Working his way up from being a teacher to director of student services, David Pater will become the new athletic director starting in July.

“I’ve always wanted this position and this is a position that even going into college I knew I wanted to do something with sports,” Pater said. “I’m super excited and happy about it and very grateful in receiving this position.”

Pater has been a teacher, a coach, a dean.

“If you look at my career as a whole, I’ve dealt with discipline and I’ve dealt with being a supporting role for students,” Pater said.

Before taking on the new position, Pater has been preparing by being more involved in the administration.

“I’m starting to go to a lot more meetings and getting involved with the conference as well as the scheduling portion,” Pater said.

While adjusting to the new position, the current athletic director Douglas Mullany will be helping Pater before Mullany leaves on Oct. 1.

“I’ll have three months where he’ll (Mullany) be by my side every day to just soak all the information up,” Pater said. “He’s been the athletic director for 10 years and I’ll be using that as a guide in what I will like to do.”

Pater graduated from here in 2002 and ever since then, he’s been wanting to come back.

“West Chicago has always been a part of me and I would check the openings on a yearly basis. This school means a lot to me,” Pater said. “I’m just really excited and I look forward to doing a lot of things.”