Stephane Millette, currently a teacher at Ecole Boreale, will soon be embarking on a new career.
Millette has been hired as the new recreation director for the Town of Hay River and will move to the new position on Dec. 1.
One of the reasons he decided to take on the role is the opportunity to work in the new Rec Centre.
"That was a big motivation for me," he said. "But honestly the number one vision for me was to see the opportunity of building more programming and possibly more facilities, so that we can better serve Hay River's recreation needs."
Millette, who is originally from Northern Ontario, has been at Ecole Boreale for 14 years, including once serving as principal for four years.
In that time in the community, he has been involved in many sports, both as a coach at Ecole Boreale and as a player.
"I've played everything," he said, describing himself as a rink rat and a gym rat while growing up in the town of Kapuskasing. "And I started coaching young, too."
While he has been teaching, he has coached a multitude of sports, such as basketball, volleyball, hockey, baseball and indoor and outdoor soccer.
"And I love it," he said.
Millette previously considered applying to become the town's recreation director when the job opening arose, but decided to stay with teaching because it was a good career and he had a young family.
"But when it opened up this time, I said, 'I've got to apply on this,'" he recalled.
The 38-year-old said he intends to do a lot of communicating and consulting with the town's senior administration, the new council, town employees, the Rec Board, user groups and potential users.
"I'm looking forward to talking to people and finding out what they see as needs and as positives to build on," he said.
Glenn Smith, the town's assistant senior administrative officer, has been acting recreation director since May.
Smith is pleased to see Millette replacing him as rec director.
"This is a big step forward for us, I think, in getting good local talent onto the team in a senior role," he said.
Smith noted that Millette knows Hay River and recreation programming and is committed to the community for the long term.
"We haven't had that in a long time with our rec directors," he said.
Smith noted that one of the key jobs for Millette will be putting together a recreation plan.
Mayor Brad Mapes is also pleased that Millette has been hired.
Mapes noted he is one of the premiere athletes in Hay River and knows what the town needs to get done at the Rec Centre.
"Going forward, the learning curve is going to be a lot less for him," said the mayor. "He's got high energy."
The recreation director's position attracted about 20 applications, mostly from out of town.