WHITE SALMON — Columbia High School Athletic Director AJ Valencia has been nominated for the Washington Secondary School Athletic Administrators Association Athletic (WSSAAA) Director of the Year award.
Across Washington state, there are six districts that represent schools for high school athletics. Every year, each district selects a representative for the Athletic Director of the Year award. Valencia is the district four representative, selected by the district four executive committee on Jan. 21.
Valencia will attend the WSSAAA state AD conference in Kennewick this April, where a banquet will be held in honor of the award winners. Additionally, this is where the statewide winner of the athletic director of the year award will be announced.
“I think this nomination reflects way more than me, I’m just a piece of it,” Valencia said. “The people that are doing the day-to-day work with our athletes and our kids are really our coaches and our community members. I can’t put enough emphasis on that. We wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the dedicated coaching staff that we have.”
For Valencia, the close-knit community of White Salmon and Columbia High School is part of the attraction to his job. However, smaller districts (and their staff) can sometimes be forgotten when awards like this come about.
“I don’t know who the other nominees are for this award, but to have a 1A school represented is a pretty big deal in my eyes,” said Valencia. “That was a big motivation for me to come to White Salmon. To come to a smaller school where I could have a bigger impact and get to know pretty much all of our student athletes on a real relationship basis and have conversations like ‘How’s school going today?’, ‘Are you excited for the game tonight?’ Those small conversations are definitely examples of what makes this award about our community.”
As for the future, Valencia isn’t focused on awards, but building Columbia High School athletics from the ground up.
“We’re really trying to vertically integrate what we’re doing at the high school down to the middle school and down to the youth level,” said Valencia. “It’s going to take some time to get down to the youth level, but we definitely want to get down there and make White Salmon a K-12 athletic powerhouse.”
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