The Fort Mill School Board has approved the hiring of Bryan Dillon as the next athletic director at Nation Ford High School.
Dillon, a Fort Mill resident, comes to Nation Ford from the Clover School District where he has served as a public information officer for the school district since July 2015. Before then he worked at UNC-Asheville in social media marketing for their athletic department. He has also worked in public relations for the Big South Conference, as well as worked at Winthrop University in their athletic department.
He got his Bachelor’s degree in Sports Administration/Management from Winthrop University. He also has coached girl’s basketball and softball in Dublin, Ohio from 2006 to 2008.
Dillon, 40, will be the fourth athletic director ever for Nation Ford, but the first one hired from outside of the school that wasn’t promoted internally to the position. He said he has always wanted to be an athletic director at a high school.
“I am really excited to lead the Nation Ford athletic program,” he said. “When you look at the staff, the administration and most importantly the student-athletes at Nation Ford, they have great potential. It was a great opportunity to step into a role and provide leadership and work toward common goals.”
Already living in Fort Mill, Dillon applied for the position to be the next athletic director at Nation Ford when the job opened.
“Living in Fort Mill and having my kids go to Fort Mill school, and my wife working in Fort Mill School District, it was a great opportunity for me to look at it and take the chance with it,” he said. “I am grateful for Principal (Chris) Chandler to give me the opportunity to join Nation Ford High School in this role and I look forward to working with them and the staff.”
Dillon takes the place of Dave Johnson who resigned from the position after two years during the third week of August. Head volleyball coach Craig Brown has filled in as interim athletic director since then.
After Dillon gets established at Nation Ford, he said one of the first things he knows he needs to do is hire a head varsity football coach, but he has other goals in mind.
“That is going to be an important task to find the next leader of the Nation Ford football program,” he said. “That will be an important piece. From there leveraging relationships and building relationships, really creating an open atmosphere of communication. An open atmosphere of communication is big for me. That is very important to me. (Also) creating a robust booster club that will allow student athletes to have as many opportunities for fundraising. That is going to be the primary goals.”
The hiring of Dillon was approved Tuesday, Oct. 1 at the Fort Mill School Board meeting. He will start his new job with Nation Ford officially on Monday, Oct. 21.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
