TROY – For as long as he can remember, Brandon Wright has been passionate about sports.
It’s a passion plan to bring to Troy High School as the district’s new athletic director beginning with the 2025-26 school year.
“I absolutely love sports. I live, breathe and die sports,” said Wright, who was officially approved by the Troy Board of Education at Monday’s regular monthly meeting. “Being able to see it grow from behind the scenes that people don’t see, and then on Friday nights, or whenever the event is, just come to fruition, is extremely cool to see.”
Wright will replace Dave Palmer, who will retire at the end of this school year. Palmer has been Troy’s athletic director since 2013. It is a fitting transition, as Palmer’s previous position as the athletic director at another Miami County School district approximately 8 miles north of Troy inspired Wright, who graduated from that same high school in 2012.
“When I decided to shift into the goal of becoming an athletic director in college, Mr. Palmer was actually one of the main reasons I made that decision. I got to see him work when I was in school, and it really drove me to want to do this job.”
Following high school, Wright earned his undergraduate degree in business and sports management from Ohio Christian University in 2014 and his Master’s of Business Administration from Ohio Christian in 2016. He’s been the Circleville High School and Circleville Middle School athletic director since 2021. Prior to that, he was the athletic director at Madison-Plains High School and Middle School.
He said he’s excited about the opportunity to work in Troy and hopes to carry on its rich athletic tradition, while also adding his own spin on things.
“I’m super excited,” Wright said. “The foundation that has been laid here at Troy can only grow. I think we’re in a good spot, facility-wise, athlete-wise, coaching-wise. It seems like Troy is ready to take that next step. I am excited to work here and with the people here at Troy.”
Wright said two of his main goals will be improving upon the game-day experience at athletic events and getting the community more involved in Trojan athletics.
“I would say I’m very technologically savvy,” Wright said. “I like to do some of those techie things. The social media stuff is big. With the game events, I don’t know how everything is run here at Troy, but when you come to a game at my current district, it’s a form of entertainment. We flash the lights, we’re playing music and letting kids dance during timeouts. Just the game environment becomes more of a family event, rather than just kids playing the sport and doing their best to win the game. It kind of creates a little bit of buzz for the crowd and makes people enjoy coming to the event.
“Community engagement is important to me. We love to get the community involved in anything we do. My student athletic leadership team just put on an Easter egg hunt on Sunday. We had about 600 kids come out. The community came out in droves and it was a fun event.”
Wright, his wife, Courtney and their two children, Sadie (age 7) and Maggie (age 4), will reside in Troy, where their children will attend the Troy City Schools.
