Progress 2022

Page 60

Lyle athletic director Bill Smith announces starting lineups for a girls basketball game in Lyle in December. Photos by Rocky Hulne/ sports@austindailyherald.com

Never too late to learn After years of volunteering, Lyle man starts new career as athletic director

By Rocky Hulne Bill Smith has always been attached to Lyle-Pacelli sports in one way or another. He was the go-to guy for whenever a coach needed someone to take stats, work the scoreboard or even ref a youth game. “I’ve done just about everything,” Smith said. Smith went from a volunteer to a full fledged district employee in 2017 when he started working as Lyle’s assistant athletic director. By July of 2020, Smith was the school’s full time athletic director in the middle of a pandemic. It was quite the change of pace for the 1987 Lyle grad, who had worked for Mayo Clinic’s patient services for 15 years after he had worked at Shopko and Rainbow Foods in Austin. Smith said one day it just hit him that he wanted to work for his alma mater in an 58 | Austin Daily Herald | Progress 2022

official capacity. “I was sitting in the office in a back room (at Mayo) and it just wasn’t for me,” Smith said. “I had to get out because it was a little bit too much for me. I knew this job was opening.” When Smith was the assistant AD, he drove students from Lyle to Austin, the Southern Minnesota Education Consortium on Interstate 90 and Glenville. He now has a shortened route but still drives students occasionally, along with his regular duties which include everything from announcing football games from the booth and grabbing the team a pizza if they need one. “I’ve got a lot of good supporters on the staff and they help me out a lot,” Smith said. “You just have to work with the other ADs and work with your coaches to see what kind of opponents they want.” Smith entered the AD field at a very challenging time as games and seasons were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also had to make sure Lyle-Pacelli’s crowds were never over capacity. “It was challenging. We had limitations on fans and in football it was confusing, where they only allowed 250 people at an outdoor event,” Smith said. “We had to spread out tickets to both schools. It was difficult.” This year has been refreshing for Smith as the crowds have been full and the concessions are back. When he smells the popcorn coming and sees youngsters running down the hallway in anticipation of a high school game, Smith can’t help but smile.


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Articles inside

RIGHT OUT OF THE GATE

2min
pages 90-91

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

11min
pages 86-89

NEW LE ROY RETIREMENT FACILITY ADMINISTRATOR LOOKS TO FOSTER A SENSE OF TOGETHERNESS

4min
pages 92-95

ALAMO ANNIE’S HOMESTYLE AT HOME

6min
pages 82-83

LITTLE RACE TRACK ON THE PRAIRIE

2min
pages 84-85

IT’S ALL COMING TOGETHER

3min
pages 78-81

CELEBRATING DIVERSITY

7min
pages 66-69

RIVERLAND MULTICULTURAL CLUB EMPOWERING AUSTIN’S INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

2min
pages 72-73

JOIN THE IMPORTANT CONVERSATIONS WITH

5min
pages 74-77

TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

3min
pages 70-71

LEARNING TO LEAD THE WAY

4min
pages 64-65

RUN IT FROM THE TOP

6min
pages 56-59

NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN

3min
pages 60-61

BACK IN THE PUBLIC EYE

3min
pages 48-49

REINVENTING LANSING CORNERS

7min
pages 26-35

BEAUTIFUL INNOVATION

8min
pages 8-13

IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK

6min
pages 14-17

HIDDEN HEROES

5min
pages 44-47

UNITING THE PROFESSIONALS OF AUSTIN

6min
pages 22-25

PAST & FUTURE

7min
pages 40-43

WIND ON THE PRAIRIE

4min
pages 18-21

‘THESE ANIMALS ARE COUNTING ON YOU’

5min
pages 36-39
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