The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) will award NFHS Citations to eight high school athletic directors December 12 in Nashville, Tennessee, during luncheon festivities at the 53rd annual National Athletic Directors Conference sponsored jointly by the NFHS and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA).
Among those to be honored is Kris Welch, an assistant executive director for the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) and former athletic director at Roosevelt and Century high schools.
NFHS Citations are presented annually to outstanding athletic directors in recognition of contributions to interscholastic athletics at the local, state and national levels. State associations nominate athletic directors for NFHS Citations, and the NFHS Board of Directors approves recipients.
In nearly 30 years of experience in athletics, Welch has shown dedication to student-athletes, whether as a coach, official, athletic director, board member, mentor, educator or volunteer.
At the OSAA since 2016, Welch oversees the sports of football, wrestling and baseball, as well as solo music. He also is the association’s liaison to the Oregon Athletic Officials Association.
Welch spent his first seven years in education as a math teacher and assistant coach of football, basketball and baseball at Central Catholic High School in Portland. His first athletic director was at Roosevelt High School, where he also coached football, softball and baseball. In 2004, he became athletic director at Century High School in Hillsboro.
Some of his achievements at Century High School include starting the “True Jaguar” Award and a scholar-athlete recognition program. Welch also served as the athletic director representative for several conferences, including the Northwest Oregon Conference and Pacific Conference, and was the wrestling, baseball and football chair for the Metro League.
At the state level, Welch is a former executive director of the Oregon Athletic Directors Association (OADA) and was a member of its executive board for 10 years. Prior to joining the OSAA staff, Welch served on numerous OSAA committees, including the Officials’ Fees Committee and Budget Committee. He has also spent nine years as an instructor in the American Sport Education Program and has taught more than 50 classes.
Nationally, Welch has been a member of the NFHS/NIAAA Athletic Directors Conference Advisory Committee. In addition, Welch served a term on the NIAAA Accreditation Committee was Oregon’s representative to the NIAAA Delegate Assembly six times. He has also taken more than 40 NIAAA Leadership Training classes and earned the NIAAA Distinguished Service Award in 2014.
Welch was awarded the Spirit of Century Award in 2006, the Oregon ASA Umpire of the Year Award in 2010 and Distinguished Service Award in 2012. He was named 2014 Athletic Director of the Year in both the 6A classification and overall.
About the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS)
The NFHS, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, is the national leadership organization for high school sports and performing arts activities. Since 1920, the NFHS has led the development of education-based interscholastic sports and performing arts activities that help students succeed in their lives. The NFHS sets direction for the future by building awareness and support, improving the participation experience, establishing consistent standards and rules for competition, and helping those who oversee high school sports and activities. The NFHS writes playing rules for 17 sports for boys and girls at the high school level. Through its 50 member state associations and the District of Columbia, the NFHS reaches more than 19,500 high schools and 12 million participants in high school activity programs, including more than 7.6 million in high school sports. As the recognized national authority on interscholastic activity programs, the NFHS conducts national meetings; sanctions interstate events; offers online publications and services for high school coaches and officials; sponsors professional organizations for high school coaches, officials, speech and debate coaches, and music adjudicators; serves as the national source for interscholastic coach training; and serves as a national information resource of interscholastic athletics and activities. For more information, visit the NFHS website at www.nfhs.org.
MEDIA CONTACTS: Bruce Howard, 317-972-6900
Director of Publications and Communications
National Federation of State High School Associations
Chris Boone, 317-972-6900
Assistant Director of Publications and Communications
National Federation of State High School Associations
Nate Perry, 317-972-6900
Manager of Media Relations
National Federation of State High School Associations
osaatoday@osaa.org
Subscribe
