Dayton Introduces New AD

DAYTON - More than seven years ago, Bulldog senior Heather (Lambert) Clarys tore her ACL in a state tournament basketball game in Spokane that ef- fectively ended her school athletics career. But it didn't dampen her passion for sports.

After graduation, she went on to get a Bachelor's of Science in Exercise with a minor in coaching from Eastern Washington Uni- versity. She then worked as a personal fitness trainer in Tri-Cities.

And now she's back, as her alma mater's new athletic director. Dayton's sports community couldn't be happier.

"I think she's going to do a very good job," said Bull- dog scorekeeper Jeff Turner, whose daughter Stephanie was one of Clarys' team- mates beginning in sixth grade. "She seems to know her stuff."

After a succession of short-term athletic directors, including the late Jack Smiley and Rick Hamilton, Dayton High School and its coaches are ready for some consistency and predictabil- ity, Turner said. After their first meeting with Clarys earlier this summer, they're hopeful the 2006 DHS graduate will deliver just that.

"It will be nice to have someone who has her kind of energy," softball coach Terry Robbins said. "She's already settled in. Her connections here are also helpful."

Those connections go back to the early years, when Clarys, then known by her maiden name Lambert, was part of a core group much like the Bulldog boys who took their team to state ear- lier this year. Along with Clarys and Stephanie Turner, the group included Camille Weatherill, Sarah Gibbons, Brook Hoon and Stacia Tal- bott. Clarys' younger broth- er, Brett Lambert, who grad- uated in 2009, is also well known among Daytonites for his baseball achieve- ments. He now pitches for Whitman College, where he's a junior.

Clarys, who married her husband Brian in November, played sports year-round in high school, usually vol- leyball, basketball and track. As her senior project, she coached a 3-on-3 summer basketball tournament for third graders.

As she did then, Clarys wants to get and keep more kids in sports now that she's the AD. She's even will- ing to help out with their homework to help keep their grades high enough to stay on their team.

She hopes that will lift the overall athletics spirit in the Dayton school district and make sports a "cool" thing to be involved with. That in turn will help boost numbers and make sports activities more viable, while relaxing the push to win and place more emphasis on "having fun," she said.

As the foundation for the kids' success, Clarys believes in solid organiza- tion and communication, for which she said she will use all modern technology at her disposal - email, texting, voice mail and so on.

Being younger than most coaches at DHS bothers neither Clarys nor her colleagues, whom she views as members of a team.

" The age difference doesn't bother me what- soever," she said. "We're a team and we're working for the best interest of the kids. That's my focus."

Robbins said Clarys' big- ger challenge may be learning how to deal with the ADs from other league and non-league teams and coor- dinating schedules. But there too, the Dayton coaches expressed confidence in her organizational abilities.

"She'll do fine," Robbins predicted. "I'm looking for- ward to another sports year."

Turner agreed. "I believe she'll be on top of it and follow through on the things there weren't (handled) be- fore," he said. "She'll be the one we can count on."