Brewer High School

The 2025-2026 school year is the 14th year within the Brewer School Department, and career year #22 overall in public education for NIAAA Certified Master Athletic Administrator (CMAA), David Utterback. 

Mr. Utterback replaced Hall of Fame AD, Dennis Kiah in the summer of 2012 after Mr. Kiah retired from the position. Pictured below, Mr. Utterback was asked to present retired BHS AD, Dennis Kiah (right) into the Brewer Athletic Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2017. 

Mr. Utterback is a graduate of Husson University in Bangor with a Bachelors of Science in Physical Education (2003) and a Master of Science in Business with a concentration in Athletic Adminsitration (2005). 

Prior to coming to the Brewer School Department, Mr. Utterback was a Physical Education instructor at Old Town High School (2004-2012). Along with those duties, Mr. Utterback coached varsity baseball for the Old Town Coyotes and JV Boys basketball. 

In 2005, Mr. Utterback was named the PVC Coach of the Year in his first year at the helm of the Coyotes at the age of 24. In 2007, Mr. Utterback coached Maine's Mr. Baseball and Gatorade Player of the Year, Jarrett Lukas. In 2008, his Old Town team reached the Eastern Maine Class B championship before being ousted by eventual state champion, Gardiner High School. 

Prior to his stint at Old Town High School, he was a volunteer baseball assistant coach at his alma mater, Bangor High School. In addition, he coached the Bangor Senior Little League team to their first State Championship in 2001 at the age of 20, and then coached the first host team in the Bangor Senior Little League World Series in 2002. After a summer off in 2003, Mr. Utterback returned to the dugout to coach the Bangor team in the 2004 SLWS at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor. 

Over the course of many summers since the age of 16, Mr. Utterback has worked and volunteered at Mansfield Stadium. It is at Mansfield Stadium where he learned many of his field maintenence "tricks" while working with Ron St. Pierre. For this, he was tasked in 2022 with recognizing Mansfield Stadium's 30-year anniversary as part of a special event held on June 1 of that year when Brewer played Bangor in the regular season finale. Utterback will be a part of Mansfield Stadiums future moving forward as the Stadium transitions from its current lease agreement with the City of Bangor and longtime volunteers look to retire. 

Some of the initiatives that Mr. Utterback is most proud of in Brewer are the Unified Athletic program- which now collaborates in conjunction with Brewer High School's "Best Buddies" program, the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, the Athletic Hall of Fame, the addition of new scoreboards at Coffin and Heddericg Fields, the implementation of the www.gobrewerwitches.com website, and the rennovation of the locker room in the former tech building. In the summer of 2020, the new banners in the BHS gym were unveiled. An effort that was supported fully by the community and alumni as a fundraising effort. Little by little, we are improving infrastructure and experiences for all.

Perhaps the crowning jewel to his resume, and along with former mayor Jerry Goss and chairman of the Brewer District Trustees Dan O'Connell, Utterback helped see a capital rennovation of the athletic space occur during the 2023-2024 school year with the compltion of the "Help for Heddericg Field" project. Completed in the fall of 2023, the Brewer High School Athletic Complex now has a 144,000 squre foot articifical turf playing surface that will have the ability to house all of our outdoor activites on campus for the first time in school history. In addition, there is a 5-court tennis space along withan additional court space designated for 4 pickle ball courts. This space replaced the delaptiated courts located in the parking lot off of Parkway South. Spring 2024 was the first season for athletic activities on this new facility. The first contest on the turf field featured the late Jerry Goss' grandson, Trent Goss and his Bucksport team in a scrimmage against the Brewer varsity baseball team. The entire space is equipped with state of the art Musco brand LED lighting, which was installed in the fall/winter of 2020-2021 during a down period through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Another highlight is when Brewer took the lead for a cooperative girls ice hockey program for Penobscot County in 2022; the Penobscot Pioneers. A champion for girls sporting opportunities, Mr Utterback, along with Coach Phil Turmelle, led a group of girls interested in the sport of Girls Lacrosse through play during a club schedule in the spring of 2022. This fostered interest and ultimatley a cooperative team with Hampden Academy. Mr Utterback also championed a middle school volleyball league, which took place for the first time in the month of February in 2023 and ran until the start of spring sports in April. In all, 7 programs have been added to the Brewer athletic department since Mr Utterback became athletic administrator. In the spring of 2024, in just their 5th season in existence, Brewer High School E-Sports won the MPA State Championship in Mario Kart. The E-Sports program repeated that feat by winning the State Championship again in 2025.

Mr. Utterback has become an active member of the athletic leagues and state associations in which Brewer High School is involved with. For the KVAC, Mr. Utterback is a past President of the league (2021-2022) was the chair of the Pine Tree Conference (PTC) Football league before stepping down in 2022. He represents Class "A" baseball & softball for the KVAC as well. In the PVC, Mr. Utterback is the chairperson of Swimming & Diving and on the Indoor Track and Outdoor Track & Field committees. He is also the President of the "Eastern Maine Middle School League" (EMMSL) which serves 8 of the largest middle schools in the greater Bangor area.

Since the implementation of Unified Basketball and Varsity Volleyball at Brewer High School, Mr. Utterback has taken on the task of organizing those sports for both the PVC and KVAC. Additionally, Mr. Utterback is the PVC's "Large School" representative to the Executive Committee and serves on the Executive Committee for the KVAC as well. 

Mr. Utterback was also a member of the Maine Interscholastic Athletic Administrators (MIAAA) Executive Board for 7 years, representing the "Central Region" of Maine. In the 2020-2021 school year, he was the Vice President of the MIAAA and in the 2021-2022 school year served as the organizations president, joining Dennis Kiah as the only two Brewer Athletic Administrators to serve as the President of that organization in its 51 year history. 

With the Maine Principals Association (MPA), Mr. Utterback served as a member of the Baseball Committee for 6 years, with two years served as "Chairperson" and was "chairperson" of the Classificiation Committee until 2022. Mr. Utterback was also appointed to the MPA's first ever E-Sports Committee. Beginning in 2022, he began serving on the MPA's Media Relations Committee as a liasion as well as a member of the Indoor Track committee and also will continue with the Unified Sports committee. 

In 2024, he was chosen by the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) to serve on a select group for the NIAAA's 6th Strategic Planning Committee. This was an invitation to Indianapolis, IN for work on the organizations direction and future planning. The committee finished their work at the National Athletic Directors Conference in Austin, TX in December of 2024. Due to this expereince, Mr Utterback was asked by the MIAAA to lead this states efforts in their next Strategic Plan phase. 

During the 2018 MIAAA State Conference, Mr. Utterback was chosen by his peers as the recipient of the "Excellence in Middle Level Athletics" award, given to the States top Middle School level Athletic Administrator.

The 2021 school year saw many accolades bestowed upon Mr Utterback. He was chosen as the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) State Award of Merit recipient for the Maine. The Maine Administrators of Services for Children with Disabilities (MADSEC) organization named Mr Utterback as the Special Education Support Person of the Year for his work promoting and organzing Unified athletics in Brewer, the region and state. And the Class of 2021 honored him by dedicated the Trident Yearbook to him for his work advocating and providing the students with an athletic expereicne within a Covid school year.

In the spring of 2022, the Maine Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA) chose Mr. Utterback as the top Athletic Administrator in the State of Maine by awarding him with the "Robert Lahey Athletic Director of the Year" award named after the legendary former AD at Old Town High School and one of the founders of the MIAAA. At 41 years old in 2022, Mr Utterback is the youngest athletic administrator to be awarded this honor in the 51 year history of the MIAAA.

In the spring of 2023, the MIAAA chose to recognize Mr Utterback as the "Keith Lancaster Professional Development Award" recipient for his work associated with securing his CMAA designation by the NIAAA. 

On June 16, 2018, when the Brewer Baseball team won their first state championship in school history, this marked the first state championship in high school athletics that Mr. Utterback was a part of. As a former baseball coach, it was very fitting that baseball be his first championship as an Athletic Administrator. To cap things off, the Softball team completed the sweep later in the afternoon and won the State Championship, making the day even more memorable. 

Mr. Utterback is looking forward to continuing to build on the energy created through the school district over the past few years with student body support, student involvement at all levels of athletics and community/alumni support.

Mr Utterback is shown here following Brewer softballs state championship victory over Greely holding the two MPA championship trophies proudly. Pictured are from left to right are the Class of 2018 players: Ben Byorak, Kobe Rogerson, Josiah Cyr, Mr. Utterback, MJ Sellars and Emily Lord (missing is Evan Andrews).