AMHERST -- With his appointment as the second athletic director in the history of Souhegan High School, Chris Lavoie's long baseball career has come to an end. Whether that is permanent, only time will tell.

Lavoie, 32, will replace Bill Dod, who has been Souhegan's athletic director since the school opened in 1992. Dod is retiring from the position, effective June 30.

In agreeing to become Souhegan High School's second athletic director, Lavoie will give up his position as baseball coach at Profile High School in Bethlehem, where he also served as athletic director. Lavoie, who played two seasons of pro ball, both abroad, said he was looking forward to the next challenge in his career.

"Profile is a great school in a great community. It was not an easy step to make, but this is an opportunity to make a pretty big leap for me, and I'm looking forward to the challenge," Lavoie said recently.

While Dod acted as baseball coach at Souhegan as well as athletic director, Lavoie agreed to forgo coaching, at least

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in the short-term. But his roots in the national pastime run deep.

Lavoie was born and raised in Woodsville and North Haverhill. He attended the University of Connecticut, eventually transferring to the University of Vermont, where he was a standout baseball player. After college, Lavoie spent two years in professional baseball in Belgium and Australia.

"I was looking forward to returning for a second season in Australia in 2001, but then 9/11 happened and the U.S. stopped issuing visas," Lavoie recalled, saying he was scheduled to fly to Perth, Australia, in mid-September of 2001, but those plans were derailed by the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Instead, Lavoie took a job at Woodville High School as a physical education instructor -- his college major -- eventually moving on to Profile as its athletic director, where he also coached the baseball squad.

Through his association with Dod and the NHIAA, Lavoie learned last fall that Dod planned to retire, and the Souhegan position was going to open. He jumped at the chance to advance his career.

SAU 39 began advertising the position in January, and moved quickly to secure a new athletic director. "We started the process in December, and was able to secure Chris early in the process," Dod said, explaining that several attractive positions were due to open this spring, and the search committee wanted to secure someone of quality before more opportunities became available.

During negotiations in February and March, the SAU 39 search committee, which included Souhegan High principal Scott Prescott, decided that because Souhegan High School is so much larger than Profile High School, Lavoie should confine himself to athletic director for now.

"This is a big school with big pressures, and we just thought Chris would be better off focusing his attention on the position of athletic director," Dod said.

Lavoie had no problem with that stipulation. "We spent time speaking about the position, and the plan is to serve strictly as athletic director, although I'd still love to coach baseball someday," Lavoie said.

Lavoie, who's single, plans to relocate to the Amherst area and will begin at Souhegan on July 1. According to a spokesperson at SAU 39, his starting salary will be $65,000.