Aspen High School names new athletic director

Aspen High School has named a new athletic director. 

Brett Beville will join the Skiers on July 21, following three years at the helm of Vanguard High School’s athletic department in Florida, and seven years as a teacher and coach at the school, Aspen High School announced Monday. Beville takes the reins from John Castrese, who resigned this spring after four years as the Aspen High School athletic director.

“My whole position is to help make people successful,” Beville said. “It’s not about me, it’s about the kids and putting the coaches in the best position to help the kids.”

Beville previously coached football, golf, softball, and track and field between his time at Vanguard and Westport High School — where he previously worked for three years — before he was appointed athletic director at Vanguard. He also taught Exceptional Student Services at both schools, helping students with learning disabilities.

“(As) somebody who has been a teacher, a coach, and an athletic director, he really has the whole package,” Aspen High School Principal Sarah Strassburger said.

She added that he brings an academic lens to the job as, like AHS, Vanguard is an IB school.

Coming to the high country, Beville seeks to help student-athletes be leaders at the school, increase the school’s athlete and spectator participation, and help students pursue sports after graduating. 

This year he said Vanguard graduated 36 seniors who secured athletic scholarships out of a class of over 300.

“There’s a place for every kid if they want to go further,” Beville said, adding, “It all just depends on how bad the student wants it, and what I can do to help facilitate that.”

Beville said he hopes to increase camaraderie and involvement between the community Aspen High School Sports.

“You get fans starting to show up,” he said. “You get that pride inside the kids’ hearts.”

He said student athletes are also in a unique position to be leaders on campus and positively impact their peers to work hard in multiple aspects of their lives.

“When you see students that are successful on the field or the court, and they’re successful in the classroom, people are drawn to that,” he said. “It’s a built-in leadership opportunity.”

Beville’s cross-country transition comes from a school that has seen a volleyball team with four state championships and eight final four appearances in the last 12 years. Vanguard’s football team regularly makes the regional championships and the final four, its softball team makes playoffs every year, and baseball “has been on a heater the past couple years,” Beville said. 

He will step into a strong sports ethic set before him by Castrese, who Strassburger commends for his time with the school.

“John was phenomenal,” Strassburger said of the former athletic director. “John really took Aspen High School athletics to the next level.”

“Aspen High School already wins championships,” Beville said. “So it’s just a matter of trying to keep the status quo going.”

Apart from his professional life, Beville’s family will have strong ties to the school. He is joined in Aspen with his wife, a 10-year old son — who will begin fifth grade at Aspen Elementary School — and his 3-year-old son.

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Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.