Julie Eppard First Female Athletic Director of the Year

This year is the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Title IX, and yesterday the South Dakota Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association selected its first female Athletic Director of the Year.

Julie Eppard of Chester Area Schools was this year’s winner of the Athletic Director of the Year award, and she is not just the first female to win this award, but Eppard is also the first female athletic director to be selected as South Dakota’s NIAAA State Award of Merit recipient. 

She was also just named as the Athletic Director of the Year for the South Dakota High School Coaches Association. 

Eppard has been with the Chester Area School District since 2013, after being named as the 6th-12th grade principal and also the activities director. With Chester, she has served as the Region Volleyball chair for nine years, Region Golf for four, and the Region Track and Field for six years.

Since Eppard has been with Chester Area School, the school has had 10 state runners-up/championships. Eppard was named as the Region AD of the Year in 2017-2018 along with being named the Region Principal of the Year in 2016-2017. 

She is currently the chair for the SDIAAA Mentoring Committee, and was a member of the SDHSAA COVID-19 Taskforce.