Mike Dougherty- wearing a familiar royal blue shirt - looks at home as he walks to the football stadium on the campus of Central Bucks South High School.
In truth, CB South has been home to Dougherty since he agreed to become the first athletic director when the school opened its doors in the 2004-05 school year. This fall feels a whole lot different for the former AD, who retired at the close of the past school year.
“I miss it already,” Dougherty said. “The first day of practice I woke up, and it’s the first thing I think of – all the practices were starting, and all the games were starting this week.
“You do miss it.”
As farewell tours go, Dougherty had himself quite a ride last year as Central Bucks South captured four District One titles, winning a district crown in field hockey last fall and then completing the trifecta this spring by capturing district championships in softball, girls’ soccer and boys’ track.
“It was a lot of fun, it really was,” Dougherty said. “It’s great to see the kids do well, and we’re lucky because we have good, quality coaches.
“Even on the teams that didn’t perform as well as the others – CB South has a great core of coaches. These coaches work hard at getting updated in their sport and getting better and better, and they have a great relationship with the kids. That has a lot to do with it, and it’s fun dealing with the coaches and kids.”
CB South has created a tradition of excellence during Dougherty’s tenure as AD, although things didn’t start out all that smoothly in the fall of 2004 when – with the new school and athletic fields not yet completed – Dougherty was scrambling to find venues for his teams to practice and play their games.
“The first day of camp I put 99 miles on my car because we didn’t practice on campus,” he recalled. “Football was at Unami, the soccer team was practicing at the old Nike base off Ferry Road, the field hockey team was at (Central Bucks) East, the tennis team was at Central Park, and the volleyball team was at CB West.
“It was crazy, it really was. The fields weren’t ready, and the school wasn’t ready, so there really wasn’t anything you could do, so you just coped the best you could.”
South Principal Rod Stone knew he wasn’t hiring a rookie when he tapped Dougherty to become the new school’s first athletic director. Dougherty had a history at both Central Bucks East and West. After getting his start teaching in Holicong Middle School, Dougherty moved to East where he was a business teacher.
He was the varsity baseball coach for 10 years and also coached football, tennis and golf. In the fall of 2001, Dougherty was named the athletic director at West where he served for three years before accepting the position at South.
“How many times do you get a chance to start an athletic program from scratch?” Dougherty said. “It was really exciting – from looking through catalogs and picking out uniforms to interviewing coaches and ordering all of the equipment.
“It was a lot of fun."
According to Stone, Dougherty left a permanent imprint on the school's athletic program.
"Mike is really responsible for some of the foundational pieces of South," he said. "He designed the South logo, he selected all of the uniforms, he ordered every piece of equipment, he hired all of the coaches. The logo is on all of our uniforms, and the style of the uniforms, the color combinations were all Mike's, and that was such an important piece of what is South tradition.
"Initially, it was just the beginnings of what we were going to have, and now after graduating six classes, it's a critical component of every part of athletics.
"There are so many things that his fingerprint is on in a positive way and that will be important to the school forever, which is kind of a unique opportunity for someone to have that kind of impact."
Many of South’s athletic programs experienced immediate success.
“To be honest with you, our women’s programs were good almost from the start, and that’s a tribute to the Warrington and Lenape Valley programs because the youth programs that are feeding us are doing a really good job,” Dougherty said.
Dougherty also was part of a committee of teachers, administrators and students who not only developed CB South’s academic philosophy and moral code but also determined the new school’s colors and mascot.
Royal blue and black won out from a final list of three that also included red and black as well as navy and orange.
“We went with royal blue and black because we took the royal from CB East and the black from CB West, so it was a combination of their colors,” he said.
Just as the school’s colors reflect the close ties between the three Central Bucks schools, they also reflected Dougherty’s relationship with his peers from East and West, athletic director John Reading and his successor at West, Sean Kelly.
“Doc became not only my mentor and working partner but also a really close friend,” Kelly said. “He’s obviously a quality person, and because of his experiences in so many different sports – he just has such a unique perspective on so many different levels in the athletic world.
“Also, the quiet way he carries himself was impressive. He never got too up or down but was always clear-headed when it came time to make decisions that everyone respected and listened to whether it was at the league level or the school level. He was easy going, but he always gave good advice, sound advice, and I truly, truly valued it.”
The three Central Bucks athletic directors spoke numerous times over the course of the school day, every school day.
“I miss his wealth of knowledge,” Reading said. “It’s amazing how often Sean, Doc and I would pick each other’s brains about things that would come up in our daily routines.
“I miss not having that quick call to say, ‘What do you think about this?’ He was a wealth of knowledge you could tap into to help you get through certain problems. The three of us got along, very, very well, and I still call him. I won’t call him for work because I wouldn’t want to do that to him in his retirement, but I still have called just to check on him.”
“The three of us have a really unique relationship,” Kelly added. “It’s certainly not a rivalry relationship. Really, we have become such close friends, so not having Doc around has been tough more on a personal level than on a professional level.
“It was just nice talking to him every day. It was always nice to bounce things off each other and just check in seeing how they were doing.”
And it is the relationships that Dougherty developed that he values most about his years at CB South. He not only developed friendships with his peers and many of the coaches but also with the student-athletes.
Dougherty recently received a request from a current CB South athlete asking him to write a college recommendation. A former athlete that just headed off to college took time to drop him a line.
“It’s that kind of thing I really appreciate,” Dougherty said. “Why do you go into teaching and coaching? You go into it to work with kids, so it’s that kind of thing that makes it even more rewarding.”
Although he has retired, don’t look for Dougherty to disappear into the sunset. He will be at South on game days, and he will remain on as treasurer of the Suburban One League.
“Mike is a man of integrity,” said Ray Coleman, the long-time secretary of the SOL. “He’s a hard worker, and he was and still will be a very important part of the Suburban One League.
“He not only did a great job as athletic director, but he’s also terrific treasurer, and we’re so fortunate that he’s staying on. I have the greatest respect for him, and I look for his input, which is very, very important.”
Next year, Dougherty plans to return to the football sidelines as a member of South coach Dave Rackovan’s staff, but for now, he’s enjoying the early stages of his retirement and getting used to life away from his ‘home’ away from home.
“I think I left the program in good shape,” he said. “We’ve got a good solid core of coaches, the kids are excited about sports, and I think we’re pretty successful.”
And six years after taking the job, Dougherty leaves behind a legacy of excellence at Central Bucks South.
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