Oakmont High School athletic director Tim Moore was given the 2023 Norm Mackenzie Award for his devotion to the school’s athletic program.

Each year, the Norm Mackenzie Award is given to an athletic director in the state who has done the best in the first three years on the job. Moore took over as the athletic director at Oakmont High in 2021 and has the Vikings’ athletic programs back on track to showing the excellence they showed before the pandemic.

"It was a huge surprise. Obviously, it feels good to be honored because I feel like there's a lot of great ADs out there that deserve it as well,” Moore said. “It is a really good feeling.”

Moore also thanked his predecessor, West Park High’s John Hunter, who he said paved the way for him to be successful as he took over.

“He took us through COVID and did a fantastic job helping us maintain what little we could,” Moore said. “As we came out of COVID and he stepped away, he left me with the opportunities to build the programs back up to where they had been.”

Moore is the former head coach of Oakmont High’s football program from 2009 to 2021 before stepping down to take over athletic director duties. One of his biggest goals is to bring the football team back to success.

While Moore has seen success as an athletic director, he has fought his fair share of battles off the field from being hospitalized with COVID to losing his father to the disease shortly after.

“Coming out of being sick and then my dad getting sick and actually losing him last year, it just hasn't been hasn't been an easy time period in my life,” Moore said. "Working with all the athletes and the coaches at Oakmont and trying to continue to build traditions here is something that I take pride in and it's been good for me personally as well as professionally.”

Moore has challenging waters to navigate in the coming years. While Oakmont High is declining in enrollment, it is also adding new sports with the growth of lacrosse and emergence of girls’ flag football. The Vikings are also in the process of changing leagues as they will join the Pioneer Valley League in 2024.

“Before West Park opened up, we had over 2,100 students and now we're down to about 1,300,” Moore said. “But through the decline, we've had awesome participation and we haven't lost a lot of athletes from other sports in order to start these new programs. We're hoping to continue to increase our number of students that are participating in athletics as we bring in new programs.”

Moore looks to continue his success with Oakmont High as the fall sports season is set to begin in August.
