Joe Benoit leaves Jacobs to become new athletic director at St. Charles North

Former Jacobs athletic director Joe Benoit was hired for the same position at St. Charles North on Monday night at the St. Charles District 303 school board meeting.

Benoit replaces Dan Dolney, who was named the new Lake Zurich athletic director May 12. Benoit was the athletic director at Jacobs for the past five years.

Benoit said he is excited to build on the strong tradition and success at North. Most recently, the North Stars won the Class 4A State Championship in softball.

“Knowing the pride that the community has with athletics, the strength of their programs and the community as a whole, it was a situation I really wanted to explore,” Benoit said. “I threw my name in and was very happy to move through the process.

“It’s not a school that’s old in terms of years, but they’ve already developed a tradition of success there with their programs. I’m eager to get in there and work side-by-side with the coaches and help take it to the next level.”

Before being the athletic director at Jacobs, Benoit was the school’s girls basketball coach for six years and spent 11 total years in the program. He was both athletic director and girls basketball coach during the 2017-18 school year.

Benoit said he was thankful for his 15 years at Jacobs.

“I don’t even think bittersweet is quite the right word,” Benoit said. “District 300 and Jacobs High School will always be a big part of me, and I wish them nothing but the best. It’s an incredible group of people there. I’m excited about the opportunity at North, but also grateful for my time at Jacobs.”

Benoit, who lives in Bartlett with his wife, Kyrsten, and two daughters, Ella, 4, and Lily, 2, said that the shorter commute played a role in his decision to go after the job at North.

“I’ve got two young girls, and knowing that they’ll be within 15 minutes means that they’ll be on the sidelines more for games,” Benoit said. “That’s something that we wanted at Jacobs, but I was traveling 40, 45 minutes each way, and with two young kids, it was too much for my wife. Being able to have them be part of where I’m at is going to be huge.”

“Really including my family as part of the school community is something that means a lot to me.”

Jacobs principal Barb Valle said Benoit built strong relationships with students and helped create an identity at the school.

“Joe cares about kids, first and foremost,” Valle said. “He always puts students at the heart of everything he does. It’s going to be a big loss, but we’re going to rebound and do the best we can to fill his shoes. I think the biggest change is there’s an identity now. We’re branded, we know who we are, and we know what our expectations are.”

Benoit said he’ll miss the relationships with teachers, coaches and students.

“There are some phenomenal kids at Jacobs High School,” Benoit said. “We had a student-athlete leadership class I sat in on, and I also worked very closely with our student-section leaders. Getting to know our kids off the field, off the court, it was just extremely rewarding.

“To me, there is no greater gift than being a part of someone’s educational journey. I will truly miss the kids and the relationships there.”

Benoit can’t wait to get started at North.

“Last night after the board meeting, I went and walked the outdoor facilities and there were a couple of kids I got to meet,” Benoit said. “Right away, I started to feel at home. High school kids, no matter where they are, they all have the same goals, dreams, ambitions. I’m excited to take those relationships that I built and were so important to me at Jacobs and bring them to North.”