Cañon City High School Athletic Director Bob Trahern was honored last week at the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association conference in Indianapolis.
Trahern was given one of 10 awards for distinguished service. The awards were given their awards Dec. 13 at the 42nd annual NIAAA conference.
“It was pretty shocking actually, very humbling,” Trahern said. “Not being in this business as long as some others, I just keep reflecting back to … the reason I won is because of who I work with. We have an awesome staff so I don’t think this kind of stuff happens without having good people around you.”
Trahern said Deb Schwindt, the athletic department secretary, makes things a lot easier in the office.
Trahern has been at CCHS since 1990 and is in his 10th year as athletic director. He’s also in charge of budgets for other activities at the high school, such as band, choir, speech and debate and drama, among others.
The conference draws about 2,500 athletic directors from across the United States and Canada. There are about 8,700 members of the NIAAA. Each state is allowed to nominate one administrator for the award.
According to a press release, the award is given annually to members of the NIAAA in recognition of their length of service, special accomplishments and contributions to interscholastic athletics at the local, state and national levels. Nominations are submitted by state athletic director associations, screened by the NIAAA Awards Committee and selected by the NIAAA Board of Directors.
Trahern is involved with the Colorado High School Activities Association and has served on boards for sportsmanship, tournament and playoff finances and also has served on the executive committee.
He also is a board member for the Colorado Athletic Directors Association. He’s currently serving a two-year term as president-elect.
Trahern earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Colorado and his master’s from University of Colorado-Colorado Springs
The other nine winners were Richard Barton (Utah), Bruce Bowen (Virginia), Margaret Conaty (Massachusetts), Samuel Elias (Pennsylvania), Daniel Johnson (Minnesota), Mike Kimmons (Tennessee), Jim Piccolo (Washington), Sam Rasmussen (Indiana) and Joseph Sanfilippo (Georgia).
Sports Editor Brandon Hopper can be reached at 276-7644 or Facebook.com/CCDRsports.
