How I Work: Jeff Pietz, Lakeside High School, WA

Athletic Director Jeff Pietz of Lakeside High School recently spoke with us about why he loves VNN, and how it has been benefitting his school and athletic program. As a passionate AD, Jeff gave us insight about his life and priciples, and how he runs his department. 
As told to Erika Arora
Lakeside has always been my home. I grew up around the area, but I started off as a teacher and coach at Seattle Prep School from 1997-2006. In 2002, I became the AD there until I realized I missed where I grew up. I made the decision to move back, and have been a teacher and coach for 10 years, and athletic director for 5.
There are many principles that I honor and standards that I hold my students accountable for. I admire transparency, clear communication, honesty, and respect. Our students pride themselves with great sportsmanship and athleticism of all levels, and we try to involve our community as best as we can.
When it comes to my job, I’m the one in charge of everything on the website. For pictures and photo galleries, I ask parents to volunteer and capture the game. I’m training my coaches to write articles for their own teams, but I write all the major articles for the entire athletics program.
Varsity News Network has been a game changer for Lakeside because we love the layout of the website. We are mostly impressed with the headers you are able to create because they can be personalized with our own athletes. It’s extremely user friendly for parents and those of all skill levels. Appearance of our site meant a great deal because we wanted an exciting way to promote our athletes. VNN has done the job.
I love the customer service. You guys listen and there’s progress. I always get an answer. It has simplified my daily tasks immensely because it makes it a lot easier to get information out to more people. It’s a one-stop shop, and I’ve only just skimmed the surface of what VNN has to offer. I’m excited to take some time and dig deep and explore more.
I have a lot of favorite Lakeside moments, too many to narrow down. We are consistently and proudly sending our teams to State. We love the way our students represent our school.

My favorite athlete would have to be Deion Sanders. He’s pretty brash and confident, but I grew up watching him play and I was impressed that he could play both baseball and football. He’s a phenomenal athlete, and he inspired me greatly.
My advice to other VNN ADs: Don’t be intimidated by all the features. Dive into it, play and practice until you find something that works, then ease into it. I started very basic with VNN but am finding more ways to make it fun. A lot of people are hesitant about change and learning something new, but my thing is that it can seem daunting, but the change is a positive one. VNN takes a lot of pressure off.