Tradition is a word indelibly linked to the proud athletic programs at Mountain Valley High School.

Winning championships and contending for them each year is one of those traditions. Another is having a homegrown teacher and administrator oversee those activities.

Mountain Valley will have its third different athletic director in three school years in 2012-13. As is the custom, however, it’s someone with knowledge of the community and passion for it.

Alan Cayer, a longtime local football coach with 33 years experience in education, has been named to the post.

He will replace Jim Aylward, who held the job for one year after the retirement of John Bernard. The RSU 10 school board approved the hiring earlier this week.

 “It was kind of a natural progression. I’ve been athletic director and assistant principal at the middle school,” Cayer said. “It’s a different type of challenge (than teaching and coaching). You deal with a lot of different people.”

Aylward, the only football coach in Mountain Valley history, will return to full-time teaching in the English department. His teaching duties had been reduced this year due to the administrative commitments.

While Aylward’s job title didn’t officially carry an interim tag, he told the Sun Journal in May 2011 that he believed his best long-term contributions to the district were in the classroom.

Each hiring is part of an RSU 10 effort to come up with a workable educational and extra-curricular budget in a challenging economy.

Mountain Valley’s assistant principal position opened when Chris Decker was appointed principal at Rumford Elementary School.

Cayer, 56, has doubled as assistant principal and AD under Ryan Casey at Mountain Valley Middle School the past five years. That job will not be filled, replaced instead by a pair of stipend positions.

“I just moved up a step,” Cayer said. “We’re dealing with what every school district in the state is dealing with right now.”

Prior to entering administration, Cayer taught mathematics in the district for 28 years.

Although he advances to a higher age and grade level, Cayer doesn’t expect the sports side of the equation to change much.

With the exception of lacrosse, he noted, the middle school in Mexico offers every sport that the high school in Rumford does.

“The biggest difference in the high school is dealing with the MPA. The scheduling is a little bit different,” Cayer said.

Mountain Valley’s football, boys’ basketball, baseball, wrestling, skiing and cheerleading teams have been perennial championship contenders in the school’s 23-year history.

Under Aylward’s direction, the Falcons have reached the Western Class B football championship game 17 times, winning state titles in each of the past four even-numbered years.

“Friday night at Hosmer Field is what everybody thinks about,” Cayer said.

When it comes to that tradition, Cayer speaks from experience.

He has been an assistant coach at both Mountain Valley and its predecessor, Rumford High. Cayer also was head coach at Mexico and Dirigo. Additionally, he coached track and field and skiing at Mountain Valley.

“I’ve done a little bit of everything,” he said.

Never straying more than a few miles from the location of his next office, though.

“The Mountain Valley and Rumford communities expect, demand, say it how you will, good teams on the field, on the court and on the mat,” Cayer said. “That’s something they’ve always had since the 1950s and before. We have good, quality coaches and we put out good, quality student-athletes.”

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