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BENTON — Chris Griffin describes himself as a “competitor at heart.”
He has won a lot on the field as a former state honoree in Michigan and a college athlete at Grace College. He just recorded his next win inside the Fairfield Jr-Sr High School cafeteria Wednesday afternoon.
“First, I would just like to start by thanking our school board, administration and everyone that was a part of the hiring process,” Griffin told the crowd Wednesday during a Fairfield Community Schools board meeting to certify and approve his spot as the school’s next athletic director.
“Throughout the interviewing process, I thought the community did an outstanding job of sharing the very positive and healthy culture and just expressing confidence in the standard that is set here,” Griffin said. “Those are the things that attracted me to this position and I’m just very, very excited to join the Fairfield family. “
Griffin currently serves as the athletic director at Goshen Middle School. He’ll wrap up his time there soon with April 28 serving as his first day in Benton. Fairfield Superintendent Carrie Cannon has already begun what she called the “Falcon-izing process,” handing him school apparel.
Cannon told the crowd about the encouraging difference between this search, and the last one.
“Last time we had an interview for an athletic director, we didn’t get a lot of, didn’t stir up a lot of applicants,” Cannon said. “This time, we did that video and we had a lot of people calling. We had 15 applicants this time. Very highly qualified.”
Griffin met with coaches, athletes, parents and administration members afterwards for an hour. It strengthened the belief that he had coming in.
“I would say first impressions, just excitement in being able to see the community’s presence and seeing the coaches and athletes here and just community members reassuring that Fairfield is one big family and I’m just super excited to join that family and be a part of it,” Griffin said about his first impressions of the new community he’d be joining.
The former Grace College baseball player and Edwardsburg, Michigan native described what may have won him over with the selection committee — which included Fairfield’s football head coach Cory Stoner.
“I think the biggest thing for me was just having a vision and a standard and a good culture,” Griffin said. “I believe that culture is the starting point. You have to create a buy-in to have a successful department, not just individual teams. You have to have buy-ins from athletes, parents, coaches, everybody involved. Being able to share that passion was ultimately the thing that won Fairfield over.”
Griffin currently lives in Goshen. He and Alayna, his wife of over one year, appeared together Wednesday. Not having to move for this new role was something that encouraged Griffin to reach for a dream he has had since high school.
“It’s actually always been a dream of mine to be a high school AD,” Griffin said. “When I was a sophomore in high school, that’s the career path that I chose. Absolutely loved working K-through-6 and at the junior high, but I’m a fierce competitor at heart and moving up to that varsity level, that competition level just goes up another notch. Really, just having that competition and that drive at the high school level is something that is just really, really attractive to me.”
Griffin’s path to becoming AD took an odd turn from his high school days.
“Funny thing, I had actually wanted to be an aerospace engineer,” Griffin said. “Completely did a 180 and realized I didn’t like math that much.”
Before landing at Goshen, Griffin was a Youth Sports Coordinator at Zeeland Public Schools in Michigan. That stood out to Cannon and the board.
“At Zeeland Public Schools in Michigan, Chris was the K-6 athletic director,” Cannon said. “He had 2,500 students on a weekly basis that he managed and over 400 volunteer coaches that he made sure everything was running smoothly.
“When we called his background, I thought one thing that was really a standout that they shared was it was a highly sought out position. There were 136 applicants for Chris’s position and he was their first choice. I felt that really came into play when we were interviewing him.”
Fairfield has been without an athletic director since late September when its school board voted to replace former AD Mark Engle. Assistant principal Nicholas Jones was approved to fill an interim role at the time, a position he’s maintained since.
Fairfield Community Schools began to accept applications for the full-time position in late February and, according to a post to its Facebook account, said the “hiring process involved teachers, parents, board members and administration.”
Griffin cited recent state championships in girls basketball and last spring in boys golf was something he noticed from afar.
He also spoke about the new activity center that began construction last fall. The championships and new features to facilities is encouraging, but not something he wants the school to stop upgrading.
“Going forward, a lot of the plan is to keep pushing improvements to our facilities, especially within this area,” Griffin said. “A lot of schools around us are much bigger, but with us having those amazing facilities and having that small-town culture, that’s just another thing that shows pride.”
The activity center is set to make practice scheduling easier at the high school as two stories of space was included with three full courts (one being hardwood), batting cages, a golf simulator and other items in the original plans. At the time of groundbreaking in early September 2024, it was scheduled to be finished by November 2025.
Griffin didn’t have an answer prepared, but he gave some thought about what he wanted to start doing on his first official day in the role.
“I would say big thing for me, I’m very passionate about coaching,” Griffin said. “So, being able to come alongside our coaches and coach our coaches, and work with them to really just improve together because really, we have to have great leadership to have great success. Just building upon our leadership which is already great here.”
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He has won a lot on the field as a former state honoree in Michigan and a college athlete at Grace College. He just recorded his next win inside the Fairfield Jr-Sr High School cafeteria Wednesday afternoon.
“First, I would just like to start by thanking our school board, administration and everyone that was a part of the hiring process,” Griffin told the crowd Wednesday during a Fairfield Community Schools board meeting to certify and approve his spot as the school’s next athletic director.
“Throughout the interviewing process, I thought the community did an outstanding job of sharing the very positive and healthy culture and just expressing confidence in the standard that is set here,” Griffin said. “Those are the things that attracted me to this position and I’m just very, very excited to join the Fairfield family. “
Griffin currently serves as the athletic director at Goshen Middle School. He’ll wrap up his time there soon with April 28 serving as his first day in Benton. Fairfield Superintendent Carrie Cannon has already begun what she called the “Falcon-izing process,” handing him school apparel.
Cannon told the crowd about the encouraging difference between this search, and the last one.
“Last time we had an interview for an athletic director, we didn’t get a lot of, didn’t stir up a lot of applicants,” Cannon said. “This time, we did that video and we had a lot of people calling. We had 15 applicants this time. Very highly qualified.”
Griffin met with coaches, athletes, parents and administration members afterwards for an hour. It strengthened the belief that he had coming in.
“I would say first impressions, just excitement in being able to see the community’s presence and seeing the coaches and athletes here and just community members reassuring that Fairfield is one big family and I’m just super excited to join that family and be a part of it,” Griffin said about his first impressions of the new community he’d be joining.
The former Grace College baseball player and Edwardsburg, Michigan native described what may have won him over with the selection committee — which included Fairfield’s football head coach Cory Stoner.
“I think the biggest thing for me was just having a vision and a standard and a good culture,” Griffin said. “I believe that culture is the starting point. You have to create a buy-in to have a successful department, not just individual teams. You have to have buy-ins from athletes, parents, coaches, everybody involved. Being able to share that passion was ultimately the thing that won Fairfield over.”
Griffin currently lives in Goshen. He and Alayna, his wife of over one year, appeared together Wednesday. Not having to move for this new role was something that encouraged Griffin to reach for a dream he has had since high school.
“It’s actually always been a dream of mine to be a high school AD,” Griffin said. “When I was a sophomore in high school, that’s the career path that I chose. Absolutely loved working K-through-6 and at the junior high, but I’m a fierce competitor at heart and moving up to that varsity level, that competition level just goes up another notch. Really, just having that competition and that drive at the high school level is something that is just really, really attractive to me.”
Griffin’s path to becoming AD took an odd turn from his high school days.
“Funny thing, I had actually wanted to be an aerospace engineer,” Griffin said. “Completely did a 180 and realized I didn’t like math that much.”
Before landing at Goshen, Griffin was a Youth Sports Coordinator at Zeeland Public Schools in Michigan. That stood out to Cannon and the board.
“At Zeeland Public Schools in Michigan, Chris was the K-6 athletic director,” Cannon said. “He had 2,500 students on a weekly basis that he managed and over 400 volunteer coaches that he made sure everything was running smoothly.
“When we called his background, I thought one thing that was really a standout that they shared was it was a highly sought out position. There were 136 applicants for Chris’s position and he was their first choice. I felt that really came into play when we were interviewing him.”
Fairfield has been without an athletic director since late September when its school board voted to replace former AD Mark Engle. Assistant principal Nicholas Jones was approved to fill an interim role at the time, a position he’s maintained since.
Fairfield Community Schools began to accept applications for the full-time position in late February and, according to a post to its Facebook account, said the “hiring process involved teachers, parents, board members and administration.”
Griffin cited recent state championships in girls basketball and last spring in boys golf was something he noticed from afar.
He also spoke about the new activity center that began construction last fall. The championships and new features to facilities is encouraging, but not something he wants the school to stop upgrading.
“Going forward, a lot of the plan is to keep pushing improvements to our facilities, especially within this area,” Griffin said. “A lot of schools around us are much bigger, but with us having those amazing facilities and having that small-town culture, that’s just another thing that shows pride.”
The activity center is set to make practice scheduling easier at the high school as two stories of space was included with three full courts (one being hardwood), batting cages, a golf simulator and other items in the original plans. At the time of groundbreaking in early September 2024, it was scheduled to be finished by November 2025.
Griffin didn’t have an answer prepared, but he gave some thought about what he wanted to start doing on his first official day in the role.
“I would say big thing for me, I’m very passionate about coaching,” Griffin said. “So, being able to come alongside our coaches and coach our coaches, and work with them to really just improve together because really, we have to have great leadership to have great success. Just building upon our leadership which is already great here.”
Continue reading...
