Andrew St. Pierre Resigns As Danvers High Athletic Director

DANVERS, MA — Danvers High Athletic Director Andrew St. Pierre is leaving the school effective mid-December after eight years leading the Falcons' athletic department.

Superintendent Mary Wermers announced St. Pierre's resignation during Monday night's School Committee meeting, saying St. Pierre is stepping down because he is "seeking a different career path." She said he is "moving into the financial planning world."

"We'll miss having Andy as our athletic director," Wermers said of the Danvers native. "We thank him for all his years of serving Danvers Public Schools and the community."

Danvers High Principal Adam Federico said Assistant Athletic Director Morgan Sitarz will take over as head of operations in the short-term while school administration helps her with event management.

"We feel confident we can maintain the program until we decide how to move forward with that position," Federico said.

St. Pierre oversaw a period that saw Danvers teams accomplish great things on the fields, sending many student-athletes on to collegiate athletic careers, while also navigating the painful repercussions of accused hazing within the boys hockey program during the 2019-2020 school year.

The wrestling program was also temporarily suspended last December when a video including racial bias was found to be circulating in a Snapchat group among team members.

"We're going to continue to push our athletes to be good citizens and we're going to continue to hold them accountable when they make a mistake and make sure they learn from it," Federico told the School Committee during a scheduled presentation. "I feel what we did last year in the athletic department speaks to our commitment to improve Danvers High School and improve some of the things that needed that work."

Per the outcome of an Attorney General's Office investigation into the district's and town's handling of the hockey hazing accusations and other incidents of bias and hate, Danvers student-athletes are required to go through additional bias and hazing recognition and training as well as engage in other school community-building programs.

"I was very proud of how our student-athletes conducted themselves last year under very tough conditions," Federico said. "They had a lot of outside parties who had a lot to say about us and they always conducted themselves with class, with respect.

"They led the way. They were willing to be part of the change that we need to work on."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza)