This year Ukiah High School welcomes a new athletic director, long-time educator Aaron O’Brien. UHS News spoke to O’Brien about how his new job is going thus far.
O’Brien worked previously in Hayward, California at Mount Eden High School as the Athletic Director and Basketball coach.
O’Brien grew up in Ukiah and told us he wanted to return home. He noticed an open athletic director position at Ukiah High School and jumped at the opportunity. With Ukiah High athletics on the rise, O’Brien wanted to continue the hard work and help further improve Ukiah High.
O’Brien described many challenges in the job so far. He said the large amount of student-athletes combined with eligibility issues and limited facilities has made for hard work.
Even though there have been challenges, O’Brien acknowledges the many successes of this year including the Girl’s Volleyball team and Football team making it to playoffs. O’Brien has admired, “The great participation in sports at Ukiah High and the parental involvement”
O’Brien is excited to continue to make new connections with students and athletes. “Ukiah is a special place, let’s continue to make it special”, O’Brien commented.
Some of O’Brien’s favorite moments so far have been watching the Varsity Football team beat Saint Vincent High School and waking up and going to work every day in his hometown.
Izabella Nickerson is an editor and chief for the UHS newspaper and a Junior at Ukiah High School. Izabella enjoys playing sports like tennis and volleyball, baking/cooking, and being outdoors. Izabella is creative and hardworking doing her part to make the UHS newspaper informative and entertaining. Izabella has been a part of the UHS news team for 3 years. She enjoys writing about the sports that students participate in at Ukiah High School as well as articles addressing women's rights and more. She would like to continue Journalism and make a career out of it. Becoming a sports journalist or a sports broadcaster.
