Shane Kennedy Returns to Tam Soccer Program

By Fiona Matney

Shane Kennedy, who was previously the Tamalpais High School girls’ varsity soccer coach for 11 years, has returned after a year of retirement to coach the Tam boys’ varsity soccer team.

Rick Fullerton stepped down from the position as coach for the 2022-23 season, leaving the position vacant. According to Kennedy, he began talking to administration about rejoining Tam’s soccer program around the beginning of October, ultimately accepting the position before the start of the new season on Nov. 1.

Although he has coached mainly girls teams in recent years, Kennedy has experience with the Tam boys team. Before 2016, boys’ and girls’ soccer was played during different seasons. Kennedy would help coach the Tam boys alongside Dustin Nygaard during the fall, then return to the girls’ team during the spring.

“He’s a great coach, he knows a lot about the game,” captain Trevor Islam said. “I’m super excited [about this sea- son]. Shane’s the final piece of the puzzle.”

Kennedy said that he received offers to coach for other schools, but ultimately decided to come back to Tam because, “Tam is the best school, man.”

He has been a part of the Tam community for a long time, and said he really enjoys being involved in the school.

“My kids went to school here and I live around the corner,” Kennedy said, “I’m a community guy, that’s why I like coaching at Tam.” ♦

Nathan Johnson, the New Face of Tam Athletics

By Griffin Gustafson

Nathan Johnson, the 26-year-old newly promoted athletic director (AD), has a bright future at Tamalpais High School. Previously teaching Physical Education at Redwood High School and during his college years, Johnson jumped on the opportunity to take on a bigger administrative role at Tam.

Playing football and wrestling for three years in high school, along with a year of golf and basketball, Johnson was a sports junky. There’s no surprise as to why he chose to pursue a career in athletics.

“Originally I was really focused on physical education, thinking of ways to teach teens the importance of physical activity. That was always my main goal,” Johnson said.

In talking about different professions in the athletic industry, Johnson explained, “It wasn’t always a goal of mine to be an athletic director, but it’s a new goal of mine. I am really enjoying it.”

Settling into his new role, Johnson assured that he looks forward to his future being the AD at school.

Comparing his experience so far at Tam to his previous school jobs, Johnson highlighted the strong bond and relationships that he has noticed in all of the teams.

“I think Tam does a really good job of building that sense of community within each of the different programs,” Johnson said.

As winning is not always the top prior- ity at the high school level, Johnson stressed the importance of instilling important lessons and principles in the athletes as they are in such a key part of their development, not only as players, but people as well.

“Sometimes teams can forget about the main purpose of the sport in that it’s not all about the result, but more of overcoming adversity with your team and how you respond to challenges,” Johnson said, “Although I love winning, it’s about building those other skills for out- side of school and these kids’ futures.”

In discussing what makes an excellent athletics department, recruiting quality coaches are among the top of Johnson’s list. “It can be tough because there’s not much pay, so finding people who are really passionate about the job, who really just care about kids and who want to teach some skill development along the way is the most important thing,” Johnson said.

Being a public high school, salaries of these coaches are not very high, making it just that much harder to gather a wide selection of candidates. In saying this, he assured, “Getting high-grade coaches into the program is definitely one of my main goals. This will ultimately uphold the expectations that I have for Tam and its athletics.”

Although it is not fully in his control, Johnson also showed his desire to make changes to try and improve some of the athletic facilities on campus.

The future is bright for Tam with Johnson at the helm of the athletics department. In terms of future goals, Johnson said he hopes to move up the ranks, which means looking at a potential university job and ultimately the end goal being somewhere at the professional sporting level. ♦