New District Athletic Director ready for the challenges ahead

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Me and my XC 8th graders
Coach Christine Pariseau-Telge, right, with members of McLaughlin’s cross-country track team. Courtesy Photo

MANCHESTER, NH – Christine Pariseau-Telge has mapped out a game plan for tackling what is by all accounts a full-time undertaking: her new role as part-time Manchester School District Athletic Director.

She’s focused on efficiency and communication, and looks forward to boosting participation in athletic programs among students, and enthusiasm among her coaching staff.

Pariseau-Telge will have 20 hours per week to devote to the job, and will balance her new responsibilities with her current job, working 30 hours per week flex-time for Dartmouth Hitchcock/Norris Cotton Cancer Center in fundraising, communications and event management.

A mother of two sons, Pariseau-Telge is well connected in the community, and has spent many years volunteering in the district, most recently serving as coach for McLaughlin’s Boys Cross-Country team where her older boy, Tyler, is a student.

“There are lots of priorities in the athletic department, and so I’m going to begin to look at that,” says Pariseau-Telge. “From a coaching perspective, there were some lapses between what was expected of me, and making me the best coach I could be for these boys, so when the athletic director position became available part time, I took a look at how I could make it work with my current position, and decided to apply.”

Bolstering Manchester athletics will take strategy. A major challenge is that student enrollment is down, due in part to the exodus of students from surrounding towns after sending districts opted out of contracts with Manchester over recent years.

“That has affected the numbers in our athletic programs, and socioeconomically, there are those who just can’t afford to participate. We also have transportation issues – things that have changed since I was a kid,” says Pariseau-Telge.

She applauds the decision by the district to add a “late bus” that picks up students at 4 p.m. and takes them home.

“From what I’ve seen at McLaughlin, a lot of the boys and girls who are playing sports, when practice is done at 5:30, they have no reliable way to get home, so they end up walking five or six miles every night if they want to play sports,” she ways.

“Some of our other parents are fortunate enough to be able to pick up their kids. It would be great for them to hear some of the stories of how a lot of young men and women who want to play are going above and beyond as young adults just to be able to do that,” Pariseau-Telge says. “I actually give a young man a ride every day. He lives eight miles from McLaughlin – people need to realize there is a changing face of city athletics, and it takes a community to make this work.”

Each high school has its own athletic director to handle day-to-day athletics; district middle schools do not.

“One of the concerns I expressed in my interview was the lack of options for athletics in middle school, especially for boys. When I was growing up there weren’t a lot of options for women – now, there are a lot more options for females,” she says.

In the fall, girls can choose from field hockey, volleyball or cross country, whereas boys only have cross country, she says.

“Some boys want to play field hockey, or my son, for instance, wants to play soccer, but there’s no soccer program that’s funded – and this will change – but there’s no soccer program funded by our city in middle schools, even though it’s a strong sport at the high school level,” she says.

Yet, from an economic perspective, soccer is a lot easier for those who struggle financially to play.

“All you need is a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. You don’t even need a lot of equipment,” she says.

There was a successful soccer program and flag football program put together by a resident of the city with private funding, which gained momentum among students.

“There are people who want to help fund this, and it would be great to work with some outside funding to make those programs more competitive, so our teams can play teams outside the district,” she says.

Another challenge is players being drawn to athletic programs outside of the district.

“What I’ve heard from other school athletic directors is that a lot of top hockey players are playing for travel teams. You’ll find nowadays where people aren’t so confident about athletics in schools, and so those who can afford to are paying a lot for kids to play one sport year round. We now have academy-level soccer teams, so some of the best players in our schools are playing on high-level travel teams,” Pariseau-Telge says.

One of her goals is making sure Manchester is providing the best options available for student athletes who want to play for their schools.

“There are things we can learn from what other districts are doing. We need to make sure people respect our programs here in Manchester. Unfortunately, this position has been through multiple personnel changeovers, which doesn’t help in putting our best face forward. The New Hampshire Athletic Association continues to deal with different people every six months. That makes it hard to build relationships,” she says.

Making sure athletes keep up with academic studies is also important to Pariseau-Telge, something she doesn’t just preach, but practices on her own home turf.

“For our family life it’s important to have athletic avenues, but our family strives first on academics, and if you don’t perform academically, you can’t play sports. In other families, maybe it’s the arts, or other avenues that are important,” Pariseau-Telge says. “But academics is No. 1.”

Her husband, Peter Telge, owner of Stark Brewing, attended Central and played football. Pariseau-Telge was born and raised in the city, also a Central grad, attended UNH and Franklin Pierce Law School, then practiced law for a while before becoming director of HR for a large company in Boston. She left there to focus on raising her family, including Tyler, 13, and Zachary, 11, who attends Green Acres.

Encouraging her sons in their individual athletic pursuits has also boosted her own competitive spirit.

“People think I was an extreme athlete back in the day, which isn’t true. Now that I’m in the AARP division, I’ve continued to maintain my fitness. I’ve run in 14 marathons, and I compete at a high level, but because most women my age no longer compete or their bodies have changed and not competing at same level, people think I’m this great runner; I’m just more competitive,” Pariseau-Telge says.

It’s definitely a family fitness affair – she started taking her kids out with her using a running stroller starting when they were babies, and she and her husband are their biggest fans now that they’ve become athletes. And she grew up competing with four brothers who were all athletic.

“There’s not a sport we haven’t tried to be a part of, so I feel confident with the athletic background part of the job,” says Pariseau-Telge.

In addition to increasing participation among students, Pariseau-Telge also must work on coach recruitment and retention.

“There are coaching vacancies in our district right now. A lot of people aren’t taking positions for one reason or another. We have less of a volunteer pool for us to pull from, so what we’re trying to focus on is filling those positions, especially with the immediacy of spring sports coming,” she says.

“It’s important to have a strong program for kids going to school here who don’t just want to play but play competitively. We hear from other parents how great other school programs are, so the challenge for us is how can we better our coaching staff, whether it’s through a mentor program, or recruiting coaches with more experience in certain sports,” Pariseau Telge says.

“There is a lot to do, for sure. People who’ve been in this position say it’s a full-time-plus job in a part-time position, so I’m going into this eyes wide open,” Pariseau-Telge says. “My first priority is to get through spring sports, which means making sure we have coaches, and that spring sports go off without problems. Over the summer I’ll focus on how we can better our athletics program in the city of Manchester. I’m hoping the school board at some point will reevaluate that, and come to the conclusion that there are enough issues that fall under the athletic director position that it should be a full-time position. In the meantime, I will do my best to be successful.”

About this Author

Carol Robidoux

PublisherManchester Ink Link

Longtime NH journalist and publisher of ManchesterInkLink.com. Loves R&B, German beer, and the Queen City!