Tuba City High School welcomes April Clairmont as new athletic director

TUBA CITY, Ariz. - Tuba City High School has welcomed April Clairmont as the new athletic director.

A Ganado High School Alumni, Clairmontcomes to the school after serving as the former Athletic Director of the Ganado School District. She also played for the Northern Arizona University Lumberjack’s volleyball team.

Born in Tuba City but raised in Ganado, April Clairmont has been warmly welcomed back to Tuba City.

Gilbert Honanie asked Clairmont what drew her back to Tuba City from Ganado and applying for the Athletic Director’s position.

“I was drawn back to Tuba City for my daughters as they live here and now being a new grandmother to my grandson, my son’s son, so practically to be with my family, and it’s also been one of my goals to become an athletic director.”

Many of us have seen you in and around various volleyball courts wearing an AIA Referee shirt, tell us about that.

“I do that too. I wear many hats, So I am an Official AIA Referee for volleyball. I do it because I love volleyball although I don’t get many games. I fill in where I’m needed so I do know how to officiate which also helps with what I do in the AD’s position.”

With your past experience being an AD for Ganado, how has 3A North changed after James Roe retired?

“3A North hasn’t changed as we have developed sort of a family relationship. I’ve personally seen that relationship show when former TCHS Football Head Coach Vincent Lee and AD Roe borrowed football equipment from Rock Point High School for some TCHS players.

We are not just all about our students, but it’s more about everyone’s students. You know if another school needs equipment and if we have it we’ll let them borrow it, if we help each other we help others, In a way it comes from traditional values something we would like to show and model to our students”

Where do you see Tuba City High School and Tuba City Junior High School athletics going as the new AD?

“There has been talk about new facilities. We need to look at what has been in discussion. Our football stadium needs some improvements along with the football field, we’ve also been looking into the Junior High football field also, it also needs improvements, but it always come down to funding, looking at where we can get funding for projects and for new equipment for the athletes.

I would like to continue to build a great program, working with the coaches and what we can do together as a program and with the community saying we need new coaches. We have dedicated coaches. It’s the lack of coaches, we don’t have enough applicants for the open positions.”

The past few years have produced some great student-athletes who have gone on to play at the collegiate level and play in some Indigenous Sports showcasing, like Tryrinn Mann and Xander Mitchell playing in the 7G Indigenous Bowl, which is sponsored by the NFL, and Jeremiah Walters who played this past June in the Atlanta Braves Native American All-Star Baseball showcase. Are there any plans on continuing to help student-athletes apply to those programs?

“For sure, we just met with the 3A north teams and we want to establish a way to promote the student-athletes who want to play at the collegiate level and help them with FAFSA and other college application processes, and also getting them into NCAA showcasing programs. Putting the student first before athlete is our main priority, trying to get parent involvement in helping their student maintain their grades and we have a program called reteach which is like a tutoring program that happens twice a week for students to maintain their grades”

Turning to long-time Assistant Athletic Director Raquel Curley- how do you see the future of TCHS sports program with April taking the helm?

“I was very happy to see AD Clairmont filling AD Roe’s retirement vacancy. I knew she could fill his shoes coming from Ganado as an experienced AD, I have had prior experience with April when she used to head the Tuba City Starlings volleyball program as my daughter was part of that, so, I know we could work well together and get this program going.”

So my last question to you is, would April show up for work with her hair dyed green?

(Everyone laughing) “No, she did not” April responding “ I did once when my daughter was playing a game in Phoenix, is was decked out in my Warrior gear” Raquel jokingly “We can call April the Green Hornet since she was a Ganado Hornet graduate and is now an official Warrior” April also stating “ this community has a lot of pride and it shows, it’s also something I wanna instill into the community and the student body, it’s something I really didn’t see to much of while in Ganado”

Whether on the court, the mat, or on the field, you’ll be seeing Athletic Director April Clairmont cheering on her teams with or without her trademark vibrant hairstyle, and possibly sporting a Warrior jersey with the name “Green Hornet” that’s another story for another time.