Winterhalter named new Lodi High athletic director
Robert Winterhalter has a combined 20 years of coaching experience in the Lodi High track and field and cross-country programs.
When the 2018-19 school year starts toward the end of July, Winterhalter will enter his 15th year teaching English classes at the campus. And he’ll be trading in his coaching clipboard for a new role in the school’s athletic program.
Winterhalter, who is the school’s girls track and field coach and girls cross-country coach, confirmed Friday that he has been named the new Lodi High athletic director.
“That job (was) advertised among Lodi High teachers first,” Lodi High Principal Bob Lofsted said in an email to the NewsSentinel.
Since Winterhalter, who is co-department chair of the English department, is already a full-time employee at the campus, Lofsted said that the promotion does not have to be approved by the Lodi Unified School District’s board of trustees.
“That is standard procedure for the vast majority of comprehensive high schools in our area, and also why positions like this are not advertised outside or district-wide,” Principal Lofsted further stated in the email.
Winterhalter, 37, will take over for interim athletic director Michelle Souza, who is the Lodi High softball coach. Souza, who also teaches physical educational classes at the campus, was appointed the interim AD last October.
Souza’s final day in overseeing the athletic programs is the last day of this school year, which ends June 1. In a story of the March 22 issue of the News-Sentinel, Souza said she submitted her letter of resignation as interim AD to Lofsted before Lodi High faculty and students went on their two-week spring break the middle of last month.
Erin Aitken had been the school’s athletic director from 2009 until last September, when she begun her new role as assistant principal. Prior to becoming the assistant principal and athletic director, Aitken was the school’s varsity girls basketball coach for most of the 2000s.
With his new role in the athletic program, Winterhalter said he would be stepping down from coaching in track and field and cross-country at the end of this school year. Aitken resigned as the girls basketball coach when she was became the athletic director in 2009.
Winterhalter has been coaching in the Flames’ track and field program for the last 14 years, which is the same amount of time he’s been teaching at the campus. He was the Lodi girls cross-country coach for six years.
When the next school year starts in four months, Winterhalter said he is projected to teach English classes
the first three periods of the day. In the early afternoon hours, he’ll have his prep period, which roles into his new duties as athletic director that includes administrative work and overseeing most of the Flames’ home games.
In upcoming months, Winterhalter also plans to meet with all Lodi High coaches on all levels. Part of the discussion will include continuing the success of the school’s student-athletes in the classroom that is most important, along with them striving toward achievements on the fields and courts.
“Lodi is going in a great direction,” Winterhalter said. “I’ve seen what Michelle and Erin have done. We want to emphasis student-athletes doing well in the classrooms. I think I can become an ambassador for students to come out for sports. When people think of high schools, they usually think of sports.”
Winterhalter said he would be meeting with Souza, Stayci Loya-Barnhart, who is the athletic director secretary, and Aitken in upcoming weeks to get his feet wet in running the school’s athletic program that offers a combined 24 athletic teams for boys and girls.
“I don’t pretend that I do know everything,” Winterhalter said. “But I can work with other groups of people and learn quickly. Stayci, Erin and Michelle are all great assets and people I can talk to.”
Winterhalter earned his bachelor’s degree in English at Chico State University. He is a graduate of Woodcreek High of Roseville, where he completed in track and field; he competed in the triple jump and long jump.
Winterhalter and his wife, Kristin, who teaches math at Lodi High, have two children, ages 9 and 6. Robert Winterhalter said both children are very active in track and field on the youth level.