Kemmerer High School sports and activities routinely find success each year, with much of it made possible by the behind-the-scenes work of activities director Cody Hartung.

Hartung’s peers recently honored him for his efforts, naming him the Southwest District High School AD of the Year for 2023-24.

“I was pretty surprised — they give that award at the state scheduling meeting of the WIAAA [Wyoming Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association] at a luncheon, where they recognize the recipients of the district awards,” Hartung said. “It means a lot — to be recognized by your peers is a great honor. I appreciate being recognized by those that I work with.”

This is Hartung’s fifth year as AD — he started as the part-time assistant principal/AD at Kemmerer JR/SR High, and worked his way into the AD position. In addition to his AD duties, Hartung is also the principal at New Frontier High School, among other duties.

“This year, I’m also coaching middle school boys’ wrestling, as well as high school wrestling,” he said. “I really enjoy that, as well.”

Asked what he enjoys most about being AD, Hartung said watching the growth of students as they transition from childhood to young adults tops the list.

“The growth I see — and the grit I see — in some of our students is probably the most gratifying aspect of my job,” Hartung explained. “I get the opportunity to see them as middle schoolers, as well, and the growth they exhibit — not just in the skills in their sport, but just as boys and girls that grow into young men and women — I really enjoy that part of being the activities director. Getting to be a part of that, and helping to develop our kids through our programs into good young women and young men is special.”

As for some of the challenges he faces year-to-year, encouraging kids to participate and keeping them engaged in activities is priority one.

“Participation is always a challenge — we’re always working to get kids involved in activities,” Hartung said. “Overall, we have good participation — I’d say we have around 80% of our students doing at least one thing, whether it’s in fall, winter or spring. We’re trying to encourage them to go out for two or more sports or activities — we have great participation in band and choir, as well. We’re just always working to improve our participation rates.”

With another fall sports season in the books — and winter sports just around the corner — Hartung said the programs at KHS continue to make their community proud.

“With our fall sports, we finished with some great highlights,” Hartung said. “Our girls’ swim team placed third as a team, which is huge. All of our fall sports teams earned one of the  WHSAA classifications for scholastic achievement, so that was huge. Going into winter, our numbers for girls’ basketball are higher than they have been in the last few years, so we’re excited about that. We don’t have a ton of upperclassmen for our basketball teams as we’ve had, but they’ll come out and compete. Wrestling should have another good season with the boys, and the girls’ team continues to grow — we’ve added numbers there, and we’re looking forward to that program’s continued success. Boys’ swim is small in numbers, but coach Aimone and coach Willoughby do a great job of getting them going and competing at the 3A level.”