Lodewick Ready to Hit the Ground Running as Fox Lane’s AD
By Rob DiAntonio
Adam Lodewick is ready for his first fall season and school year as Fox Lane’s athletic director.
Lodewick, who was named to his new post shortly after the 2018-19 school year concluded, previously was the athletic director at Peekskill for two years. Before that, he served as Hastings’ AD for five years.
“First, and most importantly, is getting to know everybody, being patient and not trying to do too many things too fast,” Lodewick said when asked what he took from his past experiences at Hastings and Peekskill. “Observing and listening are two of the most important things. Listen to what the community wants, what the coaches want, but most importantly what the players and students want. You always put students first and if it’s something we can do, then we try to do it.”
Prior to becoming the AD at Hastings, Lodewick was a physical education teacher at Yorktown, his alma mater, for nine years. He also served as an assistant coach for the Yorktown varsity boys’ lacrosse team from 2003-2012 and was a modified and JV volleyball coach.
Fox Lane’s athletic facilities are some of the best one can find in Section 1. The Foxes also partner with LocalLive TV, which allows fans to watch their games from the comfort of their own home.
“It’s such a great district and there’s already so many great things that have been put in place,” Lodewick said when asked what his short-term and long-term goals are. “Like I said, I just want to be patient and not do something too fast. But, again, short-term goals would be getting to know the stakeholders and building those relationships. Getting to know the students as quickly as possible. That’s kind of the most important thing — building those relationships. And a long-term goal is trying to take Fox Lane to the next level: improving facilities, improving programs and building participation numbers. We want to get kids excited and get the community excited.”
It’s an easy selling point to coaches and students when they walk onto the Fox Lane campus and see the athletic facilities.
“It certainly helps when a student can see that the district is investing in the programs and trying to make the facilities the best that they can be,” Lodewick said. “I think that’s going to attract any athlete or any person to say, ‘Oh, wow, look at this. It’s beautiful. I want to be able to play on that turf. I want to play on those tennis courts. I want to play on that baseball or softball field.’ We just redid the gym floors. Certainly, coaches look at that and say that’s a place that I can kind of build a program because you don’t have some of the obstacles that maybe other districts have that aren’t fortunate enough to have turf fields. But the most important thing is doing it for the kids and showing them we’re invested.”
Lodewick said there aren’t any immediate plans for changes to the facilities, but he mentioned a second turf field as a possibility down the line.
“With the size of our school and the amount of use our fields get, I think at this point, especially with weather that is always changing come the spring with the rain and stuff like that, if we were able to get a second turf field I think every AD would love that,” he said. “But that’s something way down the line. If it’s something that would be able to be done, I think that would be great for our students and our programs. It’s a beautiful place and if we can just kind of build on it and continue to make it better, that’s a plus.”
The Fox Lane community welcomed Lodewick with open arms. He said that “everybody has been great and couldn’t be nicer.”
As a result, it didn’t take him long to get settled in as he started working on plans for the 2019-20 school year. “They’re excited for what the future holds,” Lodewick said. “They’re passionate about their sports. Any way that they can help, they’ve offered. The kids have been great, along with teachers and staff. Coming into a new place and starting in the summer, it feels like home in a very short time.”
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