-
Former United State Marine Corps veteran and Central Florida native Chad Springer is the new Athletic Director at Liberty High School. PHOTO/LIBERTY HIGH SCHOOL
An educator, coach, military veteran and Central Florida native is the new leader of Liberty High School athletics, as Chad Springer was named to the post this past week.
“Chad Springer is a tremendous leader, as well as a hard-working and caring person. He will be a great fit for the Liberty program,” County Athletics Director Ryan Adams said in making the announcement.
Springer, who graduated from nearby Cypress Creek High School in 2004, spent the last year as Athletic Director at Windermere High School. In his one year with the Wolves, he saw several of his teams – including boys’ basketball, baseball, and softball – make deep runs into the state playoffs.
After graduating from Cypress Creek, Springer enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he served from 2009-2014 as an aviation electronics specialist. From 20152022, Springer taught at several high schools and middle schools in North Carolina. He also was an assistant football coach at local high schools during that time.
“I am really excited to begin to tackle the challenges this new position will bring,” Springer said. “I think the most important thing is to work on a culture change both inside the school and within the community. Athletics is a valuable component of high school but it should also be fun and rewarding too. I would like to see our participation in all sports increase, while building an overall program the community will be proud of.”
One sport Springer has already started to concentrate on is football. After a difficult season where the Chargers went winless and scored just 12 points, Liberty dismissed Antony Smith and brought in former Alabama and Colorado college standout Dee Hart to coach the team. Springer noted that he has already met with Hart and looks forward to working with him.
“Dee Hart is an incredible individual who I believe has everything it takes to turn our program around,” Springer said. “I look forward to working with him and doing whatever I can from my end to make his job easier.”
Springer noted that he understands changing the culture of an entire athletic program will take some time.
“I’ve been here less than a week, so I haven’t even had a chance to meet all our coaches or even figure out if we have all our coaches in place in all the sports. I do know that changing the culture of a program is not going to be something that happens overnight. It will be a process and we will put the head coaches and assistant coaches in place to make it happen.”
