High school athletes will often do everything they possibly can so they can play collegiate athletics.

Kerry Hentrick's story is different. He left his collegiate athletic administrative position so he could go back to high school.

Hentrick had been the athletic director at Community College of Allegheny County, South Campus in West Mifflin for almost 10 years but left last week to become the athletic director at Elizabeth Forward High School.

"We only had nine sports at CCAC, and I wanted to be involved with all these other things," said Hentrick, who also coached the baseball team at CCAC-South for seven seasons.

"I feel like this is a great opportunity to be involved in other sports and with everything we have going on at the school."

Hentrick is one of several new athletic directors at South Hills area high schools, including Bethel Park's Amy Williams (formerly the at Avonworth), Peters Township's Rich Relich (formerly at West Mifflin) and Chartiers Valley's Frank Vulcano, whose departure from Elizabeth Forward created the vacancy Hentrick filled.

"I enjoyed my time there and am grateful [Elizabeth Forward] gave me an opportunity to begin my career as an athletic director," Vulcano said. "[But] Chartiers Valley is a good school district with nice facilities and good education. That's what made me decide to go out for the job."

Vulcano is no stranger to the area. He resides in his hometown of Houston, Pa., and attended California University of Pennsylvania.

He worked in the Trinity and Chartiers-Houston school districts for 13 years before becoming athletic director at Elizabeth Forward.

He started his new duties at Chartiers Valley in April, replacing the retiring Gus Marquis.

"Right now, I'm just getting accustomed to the way our school district operates, getting familiar to the coaches and gearing up for the fall season," Vulcano said.

Hentrick's last day at CCAC-South -- which has yet to name a successor ---- was July 5, and he started at Elizabeth Forward the next day.

"I'm really looking forward to it with the opportunity to watch these young kids grow," he said. "There's a lot of long hours involved, I know that. But I have been involved with athletics the last 10 years of my life, and the biggest reward is to watch these kids grow, and hopefully I can move in and help in that process."

Hentrick was born in Level Green, near Trafford, and graduated from Turtle Creek High School and La Roche College. He will finish a master's in sports management at IUP next month.

He did not indicate any major changes with the athletic department, citing the recent successes it has enjoyed. Of the baseball, softball, football, boys' and girls' basketball, and boys' and girls' softball teams, all but the boys' soccer team made the WPIAL postseason in 2005-06 and all but the football squad had a winning record.

"Obviously, they have had a lot of success," Hentrick said. "Last year, a lot of teams were making trips to the playoffs. I'm looking forward to getting to know some of these great coaches better and working together with them to continue to build on these successful programs."

Relich took over for Joe Maize, who resigned last summer after 19 years as Peters Township's athletic director. Maize had said he wanted to keep his teaching and baseball coaching positions.

Relich had been the athletic director at West Mifflin and president of the athletic directors' association. He previously was athletic director at Mt. Lebanon.