Sports
Gianino Sets Sights on New Role as Fox AD
Nick Gianino is the new athletic director at Fox High School. After five seasons as head football coach, Gianino has stepped down to take over his new role.
After five seasons at the helm of the Fox High School football program, Nick Gianino has stepped down as the school's head coach to take over as the school's athletic director.
"It was an extremely tough decision to even apply for the athletic director's position at Fox," Gianino said. "I've been very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with the players and the coaches that we have on our team. But I had to look at the athletic director's position at Fox as something that I needed to do in order to advance my in career."
Gianino spent three years as an assistant at Fox before taking over the program in 2006, when the Warriors posted a 1-9 record. The following season Gianino led the Warriors to a record of 8-2 and a Mississippi Area Conference championship.
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But the year that would cement Gianino's mark in Fox football history was the 2008 campaign in which the Warriors were 9-4. Fox also had an undefeated mark in conference play in 2008, and qualified for the Missouri Class 6 state semifinal game, in which they lost to eventual state-champion Hazelwood Central, 31-6.
The Warriors were 9-3 in 2009 as Fox reached the Class 6 quarterfinal game and won the Mississippi Area Conference championship again. Last season was not as kind to Gianino and the Warriors as Fox went 1-9 in its first season in the Suburban West Conference.
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"There's been a lot of time and effort put into the football program at Fox," Gianino said. "I hope and believe that the program is in much better shape than it was when I took over."
When Gianino takes over as the school's athletic director in August, he'll have the tough task of building the Fox athletics program into one of the elite programs in the state. That task may be accomplished by building bridges through supporting the area's youth programs and also getting the student population in sports.
"Some of the programs have done a good job at getting involved with the younger kids, but the main goal is to get students at Fox more involved in the athletics program," Gianino said.
"Our goal is to be stronger in all areas and we've got the numbers up in all of our sports. Like I said before, the main thing is to get kids interested in playing sports at Fox."