Thomas Zehner joined Liberty Central School District as its athletic director on July 1.

Mr. Zehner earned his bachelor’s degree from Sage College of Albany in K-12 physical education, a master’s degree in health, recreation and physical education from Emporia State University and a Certification of Advanced Study in School Leadership from SUNY New Paltz

Before coming to Liberty, Mr. Zehner was an elementary physical education teacher in Beacon City School District since September 2017. While at Beacon he was also the Adapted Physical Education Curriculum coordinator for four years and hosted 10 student teachers at the elementary level as a cooperating teacher for student teachers for six years. He also served as a coach for soccer, basketball, tennis, softball and lacrosse at Beacon.

He said he wants to build upon past successes at Liberty and hopes to increase participation in the Redhawks sports programs.

To do this he said he wants to help support existing youth sports programs in the community, as well as build programs to introduce younger students to sports in the schools, in accordance with the Redhawks Champion Plan introduced last year.

Expanding the Athletes Helping Athletes can be a big part of that, he said.
“Mentoring is great,” Mr. Zehner said, “but if we can get our older athletes to assist more in the elementary and middle schools, we can better build that sense of Redhawk community and Liberty pride.”

He said he could see students helping lead lessons in their sports, or volunteering with sports programs in the community.

“The district as a whole will benefit from promoting the culture of school spirit,” he said.

In his free time, Mr. Zehner, a resident of Wappingers Falls, enjoys golfing, hiking, playing sports and spending time with his family and dog.