“It was sort of an out-of-left-field comment,” said Schuler, recalling Monroe asking him: “Hey, if I ever move on or retire, would this be something you would be interested in?”

Schuler wasn’t at the time. But the years passed, and Schuler now is leaving his post as Panther Creek athletics director to succeed Monroe at Gibbons.

Schuler has been at Panther Creek since the school’s opening in 2006 and has been athletics director since 2008.

Gibbons had been searching for a replacement since January, when Monroe left the school after 22 years as athletics director to take the same position at St. Mary’s School.

Schuler said it was a tough decision to leave Panther Creek, where he was the school’s first boys’ and girls’ varsity soccer coach, but Cardinal Gibbons was the only local school that he would leave for. A big reason, said Schuler, was his own background.

Schuler graduated from New Hampshire’s Bishop Guertin, a parochial school like Gibbons.

“I had such a positive experience and enjoyed the culture there so much that there are about only two phone calls that I would take, and that would be Bishop Guertin or Cardinal Gibbons,” Schuler said.

“I spent some time over (at Gibbons), and it reaffirmed my beliefs about what their school culture is about – the importance of faith, service and leadership to their mission and athletic program. It’s going to be a very good cultural fit for me and my family.”

Schuler is the second PC staff member to become an athletics director in the past year, as Wayne Bragg went from being a football coach at Panther Creek to Green Hope’s AD. Schuler said he will stay at Panther Creek until the end of the school year and hopes to help his replacement transition into the role.

“I love Panther Creek. I’ll always be a Catamount. (Principal Rodney) Nelson has been very good to me,” Schuler said. “Being a part of that from Day One is definitely hard to leave.”

For his plans at Gibbons, Schuler said, he hopes to bring over some of the things started at Panther Creek – like the online streaming of games and a strong social media outreach. Panther Creek even had a weekly coaches show during basketball season, which also brought in coaches and players from other sports.