The Champe Athletic Department has named new head and assistant AD
During the summer break, John Champe High school athletic department has named a new Head Athletic Director and new Assistant Director. The change was officially announced in July, about a month before school started.
“I’ve been teaching math here at Champe for the past eight years,” Brandon said. “I’ve been coaching Cross Country for four years and Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field for eight years, basically the whole time I’ve been working at Champe.”
In the classroom, Brandon taught algebra two, data science, and geometry. She is very involved in the classroom and with sports, always helping at meets and even working with athletes from other sports to help them become faster and stronger.
“I took the assistant athletic director job because I loved working with athletics and I loved Mr. Royse and the work he’s done,” Brandon said. “I want to work with all the athletes and not just my cross country and track athletes.”
From being a math teacher and a coach to now having an office and creating sports schedules while working with more adults and coaches can be a big change.
“It’s weird and kind of sad now that I can’t coach anymore, track season will definitely be different since I’ve been the head coach for a long time,” Brandon said. “It will be an adjustment, but I still will be going to cross country and track meets to help out with events, but just in a different way.”
With the abrupt switch, it might take Brandon’s athletes and colleges to get used to her not being a teacher or coach anymore. Her switch to becoming assistant took place two weeks before school started, which was a difficult change because they had to find new teachers to take over her classes she would’ve taught.
“I’ve been an assistant athletic director for 12 years and this is my first year being head athletic director,” Royse said. “Being head athletic director is slightly different from assistant because now I have more responsibilities and more people are coming to me now than when I was assistant director.”
As head athletic director their job is to hire coaches, create schedules, organize events, and help boost athletics at our school.
(Sydney Perez)
“I found that I wanted to become an athletic director when I was in high school and growing up I was always involved in athletics,” Royse said. “When I started thinking about jobs when I got older I thought it would be awesome to come back and coach sports and then pursue becoming an athletic director.”
Having a background in sports and a passion to help kids with their sports journey will inspire you to want to become an athletic director. Why coach one sport and certain athletes when you can help every sport and work with all the athletes at your school.
“What I love about this job the most is sports are a choice and they want to be there and love playing whatever sport they do”, Royse said. “It’s exciting to watch those kids do what they love and enjoy their time with their teammates and coaches”.
