Each school year there are always new changes in positions and policies around Stevens High School. The 2024-2025 school year is seeing a major influx of new individuals in different leadership positions. Last year Athletic Director, Nicholas Karn, took over after Jared Vasquez retired the previous year, and now a new rotation of coaches are being introduced to the school.
Lynzie Montague was named the Head Coach of the Raiders Volleyball program starting with the 2024 season. As a Stevens graduate and former collegiate player herself, Coach Montague said, “I felt like I owed it to the community to give back and try to make volleyball a more progressive sport instead of kind of an afterthought.”
Throughout her time coaching this season she has noted the growth that each player has already shown, “We’re certainly peaking at the right time this year and that’s super exciting to watch.” Coach Montague mentioned the importance of putting in time during the offseason going forward.
There are several programs that continue to expand and thrive, which caused new positions to be created. This year Paul Hendry was added to the Girls Tennis coaching staff as a second Assistant Coach. Additionally, Payton Phares has been hired as a second Assistant Coach for the Boy’s Golf team. Karn said, “…those programs have gotten to the point where they need the extra help because we have so much participation. So it’s really, really good to add that third coach to help with not only supervision, but extra coaching.” With these extra coaches, it is ensured that athletes get the proper coaching and attention for their athletic needs.
After the last football season, Stevens started the journey of finding a new football coach. When asked about how this impacted his mindset going into the year, senior, Elias Gillen, said, “My mindset was just trying my best, even though we had struggles and challenges throughout the year…” That search did not stick, as former Head Coach, Patrick Towne, resigned halfway through the season, and Joe Moore was appointed as Interim Head Coach to finish the remainder of games. “It was hard to stay in it mentally with the coaching changes and losses for sure, but I think as a whole we actually fought through adversity really well and I don’t think it affected us as much as I thought it would,” said Gillen about how the coaching changes impacted the athletes
The Activities Department wants to make sure that they find a coach that will lead the program in the right direction. “It’s the culture that’s more important of your program. So whoever we hire, that’s going to be our main focus, the culture of the program.” said Karn.
Sport programs were not the only areas that saw change this school year. Speech and Debate has gotten several new coaches, with Ryan Harris named the Head Coach, Sean Bradley the Assistant Debate Coach, and Charalet Dunnigan the Assistant Oral Interpretation Coach. The team saw great success last season, with Olivia Boerger placing 5th in the nation, which builds anticipation for this season. They are anticipating a busy schedule ahead of them with 16 tournaments, one of those will be hosted at Stevens in January.
No matter who is leading the teams, the staff’s main focus is to put the best teams forward and ensure the kids have fun and are able to successful.
