Tarmey takes over as Marblehead AD

Mark Tarmey is wearing a new hat as the fall sports season gets underway this week.The Marblehead High assistant hockey coach is also the new athletic director, replacing Mike Polansky, who is now an AD at Dedham High School. Tarmey has been an assistant hockey coach for the past seven years. He also worked with special education students in the Marblehead schools the last three years.Tarmey brings a wealth of experience to the position. He was the AD and the head hockey coach at the Winchendon School in the 1990s and he also served as the prep school’s head hockey coach. Tarmey is also a former head hockey coach at Curry College and Malden Catholic and he was an assistant hockey coach at Bentley University.”It’s a good fit for me,” Tarmey said. “I’ve been an athletic director before, I’ve been a coach in Marblehead and I worked in the system as a teacher the last three years (he won’t be teaching this year).”The job does have its challenges. It had been a full-time position, but budget constraints knocked it back to half-time.”We’ll see how it goes,” he said. “I’m aware of the amount of work that goes into it – if you can juggle, be highly organized and be able to set priorities, you will find success ? if not, you’ll find the job very difficult.”Tarmey has plenty of support from the hockey contingent at the high school, particularly head coach Bob Jackson.”It (hiring Tarmey as AD) is the best thing that Marblehead has done sports-wise in many, many years,” Jackson said, noting that Tarmey knows a lot of prep school and college coaches who might be able to help out some of the local athletes in a variety of sports, not just hockey.”I think that Mark knows about kids and people and his caring attitude toward the students will be a tremendous asset as an AD,” Jackson said. “He’s just a special character. I can’t say enough good things about Mark Tarmey.”Tarmey and his wife, Marilyn, have two children – nine-year-old Ryan and 10-year-old Erin. Both are already into sports.