Starting in July, Owatonna Senior High School will have a new athletic director. Current teacher and football coach, Mr. Marc Achterkirch will be filling the role of Mr. Ryan Swanson. Mr. Achterkirch has not had any experience in this profession before, but he has been a teacher, community member and avid sports fan in Owatonna for 23 years. He plans to finish out his career at Owatonna as OHS Athletic Director.

While maintaining the job of athletic director, Mr. Achterkirch plans to stop teaching math, but he will continue as a football coach. When asked how he would be able to juggle the two positions in the case of football and other activities scheduled, Achterkirch said, “Obviously the athletic director position will come first, but if I can’t possibly make it to another event, we have many other great administrators who said they’d be willing to fill in.”  Mr. Achterkirch has been known for being one of the strong-minded football coaches, but he has been a fan of all the arts as well. He has two children who have been involved in the arts programs, so he is excited to learn and be a part of the arts. He has also working towards his administrative specialist degree.

Current athletic director, Mr. Swanson decided to end his part at OHS mostly because of family reasons. He wanted to be around his kids more. Since his children are older, they are either in a sport, in the stands, or involved in other school activities, Mr. Achterkirch is not worried about being away from his family because all of them are involved in school programs.

Mr. Achterkirch has plenty of excitement as he will start his new responsibilities. He already has such good relationships with the coaches and staff across the board. Achterkirch said, “My experiences in Owatonna, throughout my 23 years here, have been tremendous. Working with the students and staff here have been excellent.” He plans to continue the great tradition of excellence in Owatonna as he learns the ropes of his new job. He expects the transition to have some difficulty, of course. One being the way scheduling works. He will need to learn when all the events need to be scheduled by, but he is ready to learn and reach out to other schools in the Big 9 to learn some tactics to bring back to OHS. Mr. Achterkirch will start July 1, 2018.