A Panora native is the new Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union Executive Director.

Erin Gerlich was born and raised in Panora, graduating from Panorama. She then went on to study athletic training at Iowa State University. After spending some time out of state, Gerlich returned to Panora and was the Athletic/Activities Director (AD) for Panorama for several years, before she took a position with the IGHSAU in 2021. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio why she decided to apply for the Executive Director position when it opened up.

“I think just the past three years that I’ve been here, I’ve just had a great front row view, I would say, at kind of the inner workings of our organization, and been very hands on with some of those details. And so, just really understanding what the job entailed and knowing that our organization is in a great place right now, and we’ve got a tremendous staff. So just, you know, knowing that we want to keep a good thing going, and I just kind of felt confident and encouraged to put my name in the hat.”

Gerlich mentions that something she’d like to work on would be helping with AD retention, as many districts across the state cycle through them rather quickly. She adds that working to make sure that sports across the board, especially the young sport of girls wrestling, have enough officials as well, is one of her priorities.