Windsor
“I’ve got a pile of them,” is the way Hingston puts it.
And he’s about to get another one.
He hasn’t had to put an addition on his house, but one room is particularly cluttered. That’s as a result of his 16 years at the Yellowjackets’ athletic director and his association with other organizations dealing with primarily Vermont athletics.
Hingston’s latest award will come from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. He will receive the group’s State Award of Merit during a ceremony on Monday (Sept. 16) in Randolph.
Hingston, who retired from Windsor High School in 2015, can be found these days doing a variety of functions at the John P. Larkin Golf Course in Windsor. He still maintains a connection to high school athletics as executive secretary of the Vermont Interscholastic Football League, and he also works with the Vermont Principals Association and the Vermont State Athletic Directors Association.
The NIAAA is an huge organization and recognizes just one member from each state each year.
“Anytime your peers recognize you, it is something special,” said Hingston.
This will be the third time he has won the award, having been honored previously in 2005 and 2009.
In addition, five times he was selected as the Vermont athletic director of the year. He is also a recent selectee to the VPA Hall of Fame.
While Hingston has been honored many times, he thinks this award he is about to get is pretty special because he was chosen by other athletic directors.
The NIAAA is located in Indianapolis and consists of 10,000 members in 50 states. On its website, the NIAAA states that it is a “professional organization for interscholastic athletic administrators.”
It goes on to say that “it provides opportunity for professional development, education, certification, benefits of service, products, recognition, the exchange of ideas and promotion of the profession.”
“I’m really honored to get this award,” said Hingston. “This doesn’t get too old. I’m humbled.”
Hingston’s road to all these awards started in Charlestown, where he grew up.
He got serious about sports early in life and, while he was a student at Fall Mountain Regional High School, he covered sporting events for the Eagle Times newspaper in Claremont. Hingston played a variety of sports at Fall Mountain, mostly in a reserve role, but he paid attention and took what he observed to Springfield College.
After graduating, he spent several years selling sports equipment to high schools before being selected to the AD position at Windsor. He is married to Candy Hingston, also a Fall Mountain graduate, and they have two grown children, Ryan and Kelsey.
Ryan was a three-sport standout athlete at Windsor, also went to Springfield College and is also a member of the VPA Hall of Fame, where he was selected for the honor before his father was recognized.