Donahoo to take over as SWV principal

CORNING – For Anthony Donahoo, becoming Southwest Valley high school principal presented an opportunity that was the best of both worlds.

Soon to be working as the grades 9-12 principal, Donahoo will also get to maintain another job he loves as the Timberwolves head football coach.

After seeing his football staff earn awards last season, Donahoo decided he wanted to continue seeing people grow.

“I said, ‘man I wanted to be able to do this on a larger scale and hit more than just 47 boys,’” said Donahoo. “When I really stepped back I decided the way to do that was to become principal.”

For Donahoo, 31, the combination of continuing to work with the Timberwolves football players and taking new responsibility as the head man in charge of the high school is exactly the challenge he was looking for.

After looking around the area and seeing coaches who have been successful at maintaining a football coaching job and being principal at schools such as Stanton and Fremont-Mills, Donahoo was convinced he could be successful doing the same.

“I told them early that was something I wanted to do. I drew up an action plan on how I was going to get it done,” said Donahoo. “I wanted to make sure I could find other guys who could do it.”

As a Corning native and 2006 graduate of Corning High School, Donahoo made just one teaching stop in Creston for four years before spending the last three years in Corning.

With added responsibility comes a new set of expectations and Donahoo is hoping to help push those and continue improving his hometown school.

“I want to make sure I’m creating high quality teachers and raise the bar as far as expectations,” said Donahoo. “When you do that you create a school where teachers care about kids and the students are excited to come.”

Donahoo had spent his first three years at SWV teaching physical education, fitness and health.

Jumping in to his new role, Donahoo feels like he’s earned the respect of the staff and students around his with his work ethic and balance of charisma and respect.

The new principal noted Southwest Valley has a great combination of veteran faculty as well as new, incoming teachers he hopes to help guide into being as successful as possible.

“We’ve got a lot of turnover this year with some new teachers coming in, which is good. We’ve got some great stuff and good excitement from the new staff coming in,” said Donahoo. “Then we’ve got teachers who have been teaching here for the last 20 to 25 years. I’ve gained their trust through the last three years.”

After working locally through his teaching career Donahoo mentioned he was especially excited about staying in the area.

“I’ve never wanted to be anywhere else but Southwest Valley and to be able to be the principal and football coach in that time is a dream come true for me,” said Donahoo.