Pending approval by the Teays Valley Board of Education as its June meeting, Aaron Wollard is slated to be the next Athletic Director at the high school.
Wollard takes over from Joel Baker, who resigned following four years to become an Assistant Principal at Watkins Memorial High School in southwest Licking County.
The Vikings selected a familiar name to take the helm of the athletic department, as Wollard has spent nearly his entire career employed by the district.
Woollard was hired in 2006 as a language arts teacher at Teays Valley Middle School. In May 2016, he also became the East Middle School athletic director. He has served in both roles since then.
“Aaron will bring enthusiasm and passion to his new role as athletic director,” TVHS principal Bob Griffith said. “The committee chose Aaron because of his past experience, his vision for creating positive experiences for our student-athletes and his commitment to the Teays Valley Local School District.”
Woollard’s goal is to bring strong leadership and vision to this position. It is his belief that the athletic director sets the tone for the entire athletic department.
“Having been a classroom teacher for 17 years, I know the value of relationships and how important they are for success at any level, so I will put great emphasis on all athletic staff building relationships with our student-athletes,” he said. “Students at any grade level know when someone authentically cares about them, and for many of them, that will be the deciding factor of how positive or negative their athletic experience is.
“My main goal is to provide a safe, caring and successful athletic department for our students, one where our student-athletes can flourish and develop the skills and practices to not only allow them to attain success in athletics, but also in their lives. I am a huge believer in the impact that athletics can have in shaping individuals to be successful in their futures. Yes, we want to be successful on the field of play, but to me, success is defined by so much more than the end result on the scoreboard. We need to be assisting families in shaping our student-athletes into being respectful, responsible and ambitious young adults. If we do that, the result on the field will take care of itself and our student-athletes will be set up with the skills they need for fulfilling futures.”
Woollard also plans to build a bridge between middle and high school athletic departments.
“Those middle school athletes are the future of our high school athletic programs and the more involved and accustomed they can be to how things are done at the high school, the better. We need our high school coaches to have a presence and role with our middle school athletic programs and I hope to promote and encourage that,” he said.
In addition, Woollard is looking ahead to the future as Teays Valley prepares to enter the Ohio Capital Conference during the 2024-2025 school year and plans to work to continue to make the Viking athletics program one that is well-known and respected.
“I feel there is a very solid foundation in our athletic department. We have dedicated coaches and athletes. I believe that schools in areas outside of Pickaway County and central Ohio are starting to take notice of Teays Valley and we need to continue to strive to have success at the district, regional and state levels,” he said. “Honestly, our student-athletes are some really dynamic people and I think the more our community can get to know them, the more they will want to support them and see them succeed. These are the young men and women who will go out and do great things in the world and hopefully come back and raise their families and contribute to the Teays Valley community in the future, which then becomes a reciprocal process.”
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