Gary Stevens

Gary Stevens is the athletic administrator at Thornton Academy, an independent school serving students in grades 6-12 in Saco, Maine.  He has been an athletic administrator for twenty-eight years.  Prior to beginning his tenure at Thornton Academy in 2007, he served eleven years as an athletic administrator at Bonny Eagle High School, including nine years as an assistant principal.  Gary graduated from Harvard University in 1983 with a Bachelors of Arts degree in History, cum laude in General Studies.  He received his Master of Arts degree in American and New England Studies from the University of Southern Maine in 2000 and a Master of Science degree in Education (School Leadership Concentration) from Saint Joseph’s College of Maine in 2015.  He currently holds both the CAA (1999) and CMAA (2004) certification from the NIAAA.

 Stevens served on the Board of Directors for the Maine Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association and is currently Assistant Executive Director for that organization.  His major responsibilities include organizing the association’s annual fall conference, overseeing its Professional Development Program for new athletic directors, and serving as editor and writer for MIAAA News, its electronic magazine and newsletter.  He is also a member of the Maine Basketball Commission and formerly served with the Maine Sports Hall of Fame Board of Directors.  He was named the recipient of the Robert Lahey Award as Maine’s Athletic Director of the Year in 2005 and has also received the MIAAA Past Presidents’ Special Achievement Award, the Keith Lancaster Professional Development Award, the Gerald Durgin Leadership Award, and the Martin Ryan Award of Excellence.

 Stevens joined the NIAAA Publications Committee in 2006 and was selected as the Vice-Chair in 2012.  He has presented workshops at six national conferences and has been published on over 210 occasions in various professional journals.   He also wrote a chapter on contest management for both editions of the NIAAA’s Guide to Interscholastic Athletic Administration.  Stevens was a recipient of the NIAAA Distinguished Service Award in 2010, the NFHS Citation in 2015, the Frank Kovaleski Professional Development Award in 2018, and the Thomas E. Frederick Award of Excellence in 2021.  He has attended all national conferences for athletic directors since 2003 and was a member of the Blue Ribbon Panel in 2009. 

 Stevens has served as a Leadership Training Institute course instructor at conferences held in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, California, Colorado, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Maryland and is a member of the NIAAA National LTI Faculty.   Stevens has sat for LTI courses himself on over 60 occasions.   He served on the NIAAA Board of Directors from 2015-2017 and was the chairman of the Marketing Subcommittee.  He also served as the co-chair for the Interscholastic Advisory Board for the National Center for Spectator Sport Safety and Security in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and co-authored an on-line course related to after school safety and security.

Locally Stevens has served as the president of the Southwestern Maine Activities Association (twice) and Southern Maine Middle School Athletic Conference and was both the chairman and recording secretary of the SMAA Sportsmanship Committee.   He has served as a member and chairman of the Maine Principals’ Association Cheerleading, Lacrosse, Western Maine Class A/B Basketball, and Tennis Committees.   He currently serves as an adjunct professor of Sport and Exercise Science at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine.