Dow looking to give back as Socorro’s new athletic director

Socorro’s new athletic director Kirsten Dow is excited about helping her community as she assumes her new job.
Russell Huffman | El Defensor Chieftain

Socorro’s new athletic director Kirsten Dow is a familiar name as a coach who guided local athletes in many sports, and she’s stepping out of retirement to give back to her community.

“I’m just excited to help the community because I have lived here forever and coached forever, and I thought this was a good opportunity to kind of give back to the community,” Dow said.

Dow’s hiring was announced during the regular school board meeting on July 24.

It’s a step away from doing what she loves guiding athletes in swimming, USA soccer, volleyball and city league baseball.

It’s also a running leap into taking over for the departed Jarrod Storey, who left for a position closer to home in Los Lunas as an assistant principal at the middle school.

It’s been almost a month since Storey left, and there’s been a steady pileup of schedules, scheduling conflicts, and more that Dow will need to deal with before she gets a chance to settle into her job.

Socorro’s boys and girls head basketball coaching vacancies are on the front burner and looming large.

“We’re getting started on it. We have a committee formed. We’ve done some interviews, and we’ll be doing some more, and we’ll see what happens from there,” Dow said.

Dow, who has coached varsity swimming for four years said her goals are about establishing better communication and learning the administrative duties of her new job.

“My focus this year is to learn the job well and to support the coaches. In the long term is kind of a greater vision for our coaches to support the kids in becoming leaders in our community,” Dow said.

There’s plenty of pressure for Dow to perform her job at the moment, and it’s all about getting caught up first.

“The biggest issue? Just the time constraint that I got hired so late, and there’s just so much to do that I can just keep going from one thing to the next — to the next — to the next – it has been nonstop,” Dow said. “Doing the middle school schedules, doing the bus trips, going to trainings, going to coaches meetings, going to other meetings, just one thing to the next, but it’s been fun.”

She added, “I’d like for us to make a positive impact in the community as a whole, and I think that the kids can act as agents of change. I’m here to support the kids and the coaches in the community.”

After teaching for 27 years, Dow retired to run an e-commerce business with her husband, Kelly, and the decision to come out of retirement was carefully weighed. Still, the deciding factor for her was giving back.

“The community gives so much to the kids. I’d like the kids to focus also on giving back to the community,” Dow said.

The Dow family includes 2023 graduate Colton Dow and incoming senior Kaden Dow.