For New AD, Sports Are 'Microcosm for Life'

As the summer custodians take advantage of 's empty hallways to clean the classrooms and dust the furniture, one office, in an alcove out of eyesight from the main lobby, isn't gathering much dust.

William "Bill" Librera, Chatham High's new athletic director, has been on the job for two weeks. Before he started on July 1, he met with district administrators and physical education teachers. In his first two weeks, "I'm trying to meet with the coaches as much as I can, see what their needs are, meet with the teachers, see what their needs are," he said.

Librera, a Morristown resident, worked as a math teacher and basketball coach at for the last five years. Before that he taught for five years at in Chester. Though he said sports are also a passion for Librera, which helps to make the move a little easier.

Coming into a neighboring school district has its advantages—"I've been involved in Morris County athletics for 10 years, and I think within that time I've made a name for myself and conjured up relationships on my own," Librera said—but starting in the middle of summer has its own setbacks. "The calls that you need to make to other athletic directors, ... this is the time that they take off," he said.

Librera grew up in Long Valley with two older sisters, whom he calls "the smartest women I've ever met." His mother Nancy worked as a nurse, and Librera said she was and is a model for him and his sisters. "We were called 'Nancy's army,'" he said.

Librera's father, also William, also works in education. He is a former Education Commissioner for the state of New Jersey and worked with the earlier this year to help mentor Dr. Michael LaSusa as he prepared to become superintendent, and to help search for a .

Though Librera bears his father's name, he said he and his sisters did not feel pressure to follow in their parents' footsteps. "My sister's a lawyer, my other sister works for the MTA," he said, and when Librera chose his undergarduate major at Columbia University, he chose Mathematics Economics and hoped to pursue a career in investment banking.

Eventually, he said, "I realized it just wasn't for me. Education kind of has been in my blood, and I was able to go to graduate school at Teacher's College [at Columbia University, studying Mathematics Education] and work at the undergraduate gymnasium as the intramural supervisor."

The experience put him on a path to become a teacher and athletic coach, and eventually an athletic director. Librera was by the in June.

When Librera was in high school, he said, "I was always big with sports. Schools were secondary for me. I was smart enough to get it done," he said, "but school is not where I learned my work ethic. I learned that on the athletic field."

For Librera, sports are more than a game: They are "microcosm [for] life itself" and "a great equalizer" for children, teens and adults. In sports, as in life, there are failures and victories, lucky breaks and unfortunate misses. "The resiliency that you must have in athletics, and understanding that you might have done everything you could and did everything correctly and still didn't get the outcome that you desired, that's a huge life lesson [that] you learn constantly and consistently in athletics," Librera said.

Those life lessons and "teachable moments" are part of the philosophy Librera said he will use as the new athletic director. "I think every setback is a teachable moment, and if you teach those not as a setback but as an opportunity to grow, that's what we need to do as teachers and coaches."

As a former coach, Librera said he knows how important it is for coaches to know they have support for their programs. "I [have] to make sure that every program is taken care of, and I want to make sure that boys and girls are treated the same."