Cyndi Pratt is staying in Farmington, but in a sense, she’s coming home.

After 18 years as the University of Maine at Farmington field hockey coach and some time as the assistant athletic director at the college, the Mt. Blue High School graduate is returning to the school as its new athletic director. 

Cyndi Pratt has left the University of Maine at Farmington to become the new athletic director at Mt. Blue High School. University of Maine at Farmington photo

Pratt is replacing Chad Brackett, the Cougars’ athletic director who is moving to North Carolina to pursue a new job. 

“I am super excited,” Pratt said. “I have done some orientation stuff with Chad this week, I’ve already been to an MPA new athletic director meeting yesterday, so I am hitting the ground running here and am anxious to get going. It’s a time of year where all fall athletes are excited to get going. The excitement you can see on kids’ faces at practice, getting ready for game days, I am really excited for it and happy to be a part of it at Mt. Blue.”

Brackett has confidence in Pratt taking over the position he held for the past six years.

“I can’t think of a better person to take over the job,” Brackett said. “She is a graduate of Mt. Blue, her father was a football coach here and she knows the area very well. She has sports administrative experience and I think she’s going to do a great job here.”

On August 15, high school student-athletes in Maine will begin the preseason for the fall sports season and Pratt will help lead the Cougars teams into a new school year. 

Having grown up in the community and the schools, Pratt thinks that will work to her advantage. 

“I think it will help tremendously,” Pratt said. “I think it’s important to know the sports in this area and the passion the community has for every sport here. I have been here, I know a lot of people and I don’t know if it’s the right term, but being one of them, being an alumni and knowing the passion they have in this community has to help. I think it’s ingrained in me, as well, growing up here.”

Pratt’s father, Raymond Caldwell, was a former football coach for the Cougars and is now the namesake for the football field at the high school.

Pratt’s roots at the school played a role in her decision to make a career change even though she wasn’t searching for a new job. She called leaving UMF “the hardest decision” that she has made, but she is ready for the new challenge ahead of her. 

“I grew up in this community and Mt. Blue has always been near and dear to my heart,” Pratt said. “I think coaching for 18 years, I loved every minute of it at UMF, but I think that everyone has a point where you’re looking to challenge yourself and take another spot. I wasn’t looking for a new job, but Chad and his wife are moving and it all kind of aligned for me. The leadership at Mt. Blue is outstanding and it felt right for me to do it at this time. It is probably the hardest decision I’ve made to leave my team at UMF, but I made that decision and now I am embracing it and going for it. I am really looking forward to it.”

After working as the assistant athletic director at UMF, Pratt is prepared to bring her administrative skills to the high-school level. She believes that there are many similarities between the college and high-school levels. 

“I think it will help tremendously,” Pratt said of her administrative experience at UMF. “I have a lot of experience with event management and running basketball games, baseball games, softball games. And just being a coach, you know how all of that goes day-to-day and what needs to be done. Even dealing with officials and rescheduling, all the behind-the-scenes work that people don’t see, I am used to that. And now it’s administering a few different sports, but the game operations are the same. I think scheduling is the same, you just need to figure things out and how everything works in the school and the conference. I think it’s something I have been doing for a long time.”