South Welcomes New Athletic Director

It’s been a long while since South has had a new athletic director. For the past two decades, Dave Hancock filled the role at South, but this year the school welcomes a new AD who has many goals on his mind. 

Former Spencer Butte principal Jim Moore was hired as the new AD/assistant principal this year and already has big goals for sports programs across the school. 

“I would like to see increased participation really across all sports,” Moore said. “I would like to see more multi-sport athletes, and I want us to win at a high level.” 

Historically, focus on South’s sports programs has fallen short of the focus the school and students have on academics. But Moore wants to see a stronger emphasis on those athletic programs, while not taking away from the academic focus. 

A big aspiration for Moore at the moment is the hope to get more students involved in athletics throughout the year. Often fall sports get a lot of attention, and as the year goes on, school sports become less of a priority. Moore wants this to change in the coming years. 

“We’ve got to get coaches working together to share athletes and encourage athletes to play multiple sports,” Moore said. 

Moore aims for South’s sports teams to continue to place well or win at a high level, and he believes this goal isn’t out of reach for many teams. 

“As far as winning, some of our programs are really ready to accomplish that now,” he said. “And then other programs… it’s going to take a couple of years.” Moore hopes to build a sports atmosphere at South that can give students even more of a sense of community and excitement.

It’s not hard to imagine how taking on a role that had previously been filled for two decades would come with a few obstacles, and this case is no exception. Moore doesn’t have a complete sense of the atmosphere around athletics and multisport athletes at South yet. He must also decipher and navigate organization-related issues that may come along with replacing a position held for so long. Despite these challenges, Moore is excited and hopeful about his goals for the future of South sports.

Article by Maggie McMillen