North Fork Native Brian Tardif Approved As New Pierson Athletic Director

The Sag Harbor School District has a new athletic director.

At a Board of Education meeting on Monday night, August 8, board members approved the hiring of Brian Tardif to fill the position. He will replace Don McGovern, who had filled in the last year on an interim basis after Eric Bramoff resigned the post to take the athletic director job at Oyster Bay.

Tardif is a 2008 graduate of Mattituck High School, where he was a three-sport athlete, playing soccer, basketball and baseball. He was a standout on the diamond in particular, earning All-County and All-State honors as a pitcher and outfielder for the Tuckers before being recruited to play at Monmouth College.

After a year there, he transferred to LIU-Post, where he finished out his baseball career and also earned his degree in health and physical education. He also played in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League, as a member of the North Fork Ospreys, during his time in college.

After doing his student teaching in Southold and coaching several sports, he moved to Massachusetts, earning a full-time job as a phys ed teacher, working first in Lowell and then in Quincy. His plan, however, was always to return to eastern Long Island.

He and his wife purchased a home recently in Southold, unsure of when they’d be able to return to the area. Taking the job at Pierson represented the perfect opportunity, Tardif said, adding that he will enjoy the commute to work on the north and south ferries each day.

Tardif will serve as the director of athletics, health and physical education, and as part of that job description will teach one or two phys ed classes each school day in the morning before tending to the administrative duties associated with the job.

“I always knew I wanted to do something with coaching and phys ed and kids, and you never know what will open up, but I did envision an AD job,” he said. “I’ve been telling everyone that this is the perfect opportunity, because I’ll still be able to teach and do the AD part of the job. It’s rare to find a job where you get to do both.”

August 9 was set to be Tardif’s first official day on the job.

Tardif was one of several newcomers to the faculty announced at Monday night’s meeting. During his superintendent’s report, Jeff Nichols gave an update on staffing, saying that, since the end of the last school year, the district has hired 12.8 teachers — the 0.8 equals a position that is not full time — along with one teacher’s assistant and one administrator, and that there are still four teaching positions and three teaching assistant positions remaining to be filled.

Nichols acknowledged that hiring has been a challenge, and that acknowledgment came just minutes after several people spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting to advocate for voting yes on the upcoming Southampton Town ballot referendum to establish a Community Housing Fund, which would be funded by a real estate transfer tax. That vote is set for November 8.

“The job market is getting more difficult, with the cost of housing and the long commute for many people,” Nichols said. “We’ve noticed that applicant pools have decreased in size and quality. Having said that, the administration did a good job in hiring quality staff.”

He commended the administration for increasing its recruiting efforts, pointing out that there was more effort put into promoting the job openings on social media and adding that the district even placed ads in The New York Times.

“We’ll be busy over the next few weeks making sure we’re fully staffed,” he said. “Our goal is to get it done as soon as possible. If we’ve hired everyone by the next board meeting, that would be good.”