Fort selects next AD

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians have selected a Coldwater graduate to lead their athletics program.
A selection committee will recommend Kurt Rammel as Fort Recovery’s next athletics director at the school board’s May meeting. His hiring, which would be effective Aug. 1, requires board approval.
“I’m excited. It’s definitely a great career move … I get to stay in sports,” said Rammel, 29, who is a sports management professor and assistant baseball coach at Tiffin University. “Something I’m very excited about is being able to help not just a single program, but multiple programs and multiple student athletes across the board. … AD was one job that, if I wasn’t coaching, I definitely had my mind and heart set on.
“Fort Recovery has always kind of been a second home,” he added, noting that his father, Rick, is an FRHS graduate. “My whole family grew up and went to school in Fort Recovery. … When that job came open, it was something that I always wanted to do, but it made it perfect that I could go back to a school that my family had a lot of history with.”
Rammel would take over for Barb Sautbine, who announced her retirement in March. Sautbine has been the Fort Recovery AD for 22 years and has worked in the school system for 35.
“He has experience at the college level, so he brings to the table different and varied experiences,” said Fort Recovery Schools Superintendent Shelly Vaughn. “He has a definite love of athletics.
“The coaches on the interview committee felt very good about working with him, and his desire to respect and promote all sports.”
There were 14 applicants for the athletics director position at Fort Recovery, which includes middle school as well as high school athletics. A committee of administrators, coaches, a school board representative and a member of the athletics booster club interviewed five candidates, all of whom had ties to the Fort Recovery area.
Rammel graduated from Coldwater in 2002 and then attended Defiance College, where he played baseball for one season. He transferred to Tiffin to order to continue his baseball career alongside his brother.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Tiffin in managerial studies in 2007 and a master’s degree in business administration with a focus on sports management in 2009.
Rammel, who was also an assistant coach for the Grand Lake Mariners in 2008, wants to continue building off of the work Sautbine has done over the last two decades.
“I just want to be there for the coaches,” said Rammel. “I want to be their voice … and help each coach get what they need and want. I want to help them develop and run an athletic program to the best of their ability.”
Rammel and his fiancé, Casey Hanes, decided after their engagement last month that they wanted to move closer to one of their families. Hanes, a Lansing, Mich., native, is an assistant softball coach at Tiffin.[[In-content Ad]]