When he reports to work each day at Portage High School, Assistant Athletic Director Todd Strom is living his dream. Strom was selected this summer to replace Kelly Bermes, who was promoted to the Athletic Director position.
“An athletic director is something that I’ve always wanted to be,” Strom said. “I didn’t think it would happen this early in my career, but being involved in athletics and giving back to the community where I grew up and where I enjoyed a life of athletics is an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”
Strom’s journey in sports started during his youth in Portage. He participated in Portage Youth Basketball, Portage Little League and Portage Youth Soccer. Strom eventually became a soccer star at PHS before going on to continue his career at Valparaiso University.
“I just had a really great experience here; I had great coaches in high school. All the things that Portage provided made it a really great experience. It developed me as a young man, it prepared me for life and I just wanted to come back and give back to this community because it gave a lot to me.”
After graduating from VU, Strom returned to the Portage Township Schools as a teacher. He spent one year at Aylesworth Elementary and five at the high school. He came back to his alma mater’s soccer pitch for 11 additional seasons- six as an assistant coach and five as the boys varsity soccer coach.
“The most difficult part of taking this job was saying goodbye to the soccer kids, because they didn’t know that I had applied for the job and that I was interviewing for the job,” Strom said. “I tried not to let it be a distraction. I didn’t want them to know they were possibly going to be without a coach.”
Now Strom attends soccer matches to supervise and observe rather than to coach and instruct.
“It’s very difficult to sit on the sideline and not be out there, but I understand my role now,” he said. “The one thing is that losses used to tear me up and I’d lose sleep and I’d be a wreck for two and a half months during soccer season, and now I sleep a little easier at night. No matter what happens, I go home and I’m not stressed out about soccer.”
The sacrifice of parting ways with the soccer squad has been difficult, but the benefits of his new gig outweigh that drawback.
“To not only be an assistant athletic director, but to be it at Portage is an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up,” Strom said.
Strom described the application process as long and stressful. When he knew that the decision was going to happen in the next day or two, he was sitting by his phone all day. Bermes gave him a call and summoned him to PHS.
“I figured it was either going to be really good news or really bad news,” Strom said. “When I came in she told me and we were actually in here for about four hours that day working. We got off right away as soon as I found out.”
Although his main role in athletics is no longer on the field, he stays active and has continued his own athletic career. Strom was training for some races before going down with an injury last year. He would like to eventually finish at least a 50 mile run. Strom also loves to golf, so when he’s not taking in a PHS athletic event he can usually be found on either a local trail or course.
Strom could not be more pleased to be serving in his new role at PHS. He is one of many coaches and teachers that return to their Indian roots after graduating from Portage.
“It really is a dream job, there’s no other way I can put it. It’s everything I would want in a job. The fact that it’s at Portage is icing on the cake.”