After 40 years in the education industry and nine years at New Trier, Athletic Director Randy Oberembt will be retiring this June.

“There have been great interscholastic athletics here for a long, long time,” Oberembt said. “The constant level of competitive excellence really hasn’t changed.”

However, Oberembt finds the rate of constant improvement within the athletic program to be remarkable.

“In terms of the performance aspect, our athletes are quite exceptional,” Oberembt said. “Each year they throw a little further, and row a little faster. All that is going to happen, but the pace they do it at is pretty remarkable.”

Oberembt said that students mature in many ways by participating in the athletic program. Student athletes learn long term values and develop their depth of feeling towards teammates and coaches.

“To me, the New Trier student athletes do an exceptional job of taking all the good things about the activity and can reach their fullest potential in every aspect,” Oberembt said.

By being with the same students over the years, their growth can clearly be seen. “You see their talent progress, but the more important part is the growth piece,” Oberembt said.

According to the website, Superintendent Linda Yonke said, “Randy made innumerable contributions to our athletic program during his time at New Trier and is highly respected among both coaches and fellow athletic directors.”

One such contribution was his addition of bass fishing and rowing to the athletic roster.
In 2008, he was a part of the Mission Statement project, which aimed to craft a guiding statement for the athletic program.

The project created student athlete surveys to assess the sport’s practices and coaches.
There have been roughly 4,400 individual student athletes surveyed, with 88,000 questions in total. Over the last two years, the athletic coaches have been breaking down all of the survey responses to establish whether they are meeting this mission statement.

In addition to the Mission Statement project, Oberembt and the New Trier Booster club led the charge for the artificial turf fields at the Northfield campus.

The assistant athletic director Deborah Ofcky said, “There is a lot of time, energy, and effort spent when you’re an athletic administrator, especially here. I’m really excited for him to go off and do things that he enjoys.”

“He has built a very strong legacy, just with the amount of lives that he has touched,” Ofcky continued. “The number of relationships that he’s built is what will always live in people’s minds after he’s gone.”

Oberembt’s positive impact on New Trier staff, students, and community earned him the 2015 Distinguished Service Award from the Illinois High School Association.

As far as retirement plans go, Oberembt said he and his wife will definitely stay in the Chicagoland area. In regards to his new freetime, Oberembt said, “I will probably get to watch more athletics, which I really enjoy.”