James “Jim” Amen Jr., the athletic director of the Manhasset School District, will retire following a 56-year career in education at the end of the school year.
District Superintendent Vincent Butera announced Amen’s departure at the April 8 school board meeting, held over Zoom, and said that the director had submitted a letter of resignation.
“[Amen is] one individual who most certainly has established himself as a leader in the world of athletics across Long Island, for many many many years,” Butera said. “And tonight, [he] comes one step closer to really calling it a career in the K-12 sense.”
A native of the Massapequa area and a graduate of the Cortland State Teacher’s College, now known as SUNY Cortland, Amen had played lacrosse at the high school and collegiate levels.
His father James had been a longtime physical education teacher in Levittown and coached football, boy’s basketball and baseball before going on to assistant coaching positions for the C.W. Post and New York Institute of Technology baseball programs.
“I had the opportunity to see what he accomplished,” Amen said in a phone interview.
The younger Amen would begin his career in 1965, serving as a physical education instructor at the Plainview-Old Bethpage School District.
After 12 years with the district, in 1977 Amen was recruited as a coach for the men’s basketball team at Johns Hopkins University, also serving as an assistant on three men’s lacrosse national championship squads from 1977 to 1980.
He would return to Long Island in 1983 with his wife Tricia and three children and taught physical education at Division Avenue High School in the Levittown School District, where he also coached varsity boy’s soccer, basketball and lacrosse.
Amen left Levittown for the Bethpage School District in 1991, where he became the chairman of physical education and athletics, was promoted to athletic director, and coached varsity boy’s basketball and soccer. Two years later, he became the lacrosse team’s head coach, eventually leading them to a 1996 state championship, ironically beating Manhasset in a 10-9 game.
In 1999, Amen would take the athletic director position at Cold Spring Harbor, where he would spend the next 14 years. He originally submitted for retirement in 2013, but soon afterward received a call from then-Manhasset Superintendent Charles Cardillo, whom he had worked with on numerous athletic committees. Cardillo asked if he would be willing to take the reins on the department.
“I realized I wasn’t ready to retire yet,” Amen told Blank Slate Media’s Bill San Antonio in 2013. “I hope to make an impact however I can.”
For his coaching efforts at Plainview-Kennedy and Bethpage, Amen twice won the Coaching Staff of the Year Award from the Nassau County Lacrosse Coaches Association, recently renamed for former Manhasset coach Alan Lowe.
In addition to his work in the districts, Amen served as chairperson of modified and high school boys lacrosse in Nassau County and has been inducted into the Long Island Metropolitan Lacrosse Hall of Fame and the Nassau County High School Athletics Hall of Fame.
Amen, 77, said in a phone interview that while he had no concrete plans for retirement, but that he intended to spend more time with his three children and five grandchildren.
“I spend most of my life with other people’s children, including spending time away from my wife and my own children,” Amen said. “I’ve enjoyed that immensely, but I think it’s time to maybe figure something out with my own family.”
The Northport resident added that two of his grandkids have caught the athletic bug already.
“My oldest granddaughter does some tap dancing, and she does some soccer, she’s very athletic,” Amen said. “So I assume that she’ll get involved in a lot of different things. And her brother is just starting to do some soccer now he’s four years old.”
Amen also says that he hoped he left “a mark” on students and districts he’s worked with in a way similar to how his own mentors have affected him.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work with many different people, I’ve had some mentors in my life,” Amen said. “My dad, two gentlemen that I worked with at Johns Hopkins University when I was an assistant lacrosse coach there. People have impacted my life, and that’s the reason why I think I want to do my best, to impact children and coaches and staff. I wanted to leave some type of a mark, so to speak, some type of an influence.”
Butera extended a “heartfelt thank-you” from the district’s administration and student-athletes.
“His role is difficult in many districts and most certainly in ours,” Butera said. “It is not an easy gig, as we like to say, because it involves so many children in a series of activities which so many are passionate about, and sometimes that level of passion really leads to making a lot of difficult decisions. But I know so many of his decisions have really been focused on providing opportunities for students in endeavors that they love and that they’re passionate about.”
School board President Patricia Aitken thanked Amen on behalf of the board.
“[Amen] came here and gave us stability and care for our student-athletes, worked with the booster clubs, worked with the athletic advisory committee, working in representing us,” Aitken said. “On behalf of the community and the students and coaches that you work with, we just want to extend our deep gratitude for all the time, effort, commitment and energy you’ve given to the position.”
At the meeting, Amen thanked the school board, Butera, and the numerous administrators and coaches he had worked with throughout the years.
“It has been my honor to be part of Manhasset,” Amen said. “I will always bleed navy blue and orange, so thank you so much.”
