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MANSFIELD - Margaret Conaty recalled her first day on the job as Mansfield High School's athletic director in the summer of 1989, set up in a makeshift office in the trainer's room with just a desk and a telephone, when she got her first call.

It was from Val Muscato, the legendary Oliver Ames High School coach and athletic director.

"He said, 'I can't believe they hired a woman!' ... and then he laughed like crazy," Conaty said Wednesday.

It was Muscato's sharp-witted way of making the newcomer feel at ease - which is exactly how she felt from the beginning of her tenure as Mansfield's AD to the present.

"The league welcomed me immediately," said Conaty, the Hockomock's first and still its only female athletic director, who will be leaving Mansfield High after 19 years on the job to take over as Hingham High School's AD. "I had great support then and still do today," she said. "Even as the names have changed, in the Hockomock League, we truly try to take care of each other."

It's a much different Mansfield High that Conaty leaves than the one at which she arrived from Cardinal Cushing High School in South Boston, where she had served as athletic director.

Once one of the smallest schools in the Hockomock, Mansfield is now the second largest in terms of enrollment, having expanded from just over 600 students when Conaty took the job to more than 1,400 today. Nine varsity sports have been added on Conaty's watch, major renovations and additions to the physical plant for athletics have been undertaken and accomplished, and Mansfield is now highly competitive in most of the

Hockomock League's offerings - whereas in 1989, townspeople were openly debating whether the school should leave the league for a lower level of competition.

"Believe me, I had no idea back then what would happen," Conaty said of Mansfield's growth, both in terms of population and athletic prowess. "We were such a very small school, and that made things difficult. But I had an idea how the town would respond to something positive when, that fall, the football team went to the Super Bowl."

Mike Redding's Hornets lost to Lincoln-Sudbury in that game at Foxboro Stadium, but reaching that level of achievement for the first time in school history generated a great deal of enthusiasm in the community and restored its faith that, with the proper support, Mansfield could continue to be competitive in a league it had helped form decades earlier.

Over the years, Conaty found Mansfield to be a nurturing and supportive place for high school sports.

"The kids support each other," she said, "and the community supports the schools. They do whatever it takes to put the town's children in a position to succeed, both academically and athletically."

Among the many accomplishments during Conaty's tenure was the expansion of Mansfield's athletic facilities to include Alumni Field, the area's first artificial-turf gridiron, as well as new baseball and softball fields across East Street. The James Albertini Memorial Gymnasium and its associated facilities have also undergone major renovation recently.

The athletic program has been enriched with the addition of sports such as volleyball, wrestling, ice hockey, lacrosse, gymnastics and swimming, also including sub-varsity teams at a time when many other school systems are cutting back. "Our programs were very small when I started ... sports like soccer were just in their beginning stages here," she said. "But we made great progress and received great support every step of the way, and I believe the principles of success are in place for every single sport."

Conaty, 53, is a native of Smithfield, R.I., where she competed in field hockey, track and basketball at Smithfield High and was a member of the first girls' hoop team to win an official state championship in Rhode Island. A graduate of the University of Rhode Island, she became a teacher and coach at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham, eventually becoming that school's athletic director before taking the job at Cardinal Cushing High and then moving on to Mansfield.

Conaty has maintained her residence in Hingham, and recently served on a town committee to address the challenges facing the school department's attempts to expand its athletic facilities.

When long-time Hingham High AD Bill Barges decided to retire at the end of this school year, Conaty saw the opportunity as, "in a sense, going home."

Conaty will remain on board at Mansfield through the end of the school year, helping to facilitate the transition for her yet-to-be-named successor.

"It's going to be very difficult to leave Mansfield," she said. "On our coaching staff, we have a lot of veterans and we've worked together for so long. Mansfield was a great opportunity for me and it has been such a very large part of my life.

"When the Hingham position opened, I thought it would be a positive move for me at this point of my life," she added. "It will be a nice challenge, a chance for me to be a leader and make a difference there."

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com.