KENNEBUNK — Kennebunk High School Athletic Director Thor Nilsen said he thought of an old adage when deciding on his future at KHS back in February ”“ “Know when to hold ’em, know when fold ’em.”

After 43 years as a teacher, coach and administrator at a number of high schools around southern Maine and New Hampshire, including the past four at Kennebunk, Nilsen determined that the end of this school year would the right time to cash in his chips. He will leave his office for the last time on June 30.

Nilsen, who turned 65 in October, said he’d been thinking of retiring since Christmas vacation, and during February vacation, he decided it was time.

“I wanted to make sure that if I ended my career, I did it for all the right reasons,” Nilsen said. “I’m still energetic enough to do something else, and I still enjoy what I do.

“I don’t want to be that person who somebody says maybe should have retired a long time ago. Things are positive, and I want to go out on a good note.”

Nilsen started his career in 1970 as a physical education and health teacher at Windham High School. Just two years later, at the age of 24, he became the school’s athletic director in addition to teaching his five classes as well as coaching several sports at the high school and middle school levels, a variety of roles he said he could only dream of filling nowadays.

“Trying to coach and work in athletic administration, while it may have been possible way back in the day, you certainly can’t do that now,” Nilsen said. “It’s full time and then some.

“Back when I started I had no phone in my office, I had to go down to main office. Now I spend an hour and a half to two hours a day just answering emails.”

Nilsen left Windham in 1977 to become a teacher and coach at South Portland High School, and also spent time as the assistant principal and athletic director at Noble High School from 1985-87. He was a teacher and coach at Cape Elizabeth from 1987-90 before he circled back to South Portland in 1990, becoming district-wide athletic director in 1993 and serving in that role for 10 years before leaving in 2003.

Nilsen made further stops at Yarmouth and Bedford, N.H., before replacing longtime athletic director Marty Ryan at KHS in 2009, when the school was experiencing a steady decline in enrollment, which hit an all-time high of nearly 900 in 2003, but by 2012 had fallen to 715.

The increased enrollment had forced the Rams out of Class B and the Western Maine Conference ”“ of which it was one of the founding members back in 1987 ”“ into Class A’s Southwestern Maine Activities Association in 2003. But the drop in numbers has made it difficult for Kennebunk to consistently compete in some sports ever since, and Nilsen said combating that fact was one of the toughest parts of the job.

“We’re one of the ”“ if not the ”“ smallest schools in the SMAA, and trying to compete day in and day out in some of our sports against much larger schools was a lot to ask of the kids and the coaches. I could sense their frustration, and trying to keep them buoyed was an ongoing task,” he said.

“For the most part, they were positive and none of them quit. I think the best example is when Kennebunk football played Thornton Academy this past year; our kids never quit and our coaches never quit. But you can’t keep asking and asking and asking them.”

Nilsen decided to stop asking and make a move last fall, when on the back of widespread support from other administrators, coaches, students or members of the community he applied for membership back into the Western Maine Conference.

The application was quickly accepted by the conference and approved by the RSU 21 school board. The Rams will be back in the WMC this fall, which Nilsen said was the best fit for all involved.

“For those who have been associated with our program and used to winning when we were in the Western Maine Conference, things have changed, and after being in the SMAA for 10 years or so it was tough on the kids, tough on morale,” he said. “Certainly we were very successful in terms of wins and losses in some athletic programs, and we’ll be back there playing against teams (our) own size.”

Nilsen said he will now focus his remaining months on finalizing that transition to make it as easy as possible for his yet-to-be-named successor, as well as dealing with the usual day-to-day business of the athletic department.

As for July 1 and beyond, Nilsen, who lives with his wife in Scarborough, will tackle that when it comes.

“That’s one of the exciting things, I have no idea what’s going to happen,” Nilsen said. “Right now my focus is on finishing the year and going through the spring season as if I’ve still got another 10 years ahead of me. I want to keep things positive here at the high school and the kids to be successful, and after all is said is done, just thank the people who gave me the opportunity to work with them here.”

— Contact Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar at 282-1535, Ext. 323.