Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series of features on women leaders in Western Massachusetts high school athletics. UMass journalism students wrote the stories as part of a semester-long project in their sports writing class in partnership with MassLive.
Amherst Regional High School’s girl’s soccer team had more than 50 players try out for the squad leading into last season – a far cry from past years when the school was barely able to field a team.
The main reason? Athletic Director Victoria Dawson.
Dawson was recognized for her work in 2022 and received the Massachusetts Secondary School Athletic Directors Association’s Theodore “Ted” Danko District A Award for her accomplishments as athletic director. The award is given to “an athletic administrator with 3-5 years experience who has exemplified the highest standards of their profession and has made significant contribution to their school and community.”
“(Dawson) is a positive role model, especially for our girls of color,” Amherst High Principal Talib Sadiq said.
“She has a lot of great tangible experiences, and they benefit from seeing her in a position of authority, and they hear a little about her story of how she walked onto the UMass women’s basketball team, and just see her in action, making decisions, making things happen, and taking care of business. I think she’s an amazing asset for us, our students, and this community.”
After playing sports for the Hurricanes for years and becoming a Division I athlete at UMass, Dawson is hoping to inspire change for a future generation of athletes in Amherst.
“It’s not just about sports, I think sports are there for life lessons,” Dawson said. “I’ve learned so many things from being an athlete, not just about wins and losses, time management skills from being a student-athlete, how to be a teammate which helps you in the workplace in the future, there are so many different aspects that athletics help out with.”
Dawson became the Amherst athletic director in 2019. In a short time, she has improved the culture surrounding sports at the school, while driving up participation in women’s sports, and increasing turnout for athletics across the board.
As a student at Amherst, Dawson played on the school’s basketball team before graduating in 2012. She went on to play at UMass Amherst before eventually returning to her former high school to take on the job of athletic director.
Dawson has attempted to connect with the student-athletes at the school. Her experience playing at both the high school and collegiate level allows her to relate to what the student-athletes are going through.
“When I first got the job I was like ‘Oh, this is really cool, now I’m the AD and I went to school here,’” Dawson said. “I also have two siblings as I’m the AD here, it also makes it a lot more fun since I knew a lot of the kids since they were their friends. He’s a senior this year, and the other one graduated a couple of years ago. So it was also fun to come back and be the AD for my brothers.”
Brandon Stewart, a senior student-athlete at ARHS and Dawson’s brother, feels like her empathy for others shines through in her work, from helping students sign up for sports to actually being there for her students as she tries to attend games for each sport every year.
“I feel like the AD has been more present than before and that she has made a positive impact on the community,” Stewart said.
Dawson is in a unique situation to many athletic directors, as she is a woman of color in a male-dominated field.
Dawson talked about how at many athletic director meetings, the majority of the people are males. She did acknowledge that she is happy to see that it is slowly changing, and she has received more respect in her fifth year on the job.
“I like to think that she’s encouraged and inspired more females to participate in sports, and even to take on different leadership roles not only in sports but in classes and student government,” Sadiq said.
“I think she made a lot of great connections with all of the athletes in the school, males and females. Female sports aren’t looked at as having the same value as men’s sports. I think she’s done a lot to help balance those things out in terms of scheduling the night games, homecoming, and other events that have equal representation between the male and the female sports.”
Zola Higham, a senior on the girls soccer and basketball team, said having Dawson as an athletic director is a source of pride for many athletes at the school.
“Victoria treats the girls and boys teams exactly the same, never giving the boys any priorities just because they are men and attract a bigger crowd to their games,” Higham said. “Victoria has made the culture inclusive and works to work out any kinks that a team might be having.”
Dawson has come up with ideas to drive up attendance at sporting events that don’t have as high of a fan turnout. For the swim team, she introduced programs such as “Pack the Pool,” where students who came to a meet could get a free t-shirt to increase support for those sports.
Stephanie Hockman, the mother of an Amherst student-athlete, credited Dawson for putting an emphasis on increasing student participation in sports, as well as turnout to the games.
Shilpa Cunniffe, another parent of an Amherst student-athlete, echoed this sentiment.
“You see more and more students going to the games, which you had not seen over the previous years,” Cunniffe said. “She’s in the school, she talks to all the kids, she tells them she’s gonna be at a game, they usually show up, it’s good for them to support their fellow student-athletes that are on the team.”
When Dawson took the job, she set out to improve how sports are viewed in Amherst, and that started by making sure communication and information were readily available to student-athletes, parents, and fans.
ARHS has a policy forbidding students to have their cell phones during the day, making communication with athletes difficult. The front office has adapted by making loudspeaker announcements to announce rainouts or other schedule changes and letting students know about changes during breaks.
Dawson has extended herself to making sure students are on task in the classroom, and that teachers are aware of student-athletes’ schedules. Sadiq credited Dawson for connecting coaches and teachers, helping students who start to struggle, and overall being a link between sports and academics.
With her goal being to help students, Dawson talked about the pride she feels seeing growth with student-athletes.
“I think athletics keeps a lot of kids in schools so you can see how they develop on the playing surface,” Dawson said. “They will be going through adversity and they face it head-on and use those skills that they learn on the playing surface to anywhere they are in school and in life. That is the best growth that I love to see in student-athletes.”
As Dawson continues her role as athletic director, she hopes people remember what her goal is at the school.
“I hope to leave a positive imprint that continues to focus on a competitive inclusive environment that teaches student-athletes more than just athletic skills, but also focuses on life skills.”
