Sean Herbert is the district's new athletic director. (Photo courtesy of YS Schools)
Herbert takes athletics helm
- Published: August 28, 2025
For new YS Schools Athletic Director Sean Herbert, sports are about competition, of course — but as he told the News in an interview last week, they’re also about learning balance and how to work collaboratively with others toward a common goal.
With that in mind, Herbert is setting out in his first year to strengthen support for the district’s athletics through feeder programs for young athletes and a new way of bringing the wider community into the stands.
Herbert, who grew up in Huber Heights, has been an educator for more than a decade; he spent the last seven years at Trotwood-Madison, where he taught social studies full time while serving as assistant athletic director for five years. His shift to Yellow Springs marks his “first time out of the classroom in 13 years,” he said.
A longtime athlete himself — he ran track and cross-country in high school and college — Herbert said a beloved middle school teacher and coach, Howard Russ, inspired him to pursue an education career that put him both in the classroom and on the field.
“He was a really, really good middle school history teacher, and a major influence on my life,” Herbert said. “He opened up that passion for me, and I always knew I wanted to be involved in the sports side, too.”
Though he has relished his time at Trotwood-Madison, Herbert said being both a full-time teacher and an assistant athletic director meant a lot of time spent away from his family.
“I have a 9-year-old and a 7-year-old, and my time commitment there was extreme,” he said. “Here, there’s a little bit more flexibility.”
He added that the chance to move into a full-time athletic director role was also a major draw — and as a runner who came to the village for meets in his youth, he was already familiar with some Yellow Springs coaches.
“This gives me the opportunity to actually be an athletic director in my own right,” Herbert said. “And the allure of this place was great, especially as a cross-country and track guy — you’re talking about guys like John Gudgel and Dave Johnston, who are legends.”
Herbert’s first projects in the district are aimed at both strengthening student participation and broadening community involvement. One new initiative is the Athletics VIP Pass, which grants Yellow Springs residents 65 and older free access to home games. Eligible residents are invited to come to the school district’s central office at 888 Dayton St. and pick up a pass; see the announcement at left for more information on the pass.
Local sports matches are mutually beneficial for those playing and those watching from the stands, he said, as young athletes hear their community cheering them on, and those doing the cheering get a unique chance to see what’s going on in the schools.
“If you live in the village and you don’t have anybody in the school, there’s not always a draw to come out and see a soccer, basketball, volleyball game,” he said. “But when you walk into the building, you’re going to walk past the cafeteria, you’ll see artwork up and get an idea of what the kids are up to.”
Another area of emphasis for Herbert is strengthening feeder programs, including continuing the fifth- and sixth-grade recreational basketball program launched last year by Mills Lawn PE teacher Emily Berlo.
And a new feeder program is on the horizon: Herbert said he is also working closely with the district’s soccer coaches to lay the groundwork for a new, co-ed middle school program, which he said is likely to launch next school year. Boys coach Jason Bailey, new to the district this year, and girls coach Sarah Wallis, both of whom also head up the village’s rec soccer program, are involved in the planning.
“We’d really like to see this [middle school program] happen,” Herbert said. “I don’t know if we can get it started this year. We have to find out the interest level — can we get enough kids out?”
Timing is another challenge, he said. By this time in the year, many students have already committed to club soccer, and Ohio High School Athletic Association rules prohibit young athletes from playing for school teams and club teams simultaneously.
“After Sept. 1, students would have to stop playing for a club,” he said, adding that families will likely already have committed financially to club soccer at this point.
For now, Herbert said, the district is focusing on building awareness for the up-and-coming co-ed soccer program at McKinney and laying groundwork. The hope, he said, is that a middle school soccer program not only will strengthen the program as a whole, but also might persuade young athletes and their families to go all-in on school sports.
“Next year, as we lead into the winter, we’ll be proactive in saying, ‘We’ve got a team. We’ve got a really good coach. Maybe consider this instead of signing up for club next year,’” he said.
Herbert is also looking ahead to the fall sports calendar, where construction at the East Enon Road campus has reduced the number of home games scheduled for the soccer team. That makes the soccer home opener on Saturday, Sept. 6 — a three-game slate featuring the varsity girls, JV boys and varsity boys — all the more significant.
Fewer home games means more travel for the Bulldogs this season, but Herbert said the district aims to make each home contest count.
“We’re going to try to make a bigger event out of each home game, so that especially our seniors have a bit more of a memorable year,” he said.
As he looks ahead, Herbert said his broader vision for athletics in Yellow Springs is rooted in drawing more students into the district’s varied athletic program options: soccer, track, volleyball, basketball, bowling, tennis, baseball, softball, cross-country. His goal, he said, is for as many Yellow Springs Schools students as possible to draw from the rich lessons he believes athletics can offer: collective pride in one’s school and one’s team, and learning to work together toward a common goal.
“Even in a sport like cross-country, which is wildly individual, it should always be about how the team as a whole can be successful,” he said. “Every athlete should be proud of individual milestones, but ultimately, athletics is about ‘us,’ not ‘me.’”
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