Mamary Looking Forward to Challenge

Sandy Mamary faced a crossroads in life six years ago.

Professionally she had a chance to move up. Having tasted a bit of life as a school administrator during her six month stint as interim assistant principal of Westfield High School, the newly minted holder of a master's in education administration, knew she wanted to go that route. She interviewed and reached the finalist stage for the post of assistant principal/athletic director of Watchung Hills High School.

At the same time, she felt a tugging at her heart strings – over 1,200 tuggings in fact – that made it tough for her to consider leaving WHS and consider moving on to another school district, even if it meant not taking the administrative post.

"That was the only time I ever interviewed for an administrative post," she said. "It got too close and I panicked, I didn't want to leave Westfield. Professionally I wanted to do my vision here. I live here; I have been part of the community since 1987. Working with Gary and Ed and being on the board of the Hall of Fame, it becomes a part of you. I realized in 2004 that I can sit back and wait. This is my home."

 The waiting paid off for Mamary with her appointment in June as the district's new supervisor of athletics. The first woman to hold the post, the Wilkes-Barre, Penn. native follows such Westfield legends as Gary Kehler and Ed Tranchina to take the helm of Blue Devil athletics.

The long time head athletic trainer at WHS, Mamary is titled differently than Tranchina – who held the post of athletic director – following a decision by the Board of Education in the spring to change to the supervisor title being recommended by state officials. In her new post, Mamary also takes charge of the district's physical and health education program.

Mamary comes to the post after 23 years in the trainer's job, a time where she developed relationships with many athletes, coaches and parents. The bonds she formed made her almost the "people's choice" candidate for the athletic supervisor's job, with many in the community cheering after the news broke of her appointment to the post.

Mamary seems born to the role of leading Westfield athletics, a fact she herself notes.

"Wilkes-Barre is where athletics is as big as breathing," she said of her hometown. "It's a coal mining city that really prides itself on the success of athletics and hard work. It gets ingrained in you."

Participating in basketball, track and softball in high school, Mamary would participate in track for a season at East Stroudsburg University before leaving the team to focus fulltime on her studies to become an athletic trainer. She pursued the career in order to focus on both athletics and medicine.

"I was an athlete, I wanted to find a profession that I could continue being around athletes," Mamary said. "I had a like for the medical aspect. I could not picture myself sitting in an office and doing any one job. Training had the medical and athletic aspects. I am outside and inside."

Graduating college in 1987, Mamary started looking for districts and was recruited to the job by Kehler. Attracted to Westfield by its proximity to New York, Pennsylvania and the Shore, Mamary said Kehler helped seal the deal.

"As soon as I met Gary, I knew I wanted to for work the guy," she said. "His passion for this town and the athletic program was infectious."

Sitting in her new air conditioned office overlooking the high school's front lawn and Stoneleigh Park, marked with flowers, including a surprise bouquet from the wrestling team, Mamary recalls with a laugh her less than luxurious beginnings in the school system. The fifth trainer in five years, Mamary took over what was something of a backwater operation in the athletic department, where she did her job in a literal closet in the high school and a small room at Edison Intermediate School.

"I literally taped kids in the hall," Mamary said of her early days. "My office was 10 feet by 10 feet and we had 1200 kids. There was no field house. My training room at the field was a back room in a drafting room at Edison."

Looking back on her Edison space, she remembers a wire coat hanger holding together the ice machine and a hole in the training table. In her high school space, she even lacked an ice machine, making daily runs to the cafeteria and bringing back pounds of ice.

At the same time, Kehler challenged her to improve upon the training program. Mamary notes she had longtime WHS teacher and former part time athletic trainer John D'Andrea at her disposal in the building to show her the ropes and help her get acclimated.

Mamary said her main focus during her early days was to build a different type of training program for Westfield. She wanted to develop a relationship with the parents and students and develop a seamless transition for the athletes in her care. She noted she wanted to be able to refer a student from her office to a doctor if needed and assure the parents that she was doing everything possible to help the student athletes.

"It was a lot of hard work," Mamary said of building the training program. "Going above and beyond, forming a relationship with the parents. If they needed to see a physician, I had relationships of physicians and I could get them in early."

At the same time, Mamary said she worked to be upfront with the parents and the students she talked to and worked with. She wanted students to know where she stood and what she was attempting to do when she was doing her job.

"I am very direct and up front," she said. "I've always said that you can't judge the book by its cover. You can look at my cover and that's my book. There is no hidden agenda. It is all out there. People can appreciate that."

Mamary's training program would move out of her humble beginnings, first leaving the drafting closet at Edison after the field house opened in 1990 and then several years later, when Tranchina succeeded Kehler as athletic director, a move in the high school. Tranchina and then basketball coach Stewart Carey, decided to move Mamary's operation from the small closet like room to the larger room that had been serving as a team lounge for the boy's basketball team.

Mamary worked to get her master's from Kean in the early part of the decade and had the six-month gig as interim assistant principal before choosing to go on the administrative path. After deciding not to pursue the Watchung Hills post, Mamary recommitted herself to Westfield and decided to pursue the top job in the athletic department when Tranchina decided to retire.

While many described her as the frontrunner for the post from the beginning of the search process, Mamary downplays the speculation, noting she went through the search process and several interviews before she was offered the post. She said she decided to go through the process and take the post because of her desire to lead Westfield athletics and also from a personal viewpoint.

"It's a big deal for future little girls," Mamary said of her status as the first woman to lead Westfield's athletic program. "When I was a little girl it was a big deal getting organized sports and being a part of the first girls sports in Wilkes Barre."

Mamary is part of a growing number of female athletic supervisors around New Jersey. She joins female athletic supervisors in Elizabeth and Hillside within Union County, along with others in the state.

Mamary noted that while she is part of a growing number and still in the minority, she is up for the new challenge facing her.

"I embrace challenges," she said. "It was a big deal for a woman to be a trainer at a group IV school in the 80s. I like to break through barriers."

Editor's Notebook: This is the first in a two part profile of Sandy Mamary.