ACPS Appoints New Student Activities Director

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- Alexandria City Public Schools has appointed Mark Eisenhour as its new director of Student Activities replacing longtime director Steve Colantuoni, who announced earlier this year his departure for the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference, where he'll serve as commissioner. Colantuoni was at ACPS for 30 years.

Eisenhour has been a student, parent, coach, teacher and administrator with ACPS, working in various roles for the past 25 years. He graduated from T.C. Williams in 1986 and was a dean and the assistant principal at Minnie Howard campus before helping to plan the International Academy at T.C. Williams and becoming academic principal of the Pathways to Graduation program.

Eisenhour comes to the job at a time when parents, students, former students and others are still reeling from the abrupt firing of T.C. Williams High School varsity basketball coach Bryan Hill. Hill was shown the door after an ACPS school board member reportedly used his influence with Colantuoni, T.C. Williams Principal Jesse Dingle, who recently announced he'll be leaving his post at the end of the school year, and Superintendent Alvin Crawley. Hill was reportedly let go from his position after giving a student a ride home and attending a basketball practice on a Sunday.

Team members, former students and parents have stood up to support the coach at an ACPS school board meeting as well as at a City Council meeting, but their concerns appear to be going ignored by anyone in authority who could reverse the situation.

The firing has left people who have known and worked directly with the coach scratching their heads.

"I have known Mr. Hill for more than 30 years," wrote Red Jenkins last week in the Washington Post. Jenkins was basketball coach at W.T. Woodson High School from 1962-1997. "He played for me in high school, coached with me and has been a winner in two previous head coaching positions. Given time, he would have done the same at T.C. Williams. The superintendent or the school board should overrule the principal and give Mr. Hill his coaching job back instead of bending to pressure from one parent who, at the very least, should be reprimanded by his colleagues on the board."

T.C. Williams graduate Jacob Katz, a second-year University of Virginia student, wrote to Colantuoni and Dingle in support of Hill, stating: "An athletics department is seldom fortunate enough to have a coach, and a man, like Bryan Hill at it's disposal. I could go on and on about how he won coach of the year and turned a team with 4 wins the year before into the best team in the district in just his first season, but honestly that is not what is most important here. What is important is what Coach Hill and the rest of his staff demanded of his players. He showed everyone that there is a certain way an adult should behave and that includes taking responsibility, working hard at everything you do, showing respect and much more. Not enough coaches ask this of their players and in my opinion this is why many of the TC sports underperform despite having a student body three times larger than anywhere else."

Before leaving T.C. Williams, Colantuoni reportedly issued two waivers allowing students with GPAs of less than 2.0 to play on the basketball team, whereas Hill had required players to have at least a 3.0 GPA. T.C.’s former freshman boys basketball coach Walt Coleman is the new head varsity coach.

Meanwhile, in his new job, Eisenhour will oversee all extracurricular activities as well as athletic teams, training and competitive games at T.C. Williams King Street and Minnie Howard campuses and the middle schools. He will pay particular attention to connecting students to the academic curriculum through engagement in extracurricular activities.

"We want to welcome Mr. Eisenhour to this role," said Superintendent Crawley. "He has spent 25 years working in various capacities for ACPS and we know he will bring his commitment as well as his deep institutional knowledge to this position. Our community has a long history of athletic success and extracurricular opportunities for students. We are confident that with this appointment we can continue this tradition, as well as focusing on helping every student succeed academically."

In 2014, Eisenhour helped establish the Athletic Hall of Fame as a founding member and chair of the selection committee and in 2015 brought back the coaches from the 1971 State Championship football team, Herman Boone and Bill Yoast, to be honored. This year, the Hall of Fame intends to honor retired track coach and former Director of Student Activities A.K. Johnson. In his spare time, Eisenhour has coached crew for T.C. Williams and is a football and baseball announcer.

"Anybody who has been to a school tour or Back-to-School night will have heard me introduce myself as Assistant Principal, Class of ’86 and Titan for life," said Eisenhour. "I have been connected to T.C. Williams all my life and am highly vested in the success of its students and connecting them to their school. I want to give students a reason to love school and have a sense of school pride so that in the longer term this has an impact on academics. Helping students make positive, productive connections to school will be a hallmark of my approach."

Much of Eisenhour’s work will revolve around goal 5 of the ACPS 2020 Strategic Plan – Health and Wellness – that ensures that every student succeeds, according to ACPS.

"I am committed to making sure that the interests of our students and families are our top priority," said Eisenhour. "My goal is to ensure that all students get what opportunities are available to them and are able to seize them and grow from them. I have always been passionate about ACPS and the education we offer here. I want to instill that passion in all the students at T.C. Williams."

Eisenhour will start his new position in December.

PHOTO: Mark Eisenhour photo courtesy of ACPS