From Coach to Leader: U of A Online Master’s Graduate Writes New Playbook

Picking up where he left off gives Preston chance to advance his career

He may have hung up his whistle, but David Preston is still in the game. A longtime coach, he sees the court from a new vantage point as athletic director for the Huntsville School District in Northwest Arkansas.

Preston got the nod for his new role about two years ago, bringing more than a decade of coaching and teaching experience. He was simultaneously finishing a Master of Education in educational leadership that he started years earlier at the University of Arkansas.

“I have always been a coach,” he said. “I was in the interview process (for the Huntsville job) and completing my degree at the same time.”

 

Sidelines to Front Office

A native of Smackover, Preston formerly coached both football and basketball and taught all manner of social studies classes over a 16-year span. He knew early on he wanted to get into administration, so he started a master’s degree delivered online by the U of A eight years ago.

But, with just an internship remaining to do to get his graduate degree, Preston left both the degree program and his job at Smackover to take a position as an area director for Fellowship of Christian Athletes in southeast Arkansas. He was away from the Smackover district for four years and then another year operating a family business that provided mental health therapy services for schools.

The Smackover district called him back and he stayed for two more years, but he knew it was time to finish that degree. When an administrative job opportunity came about, he would be ready.

 

Not Just Affinity for U of A

Preston saw some of his friends in education were getting degrees online, and he knew a graduate degree would help him, too. He looked at quality and program focus before choosing the U of A.

Growing up, he lived closer to LSU than the U of A, but he had always wanted to be a Razorback. After high school, he started in Fayetteville as a freshman before transferring to Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, where he completed a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology with a minor in history.

“As I talked with friends who were doing other schools’ online programs, I realized how much more involved U of A was than what others were doing,” he said.

 

Real-World Impact of Lessons

While these other programs seemed centered on writing papers throughout a course, he said, the U of A educational leadership program was built on a foundation of discussion with faculty and other students, who were mostly professionals working in the education field. The program emphasized learning from each other through discussion and class activities, Preston said.

“I fully believe that has worked to my advantage,” he said. “Now that I am through with the degree, I have found our discussions very beneficial. If we were just reading a book, we would not have come across some issues that came up because of other students’ experiences.”

He recalled having a perspective about a topic, then hearing about it from a different lens, a different mindset or framework that had not occurred to him. The program made him think, he said.

 

Personal Move with Professional Payoff

Preston’s wife is from Huntsville, which is in the northwest corner of the state.

“When we got married, I dragged her to south Arkansas,” he said. “This job gave us the opportunity to move back to her hometown. We enjoy Northwest Arkansas.”

His family supported him while he studied, too, Preston said. Typically, weekends were for schoolwork, he said, although he tried to do at least a little bit every day among his coaching, which included traveling, and teaching responsibilities. He and his wife had four children who, at the time, were 12 years old, 10 years old and newborn twins.

“They definitely noticed,” he said of the older children. “When I did the work, everything was spread out on the kitchen table. It was hard to avoid. They were able to see how seriously I took it and how much it stressed me out. It helped them to realize, too, it’s not always easy and you have to sacrifice things.

“I didn’t do it the normal way,” Preston continued. “It was later in life. As long as you see what you want to do and are willing to do what it takes, you can be successful.”

 

Calling the Plays

An athletic director performs many of the same tasks as a principal but in relation to the athletic department of a school district.

He can talk the same language as principals, Preston said, and handles duties such as scheduling, budgeting, evaluating personnel, managing facilities, supervising discipline and talking with parents, like principals do.

“I’m in charge of coaches and student-athletes,” Preston said. “I meet with our principals quite often. We talk about things we need from each other. Our work has a lot in common. A lot of it goes hand in hand.”