Athletic director retired

Sam Klein
Print/Podcast/Sports Editor

Activities director Jerry Collins has worked at Webster 24 years and been athletic director for 19. At the end of the 23-24 school year, he retired from that position.

The statement announcing his retirement was released on Nov. 10, of last year through a statement released by principal Matt Irvin.

Before working as activities director Collins spent five years working as the PE and health teacher starting in 2000 and was also a certified athletic trainer. When he stepped up, one of the first things he did was hire athletic trainer Sean Wright to fill the position.

As Collins steps away from his role in education, he doesn’t plan to stop working all together yet.

“I would like to find a new job in a new career, maybe something a little bit different of a profession just to try something new and challenging, but I think also hopefully that will allow me to have more time to play golf, and some other fun things,” Collins said.

Collins said he isn’t ready to separate from Webster completely and plans to still stay involved in the school in some ways.

“We live in Webster [and] at this time we don’t have plans to move, at least not right away. One thing specifically that I’ve already talked to Coach (Chris) Johnson about is staying involved in the Hall of Fame committee,” Collins said. “I’ve been inducting new members into our Hall of Fame since I’ve been around, for 25 years almost. I’ve seen a lot of our great teams come through and can hopefully provide some knowledge.”

Activities office secretary Kim Edwards has worked with Collins since 2007 when he hired her. They’ve worked together in the activities office since, organizing things for not only sports, but also clubs and dances.

“He is the nicest person. He’s concerned about all the kids, and he thinks about all the kids. He’s trying to do what’s best. It doesn’t matter if it’s a simple club or the football team. It doesn’t matter which team, he treats them all equally, so I’ve always really enjoyed working with him,” Edwards said.

Johnson, the current assistant activities director will take the position for the next school year. Johnson has worked with Collins as the assistant activities director for the last three years, and through Edwards’ help, he hopes to make a smooth transition.

“Chris is a nice person. I think he will slide into that position very well and do a great job. He also cares a lot for the kids and their sports and clubs and everything that they do,” Edwards said about the transition.

Johnson, while intimidated by the bar Collins set, is excited to begin the new role.

“I think the high bar that has been set by Mr. Collins and by a lot of our previous head coaches. The community, I think that they except the athletic programs to be successful, to be competitive,” Johnson said.

Johnson said his goal is, in a way, to emulate Collins.

“Mr. Collins has been unbelievable. He is a professional in every way shape and form. He’s been nothing but gracious with his experience. Everything he does he will take the time to explain why he’s doing what he’s doing,” Johnson said.
“I joke with him that when he retires that he at least has to give me one year where I get free calls at anytime of day whenever I’m panicking… He’s always laughed and said that his phone will always be on, and that’ll he’ll answer it.“

Johnson noted Collins’ best quality: “He was really good about letting his coaches coach and giving them the resources that they needed to be successful. He’s not one that wanted to interfere. He wanted the coaches to make sure that their programs were their programs and if they needed something… he was willing to do it.”