Colleagues honor Springbrook athletics director

Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008

Colleagues honor Springbrook athletics director

by Dan Greenberg | Staff Writer

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Springbrook Athletics Director Ron Lane, 56, was named the 2007-08 District II-B Athletic Director of the Year last week by the Maryland State Athletic Directors Association.

Lane is the first Springbrook A.D to win the award since district honors were first given in 1988. A visible figure at nearly all Blue Devil sporting events, Lane has become known as ‘‘an inspiration to student-athletes, parents, staff, administration and the entire Springbrook community,” according to the press release announcing the award.

‘‘It’s just so much fun to be here every day, I don’t even look at it as a job,” said Lane. ‘‘I just feel it’s nice to win an award voted on by my peers. They announced it at the basketball games [last Tuesday], even though I didn’t really want them to. You know, I think I get more out of the kids than they get out of me.”

Lane is in his 12th year as the A.D. at Springbrook, after becoming the assistant in 1993. He became a teacher at the school at the age of 40, after years of running a business in downtown Silver Spring.

‘‘When I was 35, I felt 45 or 50,” he said. ‘‘Now that I’m older, I feel younger.”

Lane also completes a triple crown of award winners within the Northeast Consortium. Blake A.D. Butch Hilliard won what was then the Division II award in 1994 and ’97, when he was at Paint Branch. Paint Branch’s current A.D., Jeff Sullivan, won the District II-B award a year ago.

‘‘Jeff would always jokingly tell me, ‘You’re always second, you’re always second, you’re going to get it,’” Lane said. ‘‘I never thought that I’d actually get it. It’s rewarding, but it’s humbling at the same time, and frankly it will make me work harder.”