IN CHARGE: Having been involved in athletics administration in the Princeton Public Schools for nearly 20 years, Brian Dzbenski is well suited for his new role as the district’s Supervisor of Physical Education and Athletic Director (AD). After serving as interim Athletic Director in the wake of the passing of former AD John Miranda last August, Dzbenski was named to the position this spring.

Princeton High held graduation in late June and the 4th of July holiday has come and gone but that doesn’t mean it is time for Brian Dzbenski to take a summer break.

As the recently hired Supervisor of Physical Education and Athletic Director for the Princeton district, Dzbenski has a lot on his plate even though school is out.

“We just launched a new middle school athletics website, which took us a long time to build,” said Dzbenski, 45, who had been serving as interim athletic director (AD) in the wake of the passing of former AD John Miranda last August.

“We are piloting a new online registration system at the high school. Over the summer, we take a look at the turf field and see what needs to be repaired and order items for fall sports. We have professional development going over the summer where coaches will come and learn to build their team website. This is 100 mph.”

Dzbenski enjoys going full speed ahead. “I love it,” said Dzbenski. “If it is your passion, there is no other place you would rather be.”

Hamilton native Dzbenski, who graduated from Notre Dame High, developed a passion for sports as a youngster.

“When I was growing up my father encouraged me to be a three-season athlete and play three sports,” said Dzbenski.

“Originally it was soccer all year round and then basketball and baseball.”

On the field, Dzbenski experienced his greatest success in soccer, playing for a high-level German American Kicker club program in Hamilton and then competing for both the Mercer County Community College and Seton Hall soccer programs.

While at Seton Hall, Dzbenski was initially pursuing a career in physical therapy but he ended up deciding that teaching was a better fit.

“I was trying to play soccer, I had organic chemistry and genetics and I am thinking this is a little too demanding here, I wasn’t really enjoying what I was doing,” said Dzbenski.

“I wanted to be more with kids, I have always done soccer all of my life. I ran camps over the summer and I did that all summer long. I worked with a lot of the ADs at the time.”

Returning to Mercer County area to begin his career in education, Dzbenski worked as a substitute teacher at Steinert High and later took a position with the South Brunswick schools. He then came to Princeton to take a job as a health and physical education teacher at John Witherspoon Middle School in 1997-98. During the summers, he worked at PHS, teaching driver’s ed and phys ed. With his background in sports, he got into coaching, both at PHS and Witherspoon.

“I have so much fun whenever I get the chance to work with the kids,” said Dzbenski.

“In my first four years at Witherspoon, I coached soccer in the fall at PHS with Wayne [Sutcliffe]. I was the middle school basketball coach and I was also the middle school baseball coach.”

While Dzebneski enjoyed teaching, he was encouraged by legendary John Witherspoon principal Bill Johnson to move into administration.

“Bill Johnson said you can’t do phys ed like you are doing it now the rest of your life, you got to move on and become a coach to coaches and a teacher to teachers,” said Dzbenski, who went back to school and got his masters.

Armed with his masters, Dzbenski moved into a role as middle school athletic coordinator. When Athletic Director Miranda started experiencing some health issues, Dzbenski moved over to PHS in the fall of 2015 to help run its program.

“I went six months and then John got sick and Kathy [athletics secretary Kathy Herzog] got sick too,” recalled Dzbenski.

“They were both out and I was by myself for four months. I knew the inline scheduler. I had the accounts set up for the assignors. I had a rapport with the bus company. I did the whole middle school program without a secretary and teaching six classes a day so the only challenge was I had the middle school and now high school on top of that.”

Heading into the 2016-17 school year, Miranda was planning to resume full-time duty but then he unexpectedly passed away in August and Dzbenski became the interim AD. While running both the middle school and high school programs, Dzbenski went through the interview process for the permanent AD position. This spring, the interim tag got lifted and Dzbenski was hired as AD.

“It was a huge weight off of my shoulders,” said Dzbenski, reflecting on getting the job.

“I am starting all of these things and going in a different direction and coaches are starting to buy into things. Then it is having to go through that whole interview process where you have 180 applicants apply and just not knowing the direction the district is going to go. It was rewarding.”

As he takes the helm, Dzbenski is looking to help students and parents enjoy a more rewarding sports experience in the Princeton school system.

“I was fortunate enough to sit on the athletics 2.0 committee that [School Superintendent] Steve Cochrane formed that really defined the goals and values of the physical education and athletics,” said Dzbenski.

“We have joy of sports; we want the kids to be engaged in the activities. You want to put the kids first and give them every opportunity for success. You also want to embrace the parents and make sure that they know that their position is to support their athletes through their high school years. We are trying to be effective in our communication with parents.”

In order to be effective in his new role, Dzbenski knows he needs to lean on others.

“We have great coaches, we have great support staff; I don’t do this by any means by myself,” said Dzbenski, citing Cochrane, Herzog, assistant superintendent Lew Goldstein, and business administrator Steph Kennedy, among others, as providing key assistance.

“It is important that people realize it is a collective effort with everything we do here. I have been fortunate to have that kind of support to grow as a teacher and a coach in Princeton.”