Lockhart Approved as Summit's New Athletic Director

The Summit Board of Education approved Robert Lockhart as the district’s new athletic director during its Wednesday meeting.

Superintendent Dr. Nathan Parker said Lockhart, who will leave his position as director of athletics and extracurricular activities at Warren Hills Regional High School in Washington, is the “perfect match” for the role due to his experience as a coach and athletic director, as well as a number of intangibles.

“We were impressed with his strong commitment to the student athlete,” Parker said. “He stressed safety, caring for kids and making sure they had proper support.”

Parker said a site visit to Warren Hills to see Lockhart in action cemented the committee’s beliefs that Lockhart was “the real deal.”

Dr. Ken Shulack, the district’s director of human resources, said the committee felt “very much in awe of the sincerity and sense of loss” that the Warren Hills community felt over losing Lockhart.

After being approved, Lockhart said he enjoyed working at Warren Hills and told himself he would only leave that district for “a place that would top it.”

“I guess that’s why you’re called the Hilltoppers,” Lockhart said.

To determine Lockhart as the new athletic director, the district first formed an advisory committee filled with Parker, teachers, principals and assistant principals, coaches, student athletes and other community members. The committee then established a list of characteristics it believed the district needed in its next athletic director.

“We needed someone who could continue the success of our athletic programs, support our student athletes, work collaboratively with our community and coaches and be a role model for our students,” Shulack said.

Lockhart was one of 91 people to apply for the position and one of the final five suggested to the committee for consideration. From there, Lockhart and the other candidates had to present to the committee on multiple topics, including how they would engage parents and how they would make them part of the Hilltopper team.

Lockhart had served as Warren Hills athletic director since 2011 and had been the assistant director starting in 2009. He had been an assistant and head football coach, head girls’ basketball coach, assistant boys’ basketball coach, baseball coach and track coach. He taught health and physical education at the high school from 1983 to 2011.

He replaces Mike Sandor, who decided to take over the role of supervisor of health and physical education when the board recently split the two functions.