Lambert suits Wauconda in athletic director’s role
Athletic directors never rest, and Andy Lambert can empathize.
The new AD on the block has a starter kit at home.
Jake is 2.
Luke is 3 months.
Andy and wife Meagan go through lots of diapers and ...
“Lots of coffee,” Lambert joked.
He didn’t need a caffeine boost Thursday night. Lambert was new-daddy pumped about being approved by Wauconda Unit School District 118 as the high school’s new athletic director. Sharply dressed in a pinstripe suit, Lambert is sharp, period.
He will begin his new gig July 1. Longtime Wauconda AD Jim Van Fleet is retiring in the fall, and Lambert will then take full control in Bulldog Country.
The likable Lambert, 29, is a former offensive lineman for Buffalo Grove. He’s been an assistant athletic at Dundee-Crown High School for the last six years.
A resident of Lake in the Hills, he grew up in Arlington Heights and was a multiple-sport athlete at Buffalo Grove. The 2002 graduate played football for four years, competed wrestling for three and baseball and track for one each.
He then attended Harper College for two years before transferring to Western Illinois, where he earned his degree in physical education. Almost immediately after graduating, D-C zapped him up and he became a department chair for PE/health/driver’s ed.
“I got into a leadership role at D-C and kind of got my bearings in administration there,” Lambert said. “Always being involved in sports — I coached football, wrestling and track at D-C for a number of years — I really saw the administrative side as an avenue that I wanted to go down.”
So he earned his administrative degree from Concordia University and stepped into the assistant AD role at D-C. In his new position in Carpentersville, he helped get students interested in playing sports, worked with coaches in developing a mission and philosophy and had a voice in the selection of new coaches.
He was in on the hiring of former Mundelein assistant Sarah Miller, who last week was named D-C’s new girls basketball coach.
Lambert enjoyed his new career path so much that he sought out what AD jobs were available.
Wauconda, specifically, appealed to him.
Wife Meagan taught first grade in the district for four years, before deciding to focus on being a full-time mom to Jake and then Luke.
Meagan didn’t have a bad thing to say to her husband about Wauconda’s school district.
“The community was really what drew me, because I know it’s close-knit,” Lambert said. “They really value education. They value their teachers. They value the athletics and extracurricular activities. I know there are a number of positions open all over the place, and I didn’t apply. I applied here. I was really impressed with how (the school district) treated my wife when she stepped down to stay at home.
“Those experiences really influenced me to want to work here.”
He’s rarin’ to go.
A Grande, please, forthe hombre grande.
jaguilar@dailyherald.com