money Jay Schwanke eager to tackle role as Dublin Jerome High School athletic director
Dublin Jerome’s next athletic director has spent nearly two decades preparing for the role.
Jay Schwanke, 46, is a middle school athletics veteran in Dublin City Schools. He was the athletic director at Sells Middle School for 17 years before serving in the same position for two years at Eversole Run Middle School, which opened in 2021.
He will take over at Jerome on Aug. 1 and succeed Joe Bline, who is stepping down July 31 after six years and moving to an undetermined role in the school district.
“Jerome has a strong commitment to high school athletics and I’m looking forward to continuing that,” Schwanke said. “As we continue with the growth that’s taking place in the area, those are going to be challenges, but I also think it’s something that I’m up to the task.”
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Schwanke also has 25 years of coaching experience, including football at Dublin Scioto, Sells and Eversole Run and baseball at Scioto and Sells, and has served as a science and physical education teacher in the district.
Jerome principal Mike Aurin believes Schwanke is the perfect fit for a growing high school that currently has 1,985 students.
“The thing I had to consider was we’re adding 30 classrooms at Jerome,” Aurin said. “We’re going to have a capacity of 2,400 kids. We’re entering a time of significant change from a program perspective and operations and facilities perspective, and I wanted somebody that had the ability to understand what we need moving forward.
“This next five to seven years is going to be an important time for us and Jay has those connections and understanding of not only the community but also Dublin City Schools, which will allow him to hit the ground running.”
Aurin said there were about 100 applicants, a list eventually trimmed to 15 and then four.
Schwanke also has served as commissioner of the Ohio Capital Conference for grades 7-8 for 15 years and has executive board member experience with the Central Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, Ohio High School Lacrosse Association, Dublin Youth Athletics and Dublin Football League.
He will step down from the OCC role May 31.
“One of my biggest assets with this job is my experience in the community,” Schwanke said. “I’ve lived in the community for 35 years. I’ve run the gamut of all sports in the community as an athlete at Dublin High School in the early ’90s to being an athletic director, being a youth coach, a high school coach, a middle school coach. I have a lot of leadership experience.”
Schwanke is a 1994 graduate of Dublin, which is now Coffman. He played football in high school before graduating from Ohio State in 1998 and earning his master’s from Dayton in 2007.
His wife, Jennifer, is the deputy superintendent for the school district.
“My experience at Eversole Run Middle School was my first experience in the Jerome attendance area, and the families have been really supportive,” Schwanke said. “The kids have been hard-working. I’ve really loved my experience there and it’s made me want to follow those kids up into Jerome and do great things with them.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Jay Schwanke named Dublin Jerome High School athletic director
