Alderson tapped to fill IVHS athletic director position
From our weekly issue dated September 01, 2010
Casey Alderson
When Mark Higgins announced that he was accepting a position at Fleming middle School, JoAnn Bethany had hoped to replace him with someone who had similar qualifications.
Fortunately for the Illinois Valley High School principal, 33-year-old Casey Alderson applied for the job. Alderson started as the new IVHS athletic director on Tuesday, Aug. 24. He brings eight years of experience as a coach and teacher.
Born and raised in Grants Pass, Alderson attended Redwood Elementary School and South Middle School. In 1995, Alderson graduated from Grants Pass High School (GPHS), where he had been active in football and other athletic programs. Alderson attended Southern Oregon University (SOU), earning his undergraduate degree in business management and economics 2001. Alderson earned a masters degree in teaching and administration from SOU in 2003.
The first four years of Alderson“s career brought him full circle, as he worked at South Middle School teaching math and coaching.
He also coached at GPHS on a part-time basis before shifting over there full-time to coach football and track and teach math and computer classes.
Alderson said that he plans to emphasize greater participation in sports programs, and hopes to build feeder programs at the elementary and middle school levels. This will be the first year that IVHS will be in the 3-A conference. It previously had been a 4-A school, but dropped down due to continued declining enrollment.
Although IVHS will be competing with similarly sized schools, some of its new rivals in the 3-A conference are open -enrollment schools which can recruit talent from outside their immediate area. But through his experience coaching at GPHS, Alderson has grown used to competing under such a scenario.
“It will be an exciting time for us,“ Alderson said. “The competition will be exactly what we are looking for.“
Coaches for the fall and winter sports and fall season schedules have already have been worked out by the previous athletic director, Alderson said, which “makes the transition a lot easier.“ In his years as a student athlete, Alderson experienced very high levels of success.
The GPHS football team reached the second round of the playoffs in two consecutive years during his stint there. Alderson also played basketball for the Cavemen.
Bethany said that Alderson“s education credentials mean that he will be able to teach all of the same classes that Higgins taught. As such, she added, IVHS will not have to do any schedule changes to reflect the shift in the athletic director position.
“I am able to start right in where Mark left off,“ Alderson said. “It should be a really good fit.“
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