Dear Hill Country Families,

As mentioned during my State of the School meetings, I promised to keep you in the loop on some of our spring hiring decisions. Today, I want to update you on our Director of Athletics (AD) search.

After three rounds of interviews, much discussion, and fervent prayer, we offered the position to our top Director of Athletics candidate two weeks ago. I’d been in conversations with this candidate since November and knew it was going to be a long shot. His experience in athletic leadership could land him a job at any school in the country, but there was excellent mission alignment, so I was hopeful.

In the end, this candidate told me this week he accepted another offer with a 6A school in Dallas, mainly so he and his wife could be closer to aging parents who need greater support and care. Admittedly, I was super disappointed. And yet, I do trust the Lord to bring the right people to our school.

From this experience, I want to share two things with you, and then give you the pathway forward from here:

1. Having this top-tier candidate spend so much time with our people (Board, parents, Executive team, and me) was so helpful. He helped us map out a clear pathway to building an excellent athletic program as we prepare for 5A.
   
2. He also affirmed so many of the good things that we have come to love about Hill Country, such as an emphasis on discipleship alongside success (whether academic or athletic), and on personal character over a winning-at-all-cost mentality, (which is so prevalent in sports culture today), reminded us again that we are on the right path, even though it’s been more bumpy than I’d prefer.

So where do we go from here? We have two options for the AD position, and three things that are already in the works:

Director of Athletics Position
We are actively pursuing an interim athletic director who could serve for about 18 months. This would give us time to conduct a thorough search and hire the right long-term leader for this important role.

This is a critical hire for our school. We will not rush the process or fill the position simply because someone is available. Our goal is to ensure we have the right person in the role, and we are committed to taking the time necessary to make that happen.

We are also reviewing previous applications to ensure we have not overlooked strong candidates. If appropriate, we will invite select candidates back for additional interviews.

Athletics Department Updates
I’ve hired an interim Administrative Assistant to Athletics to help bridge the gap between Josh McKinney (current AD), who will finish his time at Hill Country at the end of next week, and the new AD, whether interim or permanent. She’s been a great asset to the department so far.
We have allotted two new full-time positions for the Athletics department next year to help us strengthen our program:
– A Strength and Conditioning Coach
– An additional Assistant Athletic Director

I believe these moves are needed to continue to improve this department. While I’m still sore that we didn’t land the candidate we were hoping we would, I’m waiting and trusting God to take our school where He wants it to go—and all for His glory! We trust that God’s plans for Hill Country are good—even when they lead us back to the drawing board. From our perspective, this is disappointing, but from God’s perspective, this is one more step toward the good He has prepared for us. “The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him,” (Lamentations 3:25). The Lord is not surprised by this outcome, and we remain confident that He is guiding this critical hire.

Join me in praying to that end,

Eric DeVries, Head of School