make sure that when I do finish up, that St. Dom’s is in the position it should be in, that we’re competitive in all of the different activities in which we’re active.”

During his six years at St. Dom’s, Weatherbie also had a health scare and was forced to take time off in 2012, something the school’s administration wanted to be sure was in the past before they hired him to this position.

On a trip with the indoor track team to the University of Southern Maine, he had a sharp pain in his abdomen and was rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a ruptured small intestine.

“I spent two months in the ICU at St. Mary’s (Hospital) … and then I had another month of rehabilitation at New England Rehab,” Weatherbie said. “I missed the second half of the school year and I wasn’t able to coach track, obviously, being in the hospital.”

Three years later, Weatherbie is just now feeling back at 100 percent.

“I just had my annual physical, I’m in as good a shape as I’ve ever been,” he said. “I’ve got a clean bill of health, but it took a long time.

“I’m 71 years old, I’m not a spring chicken, O.K.?” Weatherbie deadpanned. “That’s why, the important part of this is having somebody there who can help me out and do a lot of things, like Kat. The key to this job is you want to try and hire the best coaches you can. It’s just like in education, you want to try and get the best teachers you can to make a good program. If you can hire the best coaches, and give them whatever they need to try and run that program, that’s what I found to be successful. I’m fortunate that we do have some great people still coaching at St. Dom’s.

His first order of business? Finding a hockey coach.

“I’m meeting with Steve Ouellette (this week),” Weatherbie said. “St. Dom’s runs a league and several teams are involved in the league, and I have no idea what’s happening with that right now. This all just came about this past Wednesday, and it wasn’t finalized until Thursday, so I’ve got to find out some of what’s going on.

“Also when I meet with him, I want to find out just what is the problem,” Weatherbie added. “I know some of the parents are rather vociferous about some things and I have to try to find out what the problem is and try to straighten it out.”

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