Wright City High School is in the final stages of hiring its new athletic director, after it was decided the position should be made separate from the assistant principal role.Doug Smith, who currently holds the title, will handle assistant principal duties exclusively, while the new athletic director will focus solely on extracurricular tasks.He says the district narrowed a diverse field of 40 candidates to six, which they interviewed last week.“The position generated a lot of interest,” said Smith. “We had people anywhere from head coaches in small to large districts to people currently serving as athletic director. We brought in people from throughout the state.”A selection has been made, but the district is awaiting acceptance of its offer and approval at the board’s next meeting on April 17. Smith believes the district found a candidate that best fits its desired criteria.“We were looking for someone with head coaching experience with organizational skills and attention to detail to run the program,” said Smith. “We were trying to find someone who has leadership skills to work with new coaches and provide mentoring to them.”He says the conflicting demands of his two positions often meant one had to take priority over the other. Smith feels the athletic department can be better served by someone who can devote to it fully.“It’s not a situation where we have multiple administrators to pick up the slack,” said Smith. “It’s hard to be both an instructional leader and disciplinarian while handling scheduling changes to may come up.”He is hopeful that the full-time position will also enable the school to advance in terms of facility upgrades and youth development.“We want someone who could get out and work with the community and our boosters to continue what we’ve been doing with facilities and to build our youth program,” said Smith.The school has seen improvements to its facilities during Smith’s time as athletic director, but he believes more can be done.“There are facility matters that could continue to be worked on,” said Smith. “We have more ideas for the future.”Smith says the new athletic director would likely officially begin their duties on July 1, but the work would begin sooner regarding schedule matters for upcoming seasons.“There’s a lot of work that has to be done in advance of the season, so we want to get them in here right away for that,” said Smith.WRIGHT CITY HIRING NEW ATHLETIC DIRECTORMSHSAA