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Meet the CVC's newest AD
Full Access Sports had a chance to sit down and chat with Risen about his new position and his vision for Oly athletics: FAS: What attracted you to the AD job at Sprague? RISEN: Sprague was appealing for many reasons. First of all, it’s a great school… a great tradition here academically, athletically, activities-wise; a great community and neighborhood here in this part of Salem. To add to that, the geography of the matter was very convenient. My daughter is a freshman at Western Oregon, and my wife has worked in Corvallis for years, so it has been somewhat a quest of ours to be in this part of the valley. FAS: I am sure you’ve gotten a sense already that this is a very supportive sports community here at Sprague. RISEN: I don’t know of many schools that have a booster club that puts a million dollar turf field in in a year. Our boosters are amazing. They do so many things, and that was another piece of the puzzle for me in selecting Sprague. I really admire the legacy that is here with (football coach) Robin Hill and (wrestling coach) Kary Hadden, and (baseball coach) Brian Champion’s done a great job, and all those coaches that been around here for sometime and have those established programs. Obviously we also have some great young coaches here, the athletic base is here, and there is still a lot of rich athletic tradition still to be had. FAS: What are your immediate priorities here, other than finding all the restrooms and identifying what all your keys are for? RISEN: (Laughing) My immediate priorities are obviously to get the high school through the rest of this year . With Fred’s departure in December and my arrival not until early February, it has provided some dynamic challenges for all those folks I am here to support. First and foremost, I want to make sure all those kids and parents in this community have that support for the remainder of this year. Going forward then, I see Sprague High with a great infrastructure; I see the resources in the neighborhood to enhance that infrastructure, and give our kids and coaches and families absolutely first rate facilities, and first rate programs that come with those facilities, I have an old saying that I believe firmly in which says “the way you do somethings is the way you do all things.” And so I think if we do everything first class , we can not only build on the great traditions of established programs we have in place, but bring along the programs that are the budding ones and developing as we speak.
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40 year old Mark Risen is the new athletic director at Sprague High School. Risen was officially hired as of February 1, coming to Salem from Sheldon High of Eugene. He replaces Fred Romero, who stepped down in December. Risen was AD at Sheldon for the last two years, and before that was at Creswell High outside of Eugene, where he also served as AD and an assistant football coach. He is married and has two children.