Hanover
Sobel, whose first name is pronounced MEE-gan, was confirmed by the board on Tuesday night in the school library. She will begin her duties on June 1 at an annual salary of $94,000 and said she initially didn’t make much of the news last year that Jackson would be retiring.
“Then it sunk in and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, maybe that’s an opportunity I should pursue,’ ” she said by phone after Tuesday’s meeting. “I’ve been at Dartmouth almost 15 years, and the higher up you go in athletic administration, the further removed you are from students. This is a chance to work directly with them and have more of an impact on them.”
Since arriving at Dartmouth in 2003, Sobel has become the athletic department’s senior female administrator and overseen 20 men’s and women’s teams at various times. She’s hired numerous head and assistant coaches and mentored them on a daily basis under athletic directors Josie Harper and Harry Sheehy. She’s also in charge of the DP2 program, which marshals resources such as academic tutoring, nutrition, psychology, athletic medicine and strength and conditioning.
“Right now, the coaches are the go-between for me and the students unless there’s an unusual situation,” said Sobel who, like others in Dartmouth Athletics’ senior leadership team, often handles event and site management for Big Green home games. “In high school, they’re doing it part-time and coming to you after they work at their other job. You don’t have them 10 hours a day, like in college.”
Dartmouth has athletic department workers who handle budgeting, staffing, facilities and scheduling. At Hanover, Sobel will do much of that herself, but the tradeoff for her is the chance to be closer to the action and the teaching that happens on sports fields and buses, in locker rooms and team meetings.
“It’s certainly more prestigious to be in college athletics, but that’s not why I do it,” Sobel said. “I’ve coached at the youth level and I’m on (Hanover’s) Parks and Recreation board, and I really love this community. I can have more of an impact on it at the high school level than anywhere else.
“You get to a point in your career where you ask yourself why you’re doing this. I do it to help kids succeed and become great citizens.”
Hanover High principal Justin Campbell said the open athletic director’s position attracted candidates from a wide range of backgrounds and from throughout New England and beyond. A half-dozen were interviewed, and Campbell said he was struck by Sobel’s experience and ties to the community.
“After spending time with Megan, any concerns I might have had about her not having high school experience were quickly alleviated,” said Campbell, whose school regularly fields state champion-caliber teams. “I think personality-wise, she’s really going to fit in well with our administrative team.”
Sobel played field hockey and softball at Lafayette (Pa.) College and earned a master’s degree from the University of Iowa in 1993. She was an athletic administration intern at Dartmouth in 1995-96 and spent five years in that field at Tulane.
Sobel lives in Hanover with her husband, David, a local veterinarian and the vice chairman of the Dresden School Board. He recused himself from Tuesday’s private-session discussion of his wife’s candidacy and the following, unanimous confirmation vote. The couple has two children in the Hanover schools and two others in college.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.