It had always been a dream of new athletic director Luke Dillon to obtain the position he has now. After only being Central’s athletic director for one year, Tom Lee left after the 2014 school year to become the principal at Northwest High School and in return Dillon entered into the vacant spot.

After reaching out to administration for the job, Dillon was referred to human resources, applied for the job and went through the application process.
“After you apply if you make it through that round then you get to come in and do an interview…and that’s pretty much it,” he said.

Before landing his job, Dillon had worked at Beverage, McMillan, Bryan High School, Davis Middle, Burke High School and even Central as a football coach. His had position shifted from teacher, coach and administrator and even to athletic director before he became athletic director here.

Dillon’s knowledge of the AD position, application, then due process of interviews at the school wasn’t his first time becoming acquainted with Central. “It has always been a dream of mine,” he said. “When I first came here to Omaha when I was student teaching, the first thing I actually did…I went to a Central basketball game.”

“I really loved the diversity here. The student atmosphere, the look of the building, the culture and the tradition…I felt welcomed as a visitor. I always knew I wanted to be a part of Central,” said Dillon.

Since then, that past dream has become a vibrant reality for Dillon. “Central’s different. It’s definitely unique…Central’s special, it’s Central,” he said.

Since the Indiana native’s official “welcome,” Dillon has already began hard pressed at doing his job to be involved and improve the athletic program.
“You never want to stop improving,” he said.

To raise the bar for Central athletics, Dillon noted on focusing on each and every program. “[I’m] making sure I’m going to some of everything,” he said. “I think it’s important that I go to all.”

Even though Dillon is making sure that he visits all games from Junior Varsity to Varsity, that’s only part of the process. To empower other programs, Dillon wants to engage kids before they come to Central.

One example he gave was a suggested possibility to improve the softball program. He described a seminar type camp lead by a college coach for kids going to high school. “Once you get people inside, people fall in love with the school,” he said.

The idea however, is only a really rough draft, but illustrates Dillon’s aspirations for Central sports. “One of my goals is to win an all sports title,” he said. “I have to find a way to provide financial support [and] focus on building partnerships for kids early.”

Besides the importance of his hands on involvement with each sport team, Dillon also acknowledged the importance of academics and the recently enforced academic policy.

The new policy being enforced this year “changes the focus and emphasis on grades” and Dillon explained the need to not only establish that new policy through teachers and coaches alike, but make the academic atmosphere a lively one.
So in room 139, door to the left, one might find Dillon working hard pressed on ideas and actions to better the legacy of Central sports for the future.