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Mark Marsala must like a good challenge. The man who served as the South Fort Myers athletic director last year — as the school dived headlong into varsity competition — has left the post, but only to guide another fledgling athletic program.

Marsala announced Wednesday that he would no longer be the South athletic director, choosing to leave after one year on the job. He will be in charge of Seacrest Country Day athletics beginning this fall, hoping to lead the Naples school through some growing pains of its own.

Seacrest is 23 years old, but it was pre-kindergarten-through- eighth grade until two years ago. The school added athletics when the high school was formed, with the Stingrays competing as a Florida High School Athletic Association affiliate member.

Marsala will also coach baseball at Seacrest, which has roughly 75 students in its high school. There are no seniors on campus — this year’s juniors were the first freshman class — but school officials envision tremendous growth in the years to come.

Athletics, clearly, are part of the plan. Marsala said that Seacrest made an offer he couldn’t refuse, one that swept him from a South program that appears on the rise.

“I had no plans of leaving South,” Marsala said. “But Seacrest came knocking and put together a pretty good proposal. I had to do what was best for my family.”

A bonus, Marsala said, is that two of his children — Mark (sixth grade) and Meghan (fifth grade) — will ride to school with him every day. He embraces the chance to spend more time with the kids, who have grown accustomed to watching Dad zip from place to place. He coaches an AAU baseball team and is part-owner of two local restaurants, keeping him away from home more than he’d like.

But there will be little time to relax. Seacrest, like South, is just getting started.

“It’s a different kind of challenge,” Marsala said, “but it’s new. The facilities at South Fort Myers had already been constructed. I will have input for the designs this time from the ground up. It will be nice knowing I’ve left my hand prints on something.”

The timing of Marsala’s move, for South, means working quickly to find the right replacement. The athletic season kicks into gear with the start of football practice next week. South must also hire a new baseball coach.

“He laid the foundation here,” said South principal Tommy O’Connell, “so it’s a great opportunity for someone. I’ve got a feeling somebody will come out and want to do it. But you never know.”

O’Connell said he had discussed the matter with Marsala earlier this summer and wasn’t surprised by his resignation. He understood the coach’s reasons for leaving, stressing that there were absolutely no bitter feelings on either side.

For the South community, though, it must seem a mystery. Marsala spent 10 years at St. John Neumann — nine as the athletic director — before accepting the South job in February 2005, lured by the challenges involved and the chance to coach baseball again.

The Estero resident replaces Joann Cassio, who was the Seacrest athletic director for the first two years of the program. She took a teaching position this summer at the Lorenzo Walker Technical High School, which is set to open next month.

“We’re really excited to have Mark coming here,” said Helen Ruisi, the Davis Boulevard school’s chief financial officer. “Along with building a high school we are building an athletic program. We feel a person of Mark’s caliber can help get the program to the next level.”

Seacrest offers a variety of sports, but football is not one of them.

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St. John Neumann is looking for a head cheerleading coach and also an assistant volleyball coach. For more information, contact Steve Howey at 455-3044, ext. 216, or showey@sjnceltics.org.