Trinity Lutheran High School hires new athletic director

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Ryan Cremeans says he is prepared to help the athletic program at Trinity Lutheran High School take big steps forward any way he can.

He recently was named athletic director at the Seymour school. He had been athletic director at White Creek Lutheran School since the beginning of the current school year.

Cremeans has some high goals for Trinity.

“First and foremost, we want to have athletics be part of the Christian education that we’re trying to provide here at Trinity,” he said. “If we can take this wonderful foundation that has already been built and continue that and then try to improve the areas that we can, that would make me really happy.”

An athlete himself when younger, Cremeans feels athletics is an important fit with high school education.

“I believe strongly in the athletic experience, hard work, discipline and working with others, how to be a part of the team, all the different things that you can bring to the educational experience for a student,” he said. “That’s through hiring good coaches, putting together a good schedule, having involvement from the community, having support from the school and staff. If I could be a small part of that success, that would make me really happy at night when I go home.”

Cremeans was the fourth generation of his family to graduate from Adrian High School in Michigan in 2000.

He then attended Central Michigan University, where he played baseball from 2001 to 2004. He played professional baseball with the Mid-Missouri Mavericks in 2004. He suffered an arm injury and only played one season of pro ball.

In 2005, Cremeans did an internship with the athletic director at Adrian, and in 2006 he went to graduate school in Chicago, gave private baseball lessons and coached a travel baseball team.

He spent the past 13½ years in the insurance business and became athletic director at White Creek Lutheran School at the beginning of this school year.

In addition to serving as athletic director at Trinity, Cremeans is director of outreach.

“Through that role, I’ll be spending some time in the Lutheran grade schools in the area that are part of our association and also spend time with the congregations,” he said.

Cremeans said he hopes to help the school increase its enrollment.

“I believe that we would love to have more students come through the front door of the school every day to help educate them and bring them into the community,” Cremeans said.

“The thing I’m most excited about is the students, how we can use athletics to fulfill our mission here at the school, to prepare them to go out and be Christian leaders and members of their communities, and however I can play a small part through athletics and helping foster that, which will make me very happy.”

Cremeans said Trinity Lutheran is so well run he would like to just build on the foundation.

“Through my work here during the day,” he said, “if we can add some more sectionals and regionals, and hopefully one day, state championships to the wall here, that would be fantastic.”

At this time, he does not plan to do any coaching.

In girls sports, Trinity presently has volleyball, soccer and cross-country in the fall, swimming and basketball in the winter and tennis, softball and track and field in the spring. Trinity offers soccer, tennis and cross-country for boys in the fall, basketball and swimming in the winter and baseball, golf and track and field in the spring.

“Our plan is to continue what we already have,” Cremeans said. “We have had a couple informal conversations about football. I know it’s a hot topic that a lot of people are really interested in. I’d love to talk to Clayton (principal Clayton Darlage) more about it and figure out what we can do on the football front.”

Cremeans said the school has excellent athletic facilities.

“I was really impressed when I did my tour of the campus and had a chance to see the facilities,” he said. “I think the community here has clearly shown a lot of support for Trinity and the athletic department. My home school in Michigan plays in the largest class in Michigan, and I would say the facilities here are just as nice as what I experienced.”

Cremeans also complimented the coaches.

“We have a fantastic set of coaches,” he said. “I want to be able to give them the resources that I can in my role (to) be successful. I haven’t been able to dig into the weeds of every single item in the athletic department yet, but I’m looking forward to that. I think if it’s not broke, it doesn’t need to be fixed.”

His wife’s name is Emily. They have three children with a fourth on the way. He said his father-in-law was in the last graduating class at Cortland High School.

“I’m real excited to continue to meet more members of the community,” Cremeans said. “My first two nights on the job, we had home soccer and tennis matches, and so I had a chance to start meeting some of the parents, grandparents and aunts and uncles, so I look forward to seeing people at events.”

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