Jarrod Storey has found his dream job.

And that should be good news for the Socorro High School athletic department.

Storey, 28, has been brought on as the Warriors full time athletic director/information director.

A 2012 graduate of Valencia High School, he earned a bache­lor’s degree in elementary educa­tion from the University of New Mexico, then used the online classes at Eastern New Mexico to complete a master’s in sports administration.

While in high school, he played football, basketball and baseball, earning second-team all-district honors in hoops dur­ing his senior season.

“I was more of a role player,” Storey said.

He’s been teaching the last six years at Valencia Middle School and the last two has been the head football coach and baseball coach for the school. Storey is also a sports official, work­ing college football games for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and high school basketball games for the New Mexico Activities Association.

Jarrod Storey has been hired as
the new Socorro athletic director.
Courtesy photo

Career path

The son of two educators and coaches, Storey said he’s head­ing down a career path that has intrigued him since he was young.

“I have a leadership personal­ity is what I like to call it,” he said. “I like to do things in a leadership role. I took on that role as a player. And in my officiating and all that stuff. Once I got into teaching, I realized my dream job is to be an athletic director, so I worked on getting my degree in sports administration.”

Being a sports official began to take on more importance for him as he moved up the ranks so he was looking for something that would be more compatible beyond coaching.

“My officiating takes prece­dence over being a head coach,” he said. “And to be an athletic director, my leadership and my enthusiasm fits right in with being an athletic director.”

When he saw the opening in Socorro, “I jumped on that,” Storey said. “The big thing, I’ve seen the impact an athletic direc­tor can have.

“Wilson Holland (longtime athletic director for Los Lunas Public Schools) was a big influ­ence on me. He has had an impact on the whole district and each individual student and coach in the district and I want to make that impact with each of the ath­letes and the coaches.”

Storey’s first official day is July 1, but since that is a Friday, and with July 4 falling on a Monday, his first day in office will be July 5.

And he said he feels honored to be coming into an athletic depart­ment blessed with the type of suc­cess and support present in Socorro.

“There are some great coaches in place,” he said. “I’m real familiar with coach (Damien) Ocampo and coach (J.J.) Griego from football and boys basketball. I’m looking forward to working with all of the coaches and find­ing out what they need. I know budgets are tight all across the state since COVID, but I want to make sure I get the coaches what they need within the confines of what I’m able to do to get those coaches the equipment they need to help them get their athletes to be more successful.”

Good sense

Socorro superintendent Ron Hendrix said bringing in Storey made good sense, despite his relative youth.

“The fact that he has experi­ence doing (officiating) at all levels, and he’s been in our com­munity being an (official) for sev­eral years was a factor,” he said. “He had a really good interview. I was really impressed. I think the fact that he knows our commu­nity and being in our community made a big difference.”

It helps that Hendrix knows Storey and his family.

“I knew Jarrod when he was kid,” he said. “His parents are real big into sports. I know the work ethic that they taught him and that came across real strongly in his interview, as well.”

Storey said he expects to use his first week in office to get settled in, then will start meeting with the coaches the following week.

“I want to get to know them and find out what they expect from the athletic director,” he said. “And how they need help and what they want from me and give them my expectations in having good student athletes who are successful in the field and on the court and in the classroom.”

Storey also will be in charge of the school’s social media account, listing not only sports information, but posting about all the school’s activities and events.

“Which is pretty nice to get all your information from one place,” he said. “A one-stop shop for Socorro information.”

This story originally stated the wrong name for Storey’s last name and has been updated with the correct last name. 

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