WOODBURY – During his six years as Nonnewaug’s athletic director, Declan Curtin’s focus was building pride in the tribe.
Now his goal is building pride in the classrooms.
Nonnewaug principal Mykal Kuslis says that Curtin has a proven track record.
“He grew our athletic program quite a bit the past six years. He really brought pride back to our athletic program, with the spoon and other things, and I think he wants to replicate that in the classroom,” said Kuslis.
Curtin previously taught and coached at Bridgeport Central, and the success he experienced there was something he wanted to replicate when he arrived at Nonnewaug.
“Coming from a large Fairfield County school, I knew that we could go from being very good to great, and to me, that was my goal here,” said Curtin. “In terms of athletics, we were lucky enough to win the Ted Alex Award the last three years for the most successful athletic program in the Berkshire League.”
While Curtin has spent the last six years building the Chiefs’ athletic program, he now transitions to do the same in the classrooms as assistant principal.
“To me, you always have to set goals. You want to be successful, you want to win, and now I look at our test scores and I can see we can win, we can be better. We are working hard with our teachers right now to improve their craft, [and] they are pouring in the time and the effort to become better teachers,” said Curtin. “I love to see that enthusiasm and energy through our staff, because then it carries over into the classroom, and from there students get a better experience, and that’s going to help them to do better on tests, but also better in life.”
Curtin says the goal should be “to be better, and once we get better, to be even better than that. Because that’s the mentality of an athlete; that’s me at my core, and that’s what I want to bring to this new job.”
He now intends for all the energy that was delivered to the fields to be returned to the classrooms.
“I really enjoyed that job and working with kids,” Curtin said, “[and] seeing the successes on the fields, but I also want to take that energy now and see what I can do on the academic side of things.”
Even though Curtin won’t be the administrator directly overseeing athletics, he will still be one of Nonnewaug’s biggest supporters. But now’s the moment for him to take a step toward achieving his professional objectives.
“It is a step into the direction I want my career goals to go in the future, but right now I’m extremely happy where I’m at. I love Nonnewaug High School; I don’t want to leave this place,” said Curtin. “But I also know that in life, sometimes you need to be uncomfortable. You need new challenges, and you need to push yourself, and that dean/athletic director job was something I felt didn’t have any new learning experiences for me, while this job certainly does.”
In his new role as assistant principal, Curtin will collaborate even more with Kuslis.
“I think he’s a good ying to my yang,” Kuslis said. “He’s a dad of five kids, so he can relate to kids and what they’re going through. So he also has that nice fatherly approach to things. He can kind of come and talk to you as an administrator, but then kind of puts his arm around you like a dad, [like], this is what’s best for you and this is how you’re gonna get here.”
After the athletic successes Nonnewaug has achieved with Curtin as athletic director, now he hopes to do the same on the academic side of Nonnewaug.
“Often, winning kind of breeds a positive culture,” Curtin said, “and I think that’s something going on on the athletic side of things of Nonnewaug that I’m very interested in bringing to the academic side.”
