For Brent Schimek, becoming an athletic director is something he’s thought about and worked at for a long time.

Sunday, August 15, 1999

For Brent Schimek, becoming an athletic director is something he’s thought about and worked at for a long time. He’s arrived.

Schimek is the new United South Central High School Athletic Director Community Education Director, replacing longtime A.D. Harvey Crable who resigned to take a job at Luverne.

Schimek, 33, described his new position as a dream job.

&uot;I’m going to miss having kids in the classroom, but it gives me a chance to move up and be involved in more than one sport,&uot; said Schimek. &uot;The Community Education part will get me out and involved in the community, which is turn will help the athletic program. They tie together pretty well.&uot;

While Schimek is new to the USC school district, he’s no stranger to the area. He grew up in rural Easton and graduated from Delavan High School, where he was all-conference in two sports while earning a combined 10 varsity letters in football, basketball and baseball.

The second of four children, Schimek grew up in an active family in which everyone was involved in athletics and other activities.

&uot;At Delavan, there were 19 people in my class, so you pretty much participated in everything,&uot; said Schimek. &uot;You got a chance to do a lot of different things.&uot;

Schimek went on to the University of Minnesota, where he was a student assistant football coach for two seasons under John Gutekunst. He was offered a graduate assistant position but turned it down in favor of a job as teacher and head football coach at Menahga High School, where he remained for six years.

From Menahga Schimek moved closer to home, serving five years as a teacher and football defensive coordinator at Blue Earth Area High School.

Schimek began his USC position July 2 and is currently pursuing a masters degree in education.

Schimek and his wife, Patty, have four children: Jessica, 8; Nick, 5; Regina, 3; and Jacob, 10 months.

The family lives on the farm where Schimek grew up about 12 miles from Wells, which he bought from his parents two years ago.

&uot;My parents still farm,&uot; said Schimek. &uot;I help them out every once in a while. It’s good stress relief.&uot;

Schimek said there hasn’t been too much stress in the workplace and that Crable left things pretty much in order.

&uot;Things are going good,&uot; said Schimek. &uot;We’ve had a coaches meeting, we have all our fall coaches and most of the winter coaches hired. Harvey left things in good shape as far as scheduling goes; he got a lot done before he left here, he didn’t just jump ship by any means. Things are moving along. The main thing is just to get to know all the new faces and make sure I get them remembered.&uot;

Schimek is also busy preparing for the football season. He’s taking over as varsity head coach for Greg Ellsworth.

Schimek said one challenge to face him and everyone else in the district is the closing of the middle school at Freeborn and the elementary school at Bricelyn. Wells will house all students in kindergarten through fourth grade and grades 9-12 while all fifth and sixth-graders will attend classes at Kiester.

&uot;There will be some adjustment with that, that’s for sure, in both community education and athletics,&uot; said Schimek.

Schimek’s goal is one that’s both lofty and unattainable: he hopes to keep everybody happy.

&uot;The big challenge and the big goal is to please everyone in every community the school district represents, which is pretty hard to do,&uot; said Schimek.