This couldn’t have been what Jon Empen signed up for, could it?

Empen is nearing the end of his first year as Dixon High School Athletic Director, and it’s been unusual to say the least.

It began with Lancaster Gymnasium being off-limits for practices and games due to asbestos removal, resulting in daily scheduling headaches. Who's practicing where? What area gym is available for the next night's "home" game? That problem
finally got fixed in December, just in time for the school's girls basketball tournament.

Speaking of scheduling, the cold and rainy spring has resulted in daily juggling of events. Conference games take priority, and Empen and athletic secretary Kenda Bailey have done their best to get the Dukes and Duchesses on their respective playing fields. They need to find open dates that work, as well as officials able to work the games – two musts that don’t always work out easily.

Perhaps Empen’s biggest challenge, however, has been filling a rash of coaching vacancies.

Since he was hired as AD last June, Empen has had a hand in hiring head coaches for seven sports: cross country, wrestling, boys track, baseball, football and boys and girls basketball. Sorting through resumes, making phone calls and doing background checks became part of Empen’s daily routine.

“No one ever anticipates that, but unfortunately we’ve had some coaches decide to pursue other endeavors,” Empen said. “[Boys track and cross country] Coach [Mark] Nelson for example, he wanted to go back and coach in college. What do you say to a guy – no? Other coaches have moved on for other reasons, personal reasons. It is what it is.”

Some positions have been relatively easy to fill. When Nelson left to coach at a small college in Missouri at the end of the 2009-10 school year, Evan Thorpe was ready and willing to take over the cross country program. He had been a co-coach with Nelson.

With increased cross country duties, Thorpe wanted to back away from the varsity wrestling program, and had groomed assistant coach Chris Bishop to become his successor. Bishop took over in August, shortly after Bruce Luther had been hired as boys track coach.

Empen, superintendent Mike Juenger, principal Mike Grady and assistant principals Chris Tennyson and Karen Price comprise a committee that hires Dixon’s coaches. That group was expanded to include community leaders, teachers and DHS athletes for bringing on the football and basketball coaches.

The end result was hiring Dave Smith for football, Luke Ravlin for girls basketball and Justin LaReau for boys basketball earlier this spring. Early last week, Empen was happy with the hirings.

“It was a thorough process and I’m pleased with how it worked out,” Empen said. “We had some community involvement, which is something new, but I think it worked out very well. We got different perspectives – maybe some people saw things we didn’t see or didn’t think of.”

As it turned out, the process will be extended a bit longer. LaReau called last Tuesday and informed Empen he would not be taking the boys basketball job due to personal reasons.

“What happened is unfortunate,” Empen said, “but the position’s already posted and I’m confident we’ll get a quality person to come in and lead our program. We’ll just go through the whole process again. We’ll just do what we did before, look through all the applications and find out who’s going to be the best fit for us”