Sienna van Alphen has been appointed to be the next Athletic Director at Dos Pueblos High School, effective July 1 of this year. DPHS Principal Bill Woodard sent out the announcement on Wednesday via StudentSquare, along with the news of Dan Feldhaus stepping down from the position. The hiring of van Alphen will also make her the first female Athletic Director in DPHS history.
“I am confident that the future of DP Athletics is in great hands under Sienna van Alphen,” Feldhaus said in the StudentSquare announcement. “She knows our school and is deeply committed to our student athletes and coaches.”
The Athletic Director oversees all of DPHS’s athletic programs and manages the logistics of sports events. In response to the news of being selected for this position, van Alphen said she felt “grateful” and “honored.”
“I was very happily emotional,” van Alphen said. “I’ve put a lot of work and time into not just our athletics department here but our activities and student happiness. I want our students to feel happy to be on campus … and to want to be a part of things on campus. So, it felt really good to be acknowledged and receive a position that will let me continue working towards that goal.”
One goal that van Alphen said she has as the next Athletic Director is to be a part of changing the fact that sports are male-dominated and provide “hope” for women and girls in sports.
Currently working in the DPHS Athletic Office, van Alphen assists Feldhaus, Assistant Principal Ian Perry, and Activities Director Scott Guttentag. She said that this work has helped her become more organized as she prepares for her new position.
“I’m able to do this because I’m super organized,” van Alphen said. “There’s so many moving parts, so because of that, I feel like I’ve got a lot of sense of how to manage moving parts and keep them from going crazy.”
According to van Alphen, Debbie Dulawan Boe, the former athletics assistant, guided van Alphen to where she is today and helped her get a “sense of what to do and how to do it.” Feldhaus is another person that van Alphen mentioned as a helpful mentor, as he made her “see things differently” and has been “supportive.”
