After 12 years of dissecting frogs, watching kids roll around on a mat and run in circles on a track, Swede Robinson has been promoted to Highland’s newest athletics director alongside Daniel Shwam and athletics secretary Christina Shwam.
Coach and teacher Swede Robinson has replaced Greg Heuer as athletics director after Heuer transferred too Bountiful.
Robinson joined the Highland community in 2012, teaching biology and biology-related sciences such as zoology and biotech. He has also coached various sports including wrestling and track and field. Although becoming athletics director is a step up, he must unfortunately quit his other jobs to do so.
“That’s part of me switching over, is I’ve got to wear the athletics director hat, and not necessarily the head coach hat.” Robinson said.
As of recently, Dominic Barbisal has been hired to replace Robinson as the new biology teacher. As for wrestling, Aldo Gutierrez will be taking over the girls’ team, while Chris Castiglia will be coaching the boys’ team. Unfortunately, the new track and field head coach is yet to be determined, but Robinson, along with others, are in that selection process right now.
As the new athletics director, it’s Robinson’s job to handle all the behind-the-scenes work related to sports so all programs can function normally. Whether it be handling every athlete’s physicals, planning the schedules, or driving the teams to their competitions, athletics directory helps Highland’s athletes with problems they never knew they had.
“A lot of the events we do help with set up and clean up. Just anything that has to do with a sport event happening on one level or another, we are involved,” Robinson said.
To be able to do the job well, you need to have a good understanding of how sports work. Many sports have similar mechanics to them, and being able to work under pressure and multitask are essential skills needed to be a successful athletics director.
Robinson has many plans and goals for all of Highland’s sports and their teams. Like many others, he believes competing in sports as a high schooler has advantages, and he’d like to see higher participation in all Highland sports, along with a more competitive spirit so “we can continue to improve and keep everybody moving forward.”
Being athletics director doesn’t come without its challenges. Every two years, the Utah Highschool Athletic Association (UHAA) looks at populations of schools in an attempt to “keep people in competitive balance.” With this talk of realignment, Robinson is working to keep Highland sports competitive by looking for schools with similar demographics to find a place for Highland in that “matrix.”
“We’re trying to find schools that we have common populations with to compete with. That’s something that we’re looking at right now. Trying to look at where we fit best in the realignment scheme,” Robinson said.
Classifications like 6a, 5a, 4a, and regions are the groups of schools you compete with day in and day out. These rankings are based by the number of students enrolled in the upper grades (9-12), with 5a generally representing schools with a larger population. These classifications are determined by each state’s athletic association.
Robinson has addressed speculation of going to 4a, saying that there’s benefits of competing in the classification, but it’s more difficult than just wanting to do it. Specific requirements including certain population parameters and appeals must be met before even thinking about if the switch is possible for the school or not.
Although he’s taught and coached at Highland for 12 years, Robinson decided to apply for athletics director to keep moving forward in his career, and to do what’s best for his family and himself.
“I’ve always had interest in the position, and it’s for me and for what I’m trying to do. It’s a good fit for my future, and it fits well for what I want to do and my family.” Robinson said.
After transferring jobs within Highland, Robinson expressed his feelings on no longer teaching, saying it’s been different since the classroom is all he’s known in his career, and “missing the students in the day-to-day work life” can be a struggle.
Although change can be difficult, Robinson is “happy and fulfilled” in the direction he’s headed, and excited to see what’s next with high school sports and beyond.
