Battle Mountain High School hires new athletic director

Battle Mountain High School has hired Bobby Ecker as its new athletic director. Ecker joins the Huskies after nine years at Vail Mountain School, where he served as athletic director for the last five.

“Anytime you take a new job, it’s hard. It’s been all the emotions. Sad to leave VMS, but happy to start a new journey and excited to be a part of the community still in just a different way,” Ecker said. “It was a lot easier to do knowing I wasn’t leaving this valley.”

Ecker grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles. He played four years of lacrosse at both Palos Verdes High School and the University of Arizona, where he studied psychology. Throughout college, he worked at a wilderness canoe camp in International Falls, Minnesota, where he realized he wanted to work with kids. After graduation, he took a job as a lift operator at Beaver Creek.

“Kind of thought it would be just one year of figuring out what I wanted to do,” Ecker said. “After that first year, I kind of fell in love with the Vail Valley.” 

Ecker applied for and accepted a job at Berry Creek Middle school in 2014-15. That spring, he was the head coach for Eagle Valley High School boys varsity lacrosse team.

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“After that year, I kind of realized that education and coaching were going to be a future for me,” he said.

Guiding the Gore Rangers

Ecker joined Vail Mountain School the next fall, working in their student support services department and coaching lacrosse. In the 2019-20 school year, he took over for Lisa Isom as the Gore Rangers’ athletic director. Reflecting on the early pages of his Vail Mountain chapter, Ecker said he was pleased to witness widespread growth in lacrosse participation across the valley. He was also proud to lead Gore Rangers athletics to a place of statewide recognition across a variety of sports.

“We won some big games with all of our sports and these schools in Denver are like, ‘what’s going on up in the Vail Valley — we want to go play these teams, too,'” he said.

As athletic director, Ecker oversaw the school claim its first boys soccer state title in 2022. The Gore Rangers claimed a state golf championship that fall as well. Throughout his tenure, numbers shot through the roof.

“It was fun to be a part of that (growth),” he said. “We had to navigate a different kind of school where athletics were becoming really popular. … There was a year where we didn’t have enough jerseys for some of our sports.”

“It was really cool to be such a small school and find such success,” Ecker continued. “Leaving Vail Mountain School was really hard for me.” 

The opportunity to slide over to Battle Mountain surfaced this summer.

“It was really just a professional growth opportunity,” Ecker said. “Taking on some roles as an assistant principal, kind of furthering my career and learning more about bigger schools and bigger programs.”

During his first few weeks, he’s relied on former athletic director Gentry Nixon — who remains at Battle Mountain as an assistant principal — for guidance.

“I’m in her office every day, asking different questions about athletics. She’s been super helpful,” Ecker said. “She’s doing a lot behind the scenes to help me be successful and our athletics and activities to be successful.”

When asked about what excites him most about the new position, Ecker said he’s looking forward to the opportunity to impact more kids and manage sports that were not offered at VMS. In terms of challenges, he knows every athletic director in Colorado is up against a transportation and referee shortage. In addition to tackling those issues this year, he’d also like to “focus on culture for all our kids.”

“Doing everything we can to support these kids to keep them on the field,” he said. “Because this is one of the safest places for kids to be is on a field with their friends, working towards a common goal. It’s why I’m in this gig.”