Boozier selected as new Jay AD

Steve Boozier has two dream jobs. He’ll be leaving one to take the other.
Boozier, who has coached the Jay County High School football team for the last three seasons, was unanimously approved Monday by Jay School Board as the next JCHS assistant principal and athletics director.
The two people who had the biggest influence on Boozier’s life when he was in school were football coach Tom Bruin and athletics director Harold Schutz, said the 1985 Jay County graduate. He hopes he can have a similar impact in his new position.
“You just have an opportunity to work with kids across the spectrum, not just in one sport,” Boozier said. “This is my home and I want to do anything I can to help it.”
He will leave his positions a history teacher and the football coach at JCHS to take his new job. The change will take effect on July 1.
Jay Schools superintendent Tim Long said the search process for the school’s next football coach will begin immediately.
Boozier was chosen from a field of 36 applicants for the AD/assistant principal job, which became open when current AD Bob Lutton announced in October he would leave the position at the end of the school year. Lutton is in his third year as the AD at Jay County.
Eight applicants were brought in for interviews last week with a committee that included JCHS principal Phil Ford, assistant principal Chad Dodd, Long, Lutton and school board members Larry Paxson, Kristi Betts and Mike Masters.
Ron Laux, Beth Krieg and Mike Shannon joined Paxson, Betts and Masters in approving Boozier’s hiring by a 6-0 vote. Board president Greg Wellman was absent from the meeting.
“I was exceptionally pleased with the quality of candidates that we received,” said Paxson before making the motion to accept the recommendation to hire Boozier.
“We evaluated a lot of different things,” said Long. “He had been an athletics director a couple times before.
“He was local. I don't think that hurt at all.
“And ... he stuck out a great deal in the interview, just far above other candidates.”
Boozier has served as an athletics director twice before, for two years at Tri-County North in Ohio and from 2008-10 at Wes-Del before taking the football job at JCHS.
He has more than 20 years of coaching experience at Jay County, Blackford, Northfield and Tri-County North.
"(Boozier) has experience as an AD. He has experience as a head coach. He's shown himself to be skilled in those areas,” said Ford. “But to me one of the biggest selling points is besides his skill set and his capabilities is the fact that he has an immediate vested interest in Jay County High School. He wants Jay County High School to be successful because that's where his heart is."
Boozier has an 88-121 record in 21 years coaching football in Indiana. He has gone 10-20 in three seasons at JCHS, including a 3-7 record in 2012.
He will spend the next several months working with Lutton in preparation for the transition.
"I've already learned a tremendous amount from him, especially on the assistant principal side,” said Boozier. “He's a great evaluator ... and so I want to pick his brain on those kind of things.[[In-content Ad]]