Athletic director shot at Fla. high school

PARKLAND — Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School athletic director Chris Hixon was shot Wednesday at the Parkland school, assistant athletic director Marilyn Rule confirmed.

Hixon, 49, was previously South Broward High School’s athletic director before taking over at Douglas, according to his Facebook profile. No details of Hixon’s condition were released Wednesday night.

“Chris is such a great guy,” said Coral Springs High School athletic director Dan Jacob, who is also the school’s wrestling coach, like Hixon is for Douglas. “Chris is probably the nicest guy I have ever met. He would give you the shirt off his back. He does so much. That is terrible that it would happen to anybody. It is so senseless.

“I am crushed. I am totally crushed.”

Among recent athletic accomplishments the school has had under Hixon, the Eagles’ baseball team won a state and national championship in 2016.

Cypress Bay wrestling coach Allen Held was upset Wednesday night. Hixon was Held’s athletic director while he coached the Bulldogs from 2000 to 2012. Hixon’s wife, Debra, heads South Broward High School’s magnet program.

Held called Hixon a “super human being. The kind of person who would do anything for anyone.”

“If you needed something he was the first one there,” Held said. “He would do anything as an athletic director to make your program better and he was a better person than athletic director.”