How Kirkwood High AD Josh Stoeckl is molding new school's athletic department with coaching hires

Josh Stoeckl has accumulated time and experience during his more than 14 years as an educator and coach in Tennessee. The former West Creek volleyball and track and field coach knew his move to administration was nearing, and when construction began on Kirkwood High School, Stoeckl saw his opening.

Kirkwood High principal Jessica Peppard hired Stoeckl in December, having been drawn to his vast coaching experience and his familiarity with athletes in the city for more than a decade. Now Stoeckl gets a chance to mold a new high school athletics department from scratch.

"When you know, you know," Stoeckl said. "I knew it was time for me to make this move. If it were eight or nine years ago, maybe I'm not ready. But I've always known this was going to be in my future."

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A couple of years after arriving in Clarksville from North Carolina, Stoeckl applied for a teaching and coaching position at West Creek in 2010. At the time, West Creek also was a new school.

"I think having been a part of that at West Creek and having some experience in developing a culture for a new school was a feather in my cap when I applied for Kirkwood."

Stoeckl spent his final days at West Creek in November before shifting to a temporary assistant principal role at Northeast that he will hold until the end of the school year. He spends school hours at Northeast and after-hours at Kirkwood's campus, which includes the elementary and middle schools.

"He's an energetic guy," said Kirkwood football coach Chad Watson, who was Stoeckl's first coaching hire in December. "He's passionate about being successful and he wants these athletic programs to be successful. It's great to work for an AD who shares a lot of your same values and goals."

Watson and Stoeckl have talked extensively about creating a Kirkwood mindset that includes heavy emphasis goals for athletes in the classroom as well as on the field of play. Kirkwood will be a part of a seven-team public school 6A region in football next fall with Clarksville, Kenwood, Northeast, Northwest, West Creek and Rossview.

"When you're talking about an AD and a coach, it's important that that relationship is strong," said Watson, who also coached at for two seasons Northeast (2017 and 2018). "I can tell Mr. Stoeckl is going to be a really dependable guy. Already, every time I've reached out he hasn't hesitated to get in touch with me."

Stoeckl has spent the majority of his time since December interviewing coaching candidates for every sport. The school has decided on its basketball coaches but will wait until after the current season to announce them. He's also interviewing candidates for the baseball and soccer positions and will begin interviews for softball and wrestling in the coming weeks.

"We're systematically going through all the sports," Stoeckl said. "But we're also trying to be respectful to the coaches and their seasons. Those athletes deserve to have their coaches focused, and we don't want to be a distraction to what they are trying to achieve."

With a new high school comes new athletic facilities. Watson said the football team will feature Rydell speedflex helmets along with custom Nike uniforms and Stoeckl has helped secure space for practice soccer and football fields as well as a fieldhouse closer to the football stadium. And he modeled the school's track surface after Rockvale High's in Murfreesboro. Rockvale hosted the TSSAA state track and field championships two years ago.

"Josh has been so open and willing to do what it takes for football," Watson said. "You just know that you have someone that has your back in that building. That's huge."

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Reach sports writer George Robinson at grobinson@gannett.com or (931) 245-0747 and on Twitter @Cville_Sports.

This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: How AD Josh Stoeckl is shaping new Kirkwood High athletics department