Drew Betts Eager To Make Leap To Danvers High Athletic Department

DANVERS, MA — Drew Betts spent the last dozen years presiding over the growth of a Salem Academy Charter School athletic department that went from a handful of new programs to 26 different sports and a two-thirds athletic participation rate from the student body.

Now the Connecticut native and Endicott College alumnus is looking forward to making the leap to Danvers High where the athletic tradition goes back much longer and carries with it both a great history as well as the weight of some of its recent past.

Betts was named last week to take over the Danvers athletic department this summer following the resignation of former AD Andrew St. Pierre this past fall. Betts told Patch on Tuesday that after 12 years of building the opportunities and participation at Salem Academy, he views the Danvers post as a new challenge to lead a larger student body with an even more expansive offering of programs.

"We are in a great spot here at Salem Academy," he said. "When I started here (in 2011) our programs were super, super new. Now we are established in the MIAA and we have had some success in the (Massachusetts Charter School Athletics Organization).

"I saw this is a chance to go to a bigger district. They have a super rich tradition and I am hoping to contribute to that over the coming year."

Building participation has been a strength under Betts at Salem Academy with 66 percent of students playing at least one sport before the onset of the COVID-19 health crisis.

"Our goal is always to be over 50 percent," Betts said.

Yet, while some of the challenges at Salem Academy were to get kids to try something new, the challenges at Danvers will be to forge ahead after decades of success in many sports and with some of the lessons learned from a 2020 hockey hazing investigation that has had lasting repercussions.

"The first thing when I went there I saw the Mark Bavaro jersey," he said of the former Danvers High and New York Giants tight end. "For someone who grew up as a Giants fan in Connecticut, that was super cool to see.

"Then just as a spectator from the outside watching their athletes has been impressive. Their cross country teams had an unbelievable finish to the season, their field hockey team was outstanding, and their girls and boys soccer teams had a great year. Here at Salem Academy, we had a chance to compete with them in girls and boys basketball.

"It's been nice to see them and get to know them the past couple of years."

Danvers High athletes have also had to shoulder some of the extra burdens of the hazing fallout in recent years with athletes and coaches required to go through additional training on how to recognize and report hazing incidents while being looked to as representatives leading a culture change in the school.

"I can't speak to what went on in the past there but I think you always want to take a lot of pride when you are on a team that you are representing yourself and your community," he said. "You want to represent that in a very positive way.

"As an athlete, you are used to that extra pressure. The way I phrase it with athletes here is that you are held to a higher standard and you should want to be held to a higher standard. That is a good life skill to have as you go on to college and the workforce."

As Betts prepares to leave Salem Academy at the end of the school year, he admits it's been "bittersweet" as many of his former athletes hearing of his impending departure have reached out to wish him well and rehash a few memories.

"It's all been super supportive," he said. "Selfishly, when have alumni come back to the school, and they are now 27, 28 years old with their own families, it's nice to see the students you used to know become productive members of their own in society."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)