During the summer of 2020, Santa Barbara High School gained a new face as the Athletic Director. Replacing Mr. Chenoweth for the up and coming years, Todd Heil will be our new Athletic Director for our Santa Barbara High School athletics. 

    Todd Heil is originally from Yorba Linda, California. Growing up, Todd was a multi-sport athlete, playing football, soccer, and basketball in high school. Heil then attended Fullerton Community College for two years and went on to receive his BA in history at UC Santa Barbara. In addition, he also received his teaching credentials from Chapman University which led him to a teaching position at Santa Barbara High School for 21 years. 

    His first stint as a head coach was at Santa Barbara where he would spend those 21 years with the men’s soccer program. Heil had much success with his soccer programs winning 431 matches, sixteen channel league championships, and four CIF championships. After his success with the men’s soccer program at Santa Barbara High School, Todd was also an assistant coach with the UC Santa Barbara women’s soccer team for the next six years. In addition, he was also UC Santa Barbara’s head coach for the women’s club soccer team for the past twenty years as well. 

    Although Heil had great success with the Santa Barbara High School men’s soccer program, he couldn’t pass the opportunity to become an Athletic Director and share his desire to see how he could help all of the sports programs at Santa Barbara. One of his focal points is to expand the SBHS athletics social media footprint, so that we are able to better inform and keep the SBHS community better informed on what is on with our sports programs. 

             When asked what he is looking forward to as Athletic Director, he stated, “I’m very much looking forward to experiencing the journey that each of our sports programs takes during their seasons this year.” Heil’s twenty-one years of teaching and coaching experience allows him to relate to student athletes and the challenges that coaches face in running their programs. He looks forward to experiencing the journey that each of the sports programs takes during their season. The challenges will be getting sports back on campus this year and keeping safety as a priority for students and staff. A secondary challenge will be the scheduling of sports seasons that will be pushed out to ensure that all sports have an opportunity to play. He advises everyone to check out the updated CIF competition calendar for this year. 

        Heil’s passion for sports is illustrated in what would make him happy, stating, “I love sports, so when we do finally get to hold sports again I’m going to be one happy person!”

[Photo Credit: NoozHawk]