Steve Diversey hired as Burlington Central athletic director

Steve Diversey is going into his latest career change hoping it will be his last.

The former Streamwood baseball coach has been hired as the athletic director at Burlington Central. He replaces Steve Gertz, who left the school this summer to take on the same role at Grayslake Central.

Diversey previously worked as a teacher and coach at six different schools throughout the Chicago area, but the opportunity to move into an administrative role was one he couldn’t pass up.

“It’s a great opportunity, a great community and a great school with great athletics,” Diversey said. “I couldn’t think of a better place to start this aspect of my professional career.”

Diversey most recently spent five years as the varsity baseball coach at Streamwood, compiling a 93-66-2 record. He guided the Sabres to their first conference, regional and sectional titles during the 2011 season, earning Courier-News Coach of the Year honors in the process.

The past two years Diversey served as a teacher at Elgin while still coaching at Streamwood. He stepped down from his coaching duties at Streamwood in April, citing a desire to spend more time with his family.

Although his new job will certainly entail a big time commitment, Diversey said working at a school 25 minutes away from his home in Huntley will help offset some of the long hours.

“There’s going to be more responsibility, but as a professional there’s only one way to go, and that’s up,” Diversey said. “I could have stayed a teacher forever, but I’ve always had aspirations of jumping into an administrative role. I’m just excited I get to do that at Central, which is a community and school where I could see myself staying forever.”

Diversey also had stops at Geneva, Huntley, Kelly and York on his resume. He was the varsity baseball coach at Huntley for two years and has lower-level experience coaching football and wrestling.

Burlington Central has seen steady growth in recent years, and the Rockets typically rank among the Big Northern Conference East Division’s most competitive teams in a number of sports.

“I haven’t had a chance to meet very many of the coaches, but I know their reputations and I know their programs,” Diversey said. “I look forward to sitting down and helping them continue to build.

“The way I look at it now is I can coach coaches. It’s just a different avenue of the same thing I’ve been doing.”

This marks the second time Diversey has been hired to replace Gertz. When Gertz became Burlington Central’s athletic director in 2007 he vacated the Streamwood baseball coaching job, which Diversey then filled.

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