Nate Hill takes the helm as Plano High School’s new athletic director

Athletic director was always a job Nate Hill envisioned himself potentially holding.

And in his home town of Plano? That was an opportunity that he could not pass up.

Hill, a 34-year-old Plano native who will be entering his 11th school year in the school district this fall, will do so as the high school’s new athletic director.

Hill, a special education teacher and coordinator, as well as baseball and basketball coach for the last decade, started in his new position July 1.

He replaces Steve Lucas, who left Plano after three years as AD to become Dean of Students at Kaneland.

“I’m excited about the future here,” Hill said. “It’s a good juncture in my career to take the next step. I’m excited to continue to work with all of our coaches. Our community is supportive of our athletic programs and we have students who are involved.”

Hill, father of two boys, 8 and soon to be 5, first came home to Plano to teach in the fall of 2015. A graduate of Aurora Christian High School and Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, he hails from a family of teachers. His aunt was a principal.

A history/special education double major in college, Hill was hired to teach special education math at Plano the 2015-16 school year. He coached JV softball and freshman boys basketball at Plano during the 2014-2015 school year while teaching at the Opportunity School in Oswego. He started as Plano’s JV boys basketball coach and varsity baseball assistant during his first year teaching in the district.

He’s been varsity baseball coach since 2019, a position he will relinquish as AD.

“Definitely bittersweet to end that chapter,” he said. “But I have two boys growing up, getting into that travel baseball world.”

Teaching, and coaching, has indeed been in the blood Hill’s whole life, from his personal and family experiences.

“Teaching and coaching is a long-time passion,” he said. “Sports gives you that full educational experience. So many life lessons to be learned through sports. That’s something my coaches instilled in me growing up and I wanted to pursue that.

“This role is one that fits my personality and fits the educational process that I want to work toward and teach those life lessons through sports.”

The timing to fill this administrative role seems to sync up well for Hill, who has been Special Education Coordinator for Plano Area Special Education Cooperative for the last three school years.

“Those years of administrative work while coaching sports has helped prepare me for a heavy workload of managing the multiple sports,” Hill said. “Managing four different buildings has helped with my time management skills and following through and working with a lot of stakeholders. I’m grateful for the opportunity the Plano area special education cooperative has given me.”

A long-term goal that Hill has as he starts as AD is to continue to build relationships with youth programs and build those feeder programs to the high school.

“We have a couple different youth organizations in town and I want to continue to work with those stakeholders to make sure we can prepare our student athletes to be as ready as they can to compete once they get to the high school,” he said.

Hill also hopes to find ways to continue to improve offseason training at the school with an eye in particular toward Plano’s multi-sport athletes.

“We have a lot of multi-sport athletes; it’s a big priority making sure our programs are all working together working in the same direction. Hopefully I can bridge that a little bit,” Hill said.

“We have a lot of shared athletes, so it’s finding ways to schedule to make sense of their time on the field or in the gym, but also in the weight room. It’s about finding ways to balance that for our kids.”