Peter Cekutis wanted to be a head football coach. The timing just needed to be right.
For years, it wasn’t. This time, it was.
Cekutis, 36, was announced as the new head coach at Cape Elizabeth High on Friday afternoon. The former Windham assistant takes over a program that was in the Class C South final last fall and won the state championship the previous year. He replaces Sean Green, who went 23-8 over three seasons before stepping down in December. Green is now the head coach at Portland High.
“I’m very excited. It’s a great community, they’ve had some good success over the last couple of years,” said Cekutis, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Bonny Eagle Middle School. “It couldn’t be a better opportunity, I think, for me as a first-time head coach.”
Cape Elizabeth is excited to welcome Peter Cekutis as the Head Coach of our Football Program. Coach Cekutis was the Assistant Football coach at Windham HS for the past 15 years. His knowledge of the game & ability to connect w/students made him a clear choice to lead the Program. pic.twitter.com/hkfnVJAHCJ
— Cape Athletics (@ceathletics) April 7, 2023
Cekutis built up experience after graduating from Windham, where he played quarterback, in 2005. He started working on Eagles Coach Matt Perkins’ staff in 2008, and became the offensive coordinator in 2016. He was also the wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator for the Maine Sabers, a semipro team, from 2011-13.
“He’s super motivated, he spends a lot of time working on different teaching styles to hit all the styles, to have kids who are maybe a better learner on the field, some learn better in the classroom,” Perkins said. “He really does a fabulous job of finding ways to reach kids.”
Perkins praised Cekutis’ versatility, pointing out that he coached outside linebackers at Windham in addition to running the offense.
“He wasn’t just an offensive guy,” Perkins said. “I moved him around. … He’s really learned a lot from every phase of the game.”
Cekutis was thankful for the opportunity to coach different positions as head coaching aspirations began to grow. The time to make the move, however, didn’t seem to line up.
“It’s always kind of been the goal,” said Cekutis, who is also an assistant coach for the Windham boys’ lacrosse team under Pete Small. “COVID probably slowed down my thoughts about when I wanted to do it. I have a really young family, I have a 2-year-old and a 10-month old, so family planning makes those decisions too sometimes.
“It just worked out for this year to be a good opportunity to move.”
Now that he’s with the Capers, Cekutis said he’s excited to maintain the winning ways of the program.
“I think the school and the community have done a good job of setting high expectations. We want to be competitive, and we want to compete for championships every year,” he said. “There’s a job to do here of building the youth program and making sure we can have a sustainable program for a long time. I’m not looking for something that’s just a year or two of success, I’m looking for a program that has a strong commitment to the youth program.”
Perkins used the word “competitive” when describing Cekutis. The new coach said that’s what Cape Elizabeth players can expect in the fall.
“We’ll have position battles, we’ll have weekly competitions to try to get kids excited,” Cekutis said. “See if we can maintain that game-time intensity at different parts of our practice.”
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