With a storied career spanning 38 years, Bob Quinn is retiring after ten years of being Naperville North High School’s Athletic Director.
Bob Quinn demonstrated great leadership throughout his time at Wheaton Central, Wheaton Warrenville South, Loras College and NNHS. Throughout his time at NNHS, Quinn oversaw fourteen state championships and assisted NNHS with the reorganization of the Dupage Valley Conference.
However, Quinn’s favorite part of being Athletic Director wasn’t the championships or the accolades: it was witnessing the evolution of each student he worked with as athletic director.
“This is a great job and I’ve loved every minute of it. One of the best things about this job is that you get to see young people come in as freshmen and then walk out four years later as seniors and you get to see their growth as kids,” Quinn said.
Working with students wasn’t the sole highlight of his professional career. Quinn cherishes his memories with his staff as well.
“The greatest thing about North is the people with whom I work, and that includes the community, our student-athletes and our staff…the reality is [the NNHS staff] is an unbelievable group,” Quinn said.
Quinn especially remembers how his department handled the COVID-19 pandemic, considering their accomplishments during the pandemic as one of his proudest memories. Quinn fondly mentions the leadership that coaches like Kevin Benages provided to students.
“Our coaching staff did an unbelievable job of being adaptable and being positive and working hard through the COVID experience. When we got permission to restart programming outside through strength and conditioning… we had every student-athlete from cheer, football and track all working together,” Quinn said.
After entering retirement, Quinn plans to stay involved in the sports world and, in fact, has recently begun working with the Chicago Cubs Groundcrew.
“I’ll miss the work, I’ll love the work…I’ll miss seeing the students every day,” Quinn said.
The North Star staff is grateful for how collaborative Mr. Quinn has been as Athletic Director and we wish him all the best as he enters retirement.
