By Casey O’Brien, Principal Aptos High School
Each year the Aptos High administration chooses one of our certificated staff members to represent AHS and Region 5 (Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara Counties) at the California League of High Schools Educator of the Year celebration. This year Aptos High Athletic Director Mark Dorfman was nominated and on December 2nd he was celebrated at the annual Region 5 Educator of the Year dinner with 12 other esteemed honorees from our region.
Aptos High is proud to nominate Mark Dorfman as our Educator of the Year in 2015. Mark graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in English, and received his J.D. from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. Realizing that he yearned for a profession where he could make a difference every day, he made the shift from law to education. He was a long-term substitute, English teacher, and then landed at AHS in his current position as the Athletic Director.
Mark has been the Athletic Director at AHS for 27 years. Mark Dorfman is as stellar as they come in every way. He is an exemplary teacher, leader, mentor, coach, friend and colleague for so many. Over the past 27 years as the A.D. he has interacted with over 20,000 student-athletes! He has hired and rehired every coach in the AHS program in every sport including such unique sports as Surfing, Dance, and Rugby. He has also been an assistant football coach at Aptos for 25 years. Mark currently presides over roughly 700 athletic events a year with over 55 teams in over 25 sports!
During Mark’s 27-year tenure, our teams have won — a lot! Mark has overseen 192 SCCAL Championships (78% of all AHS championships since 1969), 22 CCS championships (only 2 before he arrived), 1 Nor-Cal championship (Girls Volleyball), 1 CIF State championship (Girls Cross Country), and 2 State Mountain Bike championships. In addition, we’ve won 48 CCS Scholastic Team Championships, and 4 CIF State Scholastic Team Championships for sports teams with sky high average GPAs.
And while his stats show that winning is important, with Mark it has never been the most important thing. Mark’s primary focus is to encourage all students to participate in sports and enjoy the sport. His drive and focus leans firmly towards athletics as enrichment to the overall educational experience; one that is meant to be enjoyed and have students grow from. He has always said and shown statistics that prove that athletics are the best and cheapest intervention for students that money can buy.
Mark was the tireless leader of our all-weather track project. His group privately raised over $200,000.00 for our 1st all-weather track. In addition, he has served as Vice-president of the Aptos Sports Foundation for over 25 years. They have raised over $4 million for Aptos sports, built the Trevin Dilfer Field, renovated the baseball field, installed lights at the pool, resurfaced the track, and started the Freedom Field project.
Mark was the head Track & Field coach for 13 years, during which we won 21 SCCAL championships. When he retired, he was the winningest coach in AHS history. His girls’ dual meet record was 85-1, and they started what became the second-longest dual meet win streak in California history (118 dual meet victories in a row). During that time, his boys team was 80-6.
Mark is always striving to learn more has many certifications and additional degrees to show for it — far too many to list here. Mark works year-round and even takes up to a week off annually — otherwise you can find him on campus pretty much daily working to support Mariner Athletes.
Being a coach and AD has had its dangers: Mark has endured six surgeries over the years (one on each ankle, one for each hip, one lower back, and one neck fusion). This fall he coached from a chair on the football field for part of the season and with all of that he has used very few sick days over the years.
While the athletic program he oversees is and has been tremendously special, a very special year for Mark was last year — his son Ben’s senior year. Mark had the pleasure of witnessing Ben’s success as both the AD and proud parent. Ben was the league MVP in basketball, all-league in volleyball, won two SCCAL championships, two CCS finals, two Nor-Cal berths, the AHS Athlete-of-the-Year, the Sentinel Athlete-of-the-Year award, and he was on the Homecoming Court. (A pretty darn special year for a kid and his proud parents).
Many athletes from recent and the not so recent past readily identify him as the most influential person and role model during their teen years. Students past and present mention his dedication, compassion for all athletes regardless of their on-the-field contribution; his unwavering commitment to the school, team or program, his intellect, his sense of humor, commitment for high achievement in the classroom, and the long, long hours he dedicates to AHS.
Mark pushes credit to others when it is due to him and takes the blame when somebody else stumbles. He is a model leader for both athletes and coaches. He lives and breathes the tenets of the Positive Coaching Alliance in preaching disciplined coaching with heavy emphasis on positive words and reinforcement.
Mark often says that his close relationships with the athletes and coaches have changed his life. Mark often refers to, “The beautiful irony of coaching. We go into coaching to effect positive changes in our athletes’ lives, but the fact is, they change our lives just as much, if not more.”
The staff and faculty and community of Aptos could not be more proud to announce our 2015 Educator of the Year — Mark Dorfman.
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Past AHS recipients include: Stacy Aronovici – Theater Arts teacher • Reggie Roberts – Special Education teacher • Bob Goeckermann — Science Teacher • Peggy Pughe — Social Studies teacher (now Assistant Principal)