Hilo High AD Lundvick steps down

Hilo High School athletic director Sondra Lundvick has resigned from her position to accept an athletic administrator’s job in Alaska.

Lundvick, 41, was hired in May 2012 as the Hilo High AD, taking over for then retiring Viking AD Leroy Simms.

Lundvick, a former NCAA Division I basketball standout with coaching experience at the college and high school ranks, had previously been a vice principal/district AD in Metlakatia, Alaska. She was selected as the Hilo High AD over three other finalists.

Hilo High principal Robert Dircks, who hired Lundvick for the job in 2012, was not available for comment on Friday.

The Hilo High AD’s job will be advertised starting next week. Classes for the 2014-15 school year start in early August. The newly built Hilo High gym on Waianuenue Avenue, adjacent to the school track, is expected to be ready for sports use this coming year.

When Simms announced his retirement in 2012, Heidi Pana was named by Dircks to oversee the Hilo High athletic department until a new AD was hired.

The vacant job must be advertised for 30 days before closing, and then Dircks can move ahead with the process. Dircks and a selection committee will go through the list of applicants, target a short list of finalists, interview them, and then hire the new AD. That process may take six to eight weeks.

Lundvick was a prep basketball standout at Orangefield High in Texas and went onto excel collegiately at Lamar University. She was a two-year starter at Lamar, helping lead the Cardinals to two conference titles and a trip to the Elite Eight. She was a four-time all-academic selection at Lamar and the school’s 1994 Mary Gray Student-Athlete of the Year.

She later coached collegiate basketball as a women’s assistant at Northern Illinois University (1994-98) and Texas Christian University (1998-2000).

Lundvick and her husband, James, have a 3 1/2-year-old daughter, Rihana.