Burlington Central tabs Gertz as new athletic director

Steve Gertz will remain a high school athletic director in the Fox Valley area, but his new address is Rocket Hill.

Gertz, who announced his resignation as Streamwood's athletic director in February, was officially hired as athletics and activities director at Burlington Central at the Central School District 301 board meeting Monday night.

Gertz replaces Dan Cliffe, who retired on June 30. He is scheduled to begin work on Aug. 1 but said he plans to start on July 26 upon return from a family vacation.

"It's an awesome and excellent opportunity," Gertz said Tuesday. "It's a growing district. It has a balanced budget. There are lots of opportunities where I can utilize a number of things I learned from Streamwood. I'm very excited about the opportunity.

"Central is very strongly community based. I kept saying that if I decided to stay in athletics, I wanted to be in a district that has a strong community and they do; they support their schools.

"The nice thing about Central is their academics are solid, their test scores are solid. For me, it's a good fit."

Gertz was the athletic director at Streamwood, his alma mater, for five years, preceded by six years as assistant athletic director. He began his teaching career there in 1993.

"We're excited to have him," District 301 Assistant Superintendent Greg Rabenhorst said. "He has experience as an athletic director, and he has experience at a larger high school, which will help us as our enrollment changes and we need to grow our programs in the future. We're glad to have him."

When he announced his resignation as Streamwood's athletic director in February, Gertz cited the additional administrative duties added to his plate within cash-strapped Elgin Area School District U-46 as a primary reason.

The additional workload as a Dean of Students, driver's education teacher and middle school girls basketball coordinator, he said, kept him buried in paperwork and deprived him of opportunities to interact more closely with the players and coaches within the program.

Gertz's attention won't be diverted from athletics and activities at Central. Nevertheless, he says it isn't easy to leave U-46, the school district in which he was raised and where he started his career.

"It was a very tough decision," he said. "Being in U-46 from kindergarten all the way through my 16-year career, it's been awesome. It's going to be tough because I still know a lot of people in the community. But I'm still going to visit the school and I'm going to try to keep in touch with all the coaches. It's my alma mater, so it's a great place."