Duxbury: Two Years After

by Abe Wyett

Jeff Maidment took over as Athletic Director at Duxbury High School in 2021 following a scandal that put the school and town in the national spotlight. An internal investigation had revealed that players on the football team had used words including “auschwitz,” “rabbi,” and other Jewish terms to call offensive plays. The team’s coach and previous Athletic Director resigned, and the town was branded as hateful and antisemitic. Now, two years later, Maidment talks with Away Games’ Abe Wyett about meeting the challenge.

Abe Wyett: Did you think twice about taking the job at Duxbury because of the scandal?

Jeff Maidment: I’d be lying if I told you it didn’t give me pause. There’s no question about that. Because when you step into a controversy you have a lot more to manage just doing the job. You have to manage people, who have perceptions, and who really liked the former athletic director at Duxbury. I believed I knew how to manage it. You can’t be somebody that you’re not. You just be yourself. That was my approach.

What did you know about Duxbury? And what did you know about the job?

I knew what the public knew. What was in the papers.  It gave me pause, but not to the extent where I thought it was a horrible community. I didn’t let the scandal or what was going on in the district frighten me away. Was I excited about embracing it? I mean, excited about it is an overstatement. Every job has its challenges, and this was just what this one was. Sometimes you go into jobs, athletic director jobs, and the biggest challenge is fixing the dilapidated facilities. That wasn’t necessarily the case of Duxbury. It was more about culture. How do you fix culture?

How did you fix culture?

I can only speak to changing the athletic culture. There’s 950 some odd students at Duxbury, and they’re not all evil. Many, many, many are great kids and come from great families.  We had a series of meetings, with coaches, with some players. Everyone was on board. Again, it wasn’t like they had never heard someone tell them not to say negative things. Of course they heard that. It was just the culture that allowed it to exist. We wanted to empower people. To let kids know it’s okay to tell people not to say those things. It’s okay to stand up to people. For coaches to know they could bench a kid for being inappropriate. To know they could sit them down. 

What did you expect to find in Duxbury?

I have a lot of Jewish friends. They’re still very, very close to me. Our kids grew up together. We watch the Patriots together every Sunday. When I told them that I was looking at the job at Duxbury, they were all very happy for me. But there was just one friend who sort of pulled me aside one day and just sort of said “What are you thinking?” “About what ?” I asked. He had the impression that Duxbury was full of antisemites. He wanted to know what my thought process was. I told him that if indeed there was such a problem at Duxbury, wasn’t I the right person to be there and face it? And he told me I was right. He said I didn’t have any antisemitism in my body.

Did you find a community filled with antisemitism?

I honestly didn’t expect to find a community that was ravaged with hate. I went in expecting to find a wonderful community filled with people who care about education and care about sports, and that’s what I found. It’s not a community filled with hate. It’s like any other community that has individuals who made a mistake. I can’t speak on it in depth, because I don’t know the individuals that were involved with it. So I don’t know what the energy was like before I got there. I can tell you what the immediate response was: we’re all here to help you do what you need to make improvements. This was from coaches, kids, and other administrators.  They wanted to change. They wanted to show the community they weren’t not filled with hate. They’re a good bunch of kids. That’s what they wanted. 

The scandal happened two years ago. Most of the students at the school today weren’t even there. Those involved have graduated. Does the school still feel the weight of the scandal? Has the town been branded?

I think it is something that people will constantly remember. And the media does a really good job of making sure that people do remember, because anytime there’s an incident of hate in a school that is reported in the Boston Globe — or any major media outlet — when you read that article, you will find Duxbury High School’s name in it, even just for a sentence. It’s there. It’s going to live on.

How do you and the town deal with this association? However unfair it might be? 

I think the biggest lesson is that — and this is always true for everything — perception is only your own reality. I think the public perception of Duxbury and Duxbury athletics  — it’s the public’s perception. People are going to hang on to that perception, and we just have to accept it and continue to make improvements. That’s what the athletes are trying to do. They’re trying to move on. They’re their own people. They’re creating their own culture. And that’s what we’re there to do: to help the kids, the captains, the leadership, the coaches, build and create cultures that are appropriate for youth sports.

The district is doing a lot of things to show people the real Duxbury. Sportsmanship is a big part of that. I talk a lot about it with the young kids, even the high school kids. If you’re going to wear a Duxbury jacket or jersey — anything that says Duxbury soccer on it or football — then remember that you represent your community, your program, your family. At the beach. At the mall. All the time.