Helping others spanning 30 years within Vancouver Public Schools as a teacher, coach and administrator is why Mick Hoffman is eager to take on his next challenge statewide.
“It really gives me a chance to expand what we’ve done in Vancouver on a larger scale,” he said, “and to have an even bigger impact. At the end of the day, when we’re all done with what we do, all you can hope for is that people appreciate what you did for them even if they don’t know you did it.
“I’d love to have that opportunity to help create programs and environments to allow others to do the same thing.”
Hoffman, currently VPS’ assistant superintendent and chief operations officer, is taking a piece of Southwest Washington with him when he departs this summer to become the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s new executive director. The association made the announcement Monday at its Winter Coalition meeting in Renton.
Hoffman’s entire educational tenure has been with Vancouver Public Schools, starting in 1989 as an assistant basketball coach at Hudson’s Bay. He also taught and coached basketball and golf at Fort Vancouver before moving to administration in 2001 . He moved onto the district level in 2008. He’s held his current role of assistant superintendent and chief operations officer since 2016.
Hoffman, 49, replaces Mike Colbrese, who retires as the WIAA’s outgoing executive director at the end of this school year. Hoffman said his WIAA start date isn’t finalized, but it is expected to begin this summer.
But Hoffman already is looking into the future of what impact he can make as the association’s fifth executive director. While speaking Monday with The Columbian, not only does Hoffman want to continue the association’s strong work under Colbrese’s leadership that’s received national recognition for sudden cardiac awareness and concussion management, but also finding new ways to enhance revenues to sustain programs. He also wants to boost student involvement in all extracurricular activities.
“We want to take care of the traditional athletes,” Hoffman said, “and we want to take care of the elite athletes. “I’m a huge fan of the underdog. I want kids out there that maybe never thought about doing an art or thought about doing a sport and taking a look at offerings and either expanding them and/or changing them.”
Hoffman also spoke of a better networking tools among member schools, developing resources centers for schools and expanding on the WIAA’s student leadership committee coinciding with the state coaches’ associations.
Hoffman’s prior experience within the WIAA includes an Executive Board member, a classification and transfer committee member in addition to a District 4 board member for 10 years.
Over the course of his career, Hoffman highlighted individuals who helped him along the way.
Now, he wants to give back on a state level just like he has for 30 years in Vancouver.
“I’d love to have an opportunity to help create programs and environments to allow others to do the same thing,” he said.
