Herndon High's Mike Mahoney to Retire

Herndon High School Director of Student Activities and Athletic Director Mike Mahoney has decided to wrap it all up and enjoy retirement beginning late July, after working for the Fairfax County Public School system for more than three decades as a teacher, coach and administrator. 

Though Mahoney has spent the last six years of his career as the school’s director of student activities, he began his adventure at Herndon coaching track and field and cross-country in 1981. During his 25 years of coaching, he helmed a combined 50 seasons and gained more than 100 wins each for boys and girls cross-country. Mahoney racked up 13 district championships, two regional titles and the only girl’s State Championship in Herndon history, with the varsity cross-county team in 2003. The stellar coach also garnered more than half a dozen awards including The Washington Post’s All-Met Cross-Country Coach of the Year in 2003.

He somehow found time to also serve on several committees and was the director of the Northern Region One-Act Play Competition from 2001-2007. With all of his accolades, he has thousands of great highlights to pick from as favorites.

“As a coach, some of my favorite memories are when we had a six-year streak when boys cross-country team won districts six consecutive years in the '80s,” Mahoney said. “We placed in the top three in states, I believe three times. Towards the end of the 80s the girls’ team got really strong and we actually were able to capture the first regional title and the first state title back in 2003 for any girls sport. “

However, some of his proudest memories occurred while coaching two of his three children, Tara and Rylan, at Herndon.

“I think that if you ask my kids, they kind of enjoyed being with their dad and coming to high school with their dad,” he said. “Some kids might hesitate going to school where their mom or dad works, but it worked out great for us and we got to see each other quite a bit.”

The proud father originally taught elementary school for four years. And just two years into his young career, Mahoney strived to get into coaching and ironically initiated his job search at Herndon’s archrival school and if not for good timing, might have been a Seahawk for the last 30 years.

“I lived over in Reston and first went to South Lakes on three occasions to try and get a coaching job and their athletic director happened to be out of the building all three times I went over there,” he said. “I finally asked the secretary ‘Can you just tell me where the next closest high school is?’ And she said. ‘Herndon High.’ She gave me directions, I drove over there and right away I met the principal and he introduced me to the track coach and I was hired pretty much on the spot.”

After two years of coaching, he added the role of physical education teacher into the mix in '83 and continued teaching for 22 years. In 1998, Mahoney decided to switch things up and move to the administrative side of the school when hired him as the assistant director of student activities, hoping to one-day advance even further.

“Once I became an assistant, I did decide that I wanted to finish up my master's in administration,” he said. “I did put that down as a goal of mine to become a full-time athletic administrator. My number one choice was to do it here at Herndon.”

Sure enough, after seven years of hard work and dedication Mahoney became the Herndon High director of student activities, which also carries the position as the school’s athletic director.

“For most people outside the school system, they see us as an athletic director, which is what we do a lot of, but in Fairfax County the title is director of student activities because it involves things like clubs, SGA, and custodial staff,” he said. “There’s a lot more to it than what many people envision what an athletic director does, and that’s why it’s a 12-moth position at the administrative scale.”

Hosting just one home game for any sport is a gigantic task in itself, but Herndon has more than 200 home games per year. The soon to be full-time retiree added up the details of a day-in-the-life of an athletic director.

“We’re involved in creating the schedule and making sure everyone is contacted when we have a home event and that includes assigning an administrator to the game and making sure the athletic trainers have someone covering the game,” Mahoney said. “We even go so far as contacting our booster’s concessions people to make sure they are updated to any changes or weather delays in the schedule. We work with the officials and coaches association, the ticket managers, and set up the fields in advance of the visiting teams getting here.”

The new cutting-edge turf field turned out to be a huge win for HHS this year. Mahoney says it “helped out immensely in both man hours and money from a school stand-point.” Mahoney does not have to attend every home game but says he does his best to make as many as possible and always travels to the big-time away games against district rivals and playoff match ups. Outside of coaching, Mahoney said he has several fabulous memories while serving as the director of student activities.

“Another highlight was winning the homecoming football game against Westfield (2008) when Westfield had, I believe had a 19-game winning streak and they were defending State Champions that fall,” he said. “That was fun and the kids hopped the fence and stormed the field. It was a great time for an upset because it was in front of a homecoming crowd.”

He added that watching many of the girls’ athletic programs evolve has been especially rewarding. Mahoney attended the state cheerleading championships this past winter and felt very proud of the team’s performance.

“That was fun going to Richmond and see them perform this last winner and they narrowly missed winning it all and came in second.”

Although he accomplished his goal of becoming the DSA, Mahoney admits he misses some valuable things from coaching and teaching that are not an every day part of his current position.

“I always missed the coaching aspects of things because that’s where you really get to know the kids and even the teaching part, you see the same kids on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “You spend a couple hours a day with them and you really get to know them pretty well. That part I miss.”

Herndon’s current assistant DSA, Jonathan Frohm, will take over as director of student activities when Mahoney leaves in late July. The mentor said he could not be more proud of Jonathan and believes he will be outstanding in his new role.

“I think Jonathan is going to do a great job. I know his heart and soul is with Herndon High School. Being a graduate of Herndon, he really cares about the place, people and community,” Mahoney said. “He’s hard working, smart and a dedicated employee and I think all those factors are going to allow him to be very successful, and I certainly wish him the best.”

The two have become close friends over the past several years and Mahoney said he plans on being “lifelong friends.” As far as plans after retiring, Mahoney listed several fun items we all would enjoy.

“I plan to travel some more and we have a beach house in Cape Cod and I’d like to visit that,” he said. “I will play a lot more golf, even though some people tend to think I play enough golf as it is, but I don’t think I do. And I hope to go to Virginia Tech and visit my daughter and see a couple of football games.”

“I feel fortunate to have landed in a place that I can really call my home. It was fun going to work and I feel lucky to have had most of my career at Herndon High.”

Note: Patch will run a feature on Frohm and his promotion in the following weeks.