Burkhart Looks Forward To Retirement
May 11, 2018 at 4:17 p.m.
Burkhart Looks Forward To Retirement
By Dale [email protected]
For the past 24 years, however, Burkhart, 57, has occupied the role at Tippecanoe Valley High School and, admittedly, enjoyed it very much.
When the current school year ends, Burkhart will step away from the position, capping nearly a quarter-century in the TVHS Athletic Department and 35 years overall in education.
Gina Hierlmeier was approved on April 16 to be Valley’s next athletic director.
“I’ll be honest, being an athletic director was not really on my radar coming out of college,” said Burkhart, who graduated from Huntington North High School in 1979 and University of St. Francis (Fort Wayne) in 1983.
“It was not a career ambition for me. I wanted to teach and coach. All the way through my years as athletic director here, I still taught two classes. Between economics, psychology and sociology I always taught two classes each semester. I enjoy being with the kids.
“Athletic administration wasn’t a goal of mine, to tell you the truth. Bob DuBois, who was the first athletic director here, decided to get out in 1995. When the position opened up, the administration came to me and asked if it was something I’d like to do. I thought it over, and I talked to Bob, and he said ‘you know, if you pass on it now you don’t know when it’s going to open up again.’”
Burkhart, who has also coached track and field, baseball, girls basketball and been an assistant football coach at Valley, took DuBois’ advice and gave it a shot.
Along the way, he’s made quite a few friends ... and memories.
“It’s all been good. I’ve made a lot of great associations, met a lot of great people, coached a lot of good kids,” said Burkhart.
“The fun part for me now is ... the kids that are in high school now, I had their parents either in the classroom, or I coached their parents. In my psychology class there’s 19 kids, and I asked them how many of their parents were former students of ours, and I think 14 of the 19 raised their hands. That was kind of cool.”
Burkhart has made a number of friends while wearing a number of different hats at Valley, but his relationship with Scott Bibler stands out.
Burkhart and Bibler, who was killed in a plane crash in Oct. of 2015 while travelling to a Notre Dame football game at Clemson University, were best friends.
Burkhart was the athletic director ... Bibler was the football coach.
They played golf together. They went to social events together.
When the plane crash took Bibler’s life, along with the lives of 1979 state champion football coach Charlie Smith, his son Scott Smith, and former sprint car driver Tony Elliott, it left a huge void.
“With Bibs and the accident that occurred, it was tough,” said Burkhart. “Anyone that knew Scott Bibler, or Charlie Smith and Scott Smith, or Tony Elliott, they had huge impacts on the communities, and they touched so many people’s lives.
“Bibs and I were close. We worked together. We socialized a lot, we played golf quite a bit. That was really tough ... getting phone calls at 11 at night, 1 in the morning, about the accident, and you’re the face of the athletic department so you have to respond ... but it was also my best friend. That was tough.”
There were certainly plenty of good memories in Burkhart’s 35 total years at TVHS.
As the head baseball coach, Burkhart led the Vikings to the sectional title in 1990.
As the head coach of the girls basketball team, the Lady Vikings were 113-42 overall and 59-4 in the Three Rivers Conference.
During Burkhart’s time as athletic director, Valley has had 50 all-state players in various sports, 43 TRC championships and 17 sectional titles.
The girls basketball team was the state runner-up in 2015.
The boys golf team advanced to state in 2000.
There were 12 individuals that made state finals appearances.
Burkhart will take these fond memories with him.
“Those were great times,” said Burkhart. “With the girls basketball team (in 2015), between semistate and state I’d never seen so many tickets sold anywhere in my life. We came back from our meeting for the semistate, and we had a couple thousand tickets, and they were gone within an hour or an hour and a half. There were people lineup down the hallway and outside. That was cool.
“There’s been a lot of special moments. I remember we had a swimmer, Anna Higgins, and she was physically challenged, but she still swam. We had Tyler Akers that played baseball for us, and he only had partial arm. There’s a lot of things in high school sports other than just winning, and there’s a lot of lessons to be learned, from not only the coaches and the community, but the kids. To me, that’s the epitome of high school sports, kids like that participating and doing the best that they can.”
Burkhart is also quite proud of the longevity of his coaches.
He praised the dedication of coaches Bill Patrick, Bibler, Jeff Shriver, Lori Stiffler, Roger Moriarty, Terry Screeton, Rod Hamman, Jack Shambaugh and Scott Smith.
All were in a coaching capacity at Valley for at least 15 years.
He pointed out the dedication of his event workers, many of whom have given of their time for 20-plus years.
Burkhart’s dedication and longevity is also to be commended.
For nearly a quarter-century as Valley’s athletic director he’s been on the go, night in and night out.
Now he’s going to enjoy more time with his wife and sons.
He’s going to golf more.
He’s going to spend time in the Smoky Mountains.
And yes, he’s going to support TVHS, it’s students and the athletic department ... because, well, that’s a big part of his life.
“We’re still going to be at ballgames,” said Burkhart. “I don’t have to go to all the ballgames now, but we’ll still be around and support the Vikings. I’ve been blessed that I have a wife who likes sports, and we’ll still go to games and support Valley and the kids.”
Burkhart and his wife have two sons, both of whom played sports and graduated from Valley.
Britton, a 2004 grad, is a Delta Airlines pilot, while Taylor, who graduated in 2010, is a business teacher and assistant basketball coach at Brownsburg High School.
For the past 24 years, however, Burkhart, 57, has occupied the role at Tippecanoe Valley High School and, admittedly, enjoyed it very much.
When the current school year ends, Burkhart will step away from the position, capping nearly a quarter-century in the TVHS Athletic Department and 35 years overall in education.
Gina Hierlmeier was approved on April 16 to be Valley’s next athletic director.
“I’ll be honest, being an athletic director was not really on my radar coming out of college,” said Burkhart, who graduated from Huntington North High School in 1979 and University of St. Francis (Fort Wayne) in 1983.
“It was not a career ambition for me. I wanted to teach and coach. All the way through my years as athletic director here, I still taught two classes. Between economics, psychology and sociology I always taught two classes each semester. I enjoy being with the kids.
“Athletic administration wasn’t a goal of mine, to tell you the truth. Bob DuBois, who was the first athletic director here, decided to get out in 1995. When the position opened up, the administration came to me and asked if it was something I’d like to do. I thought it over, and I talked to Bob, and he said ‘you know, if you pass on it now you don’t know when it’s going to open up again.’”
Burkhart, who has also coached track and field, baseball, girls basketball and been an assistant football coach at Valley, took DuBois’ advice and gave it a shot.
Along the way, he’s made quite a few friends ... and memories.
“It’s all been good. I’ve made a lot of great associations, met a lot of great people, coached a lot of good kids,” said Burkhart.
“The fun part for me now is ... the kids that are in high school now, I had their parents either in the classroom, or I coached their parents. In my psychology class there’s 19 kids, and I asked them how many of their parents were former students of ours, and I think 14 of the 19 raised their hands. That was kind of cool.”
Burkhart has made a number of friends while wearing a number of different hats at Valley, but his relationship with Scott Bibler stands out.
Burkhart and Bibler, who was killed in a plane crash in Oct. of 2015 while travelling to a Notre Dame football game at Clemson University, were best friends.
Burkhart was the athletic director ... Bibler was the football coach.
They played golf together. They went to social events together.
When the plane crash took Bibler’s life, along with the lives of 1979 state champion football coach Charlie Smith, his son Scott Smith, and former sprint car driver Tony Elliott, it left a huge void.
“With Bibs and the accident that occurred, it was tough,” said Burkhart. “Anyone that knew Scott Bibler, or Charlie Smith and Scott Smith, or Tony Elliott, they had huge impacts on the communities, and they touched so many people’s lives.
“Bibs and I were close. We worked together. We socialized a lot, we played golf quite a bit. That was really tough ... getting phone calls at 11 at night, 1 in the morning, about the accident, and you’re the face of the athletic department so you have to respond ... but it was also my best friend. That was tough.”
There were certainly plenty of good memories in Burkhart’s 35 total years at TVHS.
As the head baseball coach, Burkhart led the Vikings to the sectional title in 1990.
As the head coach of the girls basketball team, the Lady Vikings were 113-42 overall and 59-4 in the Three Rivers Conference.
During Burkhart’s time as athletic director, Valley has had 50 all-state players in various sports, 43 TRC championships and 17 sectional titles.
The girls basketball team was the state runner-up in 2015.
The boys golf team advanced to state in 2000.
There were 12 individuals that made state finals appearances.
Burkhart will take these fond memories with him.
“Those were great times,” said Burkhart. “With the girls basketball team (in 2015), between semistate and state I’d never seen so many tickets sold anywhere in my life. We came back from our meeting for the semistate, and we had a couple thousand tickets, and they were gone within an hour or an hour and a half. There were people lineup down the hallway and outside. That was cool.
“There’s been a lot of special moments. I remember we had a swimmer, Anna Higgins, and she was physically challenged, but she still swam. We had Tyler Akers that played baseball for us, and he only had partial arm. There’s a lot of things in high school sports other than just winning, and there’s a lot of lessons to be learned, from not only the coaches and the community, but the kids. To me, that’s the epitome of high school sports, kids like that participating and doing the best that they can.”
Burkhart is also quite proud of the longevity of his coaches.
He praised the dedication of coaches Bill Patrick, Bibler, Jeff Shriver, Lori Stiffler, Roger Moriarty, Terry Screeton, Rod Hamman, Jack Shambaugh and Scott Smith.
All were in a coaching capacity at Valley for at least 15 years.
He pointed out the dedication of his event workers, many of whom have given of their time for 20-plus years.
Burkhart’s dedication and longevity is also to be commended.
For nearly a quarter-century as Valley’s athletic director he’s been on the go, night in and night out.
Now he’s going to enjoy more time with his wife and sons.
He’s going to golf more.
He’s going to spend time in the Smoky Mountains.
And yes, he’s going to support TVHS, it’s students and the athletic department ... because, well, that’s a big part of his life.
“We’re still going to be at ballgames,” said Burkhart. “I don’t have to go to all the ballgames now, but we’ll still be around and support the Vikings. I’ve been blessed that I have a wife who likes sports, and we’ll still go to games and support Valley and the kids.”
Burkhart and his wife have two sons, both of whom played sports and graduated from Valley.
Britton, a 2004 grad, is a Delta Airlines pilot, while Taylor, who graduated in 2010, is a business teacher and assistant basketball coach at Brownsburg High School.
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092