After 30 years, Rim A.D. Ochs to retire

Rim of the World High School's Dave Ochs, thought to be the longest-tenured athletic director in the county, will retire in June, Ochs told the Prep-dog today.

He has been the Fighting Scots A.D. since 1979, a 30-year stint.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Ochs said by telephone from his home in
Lake Arrowhead. “We’ve had two major fires (since 2003) and multiple
snowstorms and floods, so, yeah, I’m looking forward to it.”

Ochs, 61, shepherded the Fighting Scots through those many crises,
including the Old Fire in 2003 which drew national attention,
including close-ups on CNN of Rim of the World High
School, with flames licking the edge of nearby roads. Also devastating was the Grass Valley Fire this past fall, which kept Rim students out of school for three weeks.

Both natural disasters displaced 100s of Rim students and wreaked havoc on the scheduling of athletic events, a particular headache for Ochs. .

During the '03 fire, Ochs ran the athletic department out of his RV while holed-up
somewhere in Redlands.

“All I had was my cell phone and a CIF directory,” he said with a
chuckle.

Somehow, Ochs and Rim always made it through.

“He’s going to be greatly missed,” Rim girls volleyball coach Linda
Pattison said. “He has mentored me since I got here. He was always
supportive if I came in after a bad game or if we were having a bad
season. His door was always open and he always had time for you. He
gave a lot of integrity to all of the programs at Rim.”

Ochs is a graduate of Honolulu Radford High School and
UC-Riverside. He played baseball and football in high school and
college and was captain of the UC-Riverside football team.

Ochs lists his career highlight as being 1976 when the coach Ben Stint-led
Fighting Scots with Bob Gradillas at quarterback edged Bishop Union
for the CIF-SS small-schools title. Ochs was an assistant coach.

Gradillas is now the Scots’
football coach and was previously the Rim baseball coach as well,
with Ochs as his assistant.

Memorable also for Ochs were Rim of the World’s state Division II
volleyball championships in 1981, ‘82 and ‘83 and its most recent
state volleyball title in 2005.

Through it all, Ochs has stuck to a simple philosophy.

“My motto has been not to try to please everyone, but to do what is
best for not only Rim kids, but all the kids who might be involved by
any decision I make,” he said.

A particular pleasure for Ochs was to see his son Dustin and daughter Denise go through Rim. Dustin played football in high school and at Iowa State. Denise played volleyball at Rim and Cal State Dominguez.

(A more expanded version of this story will appear in Friday's Sun newspaper. Following our interview Thursday, Ochs called the Prep-dog again to offer a final bit of wisdom. I'm paraphrasing now, but Ochs said he didn't consider the grand accomplishments like CIF and state titles to be most important, but rather making sure the little details of the job were done correctly. He also said how much he will miss his peers after his retirement in June, especially his fellow area athletic directors).