Jeff Sitz
Class of 1974
Jeff (’74) graduated from WLHS as a 3-sport athlete. During his time as a student, Jeff won an individual state title in the long jump, while setting the school record that stood until 1993. Jeff’s dad, Carleton Sitz, served at WLHS for 35 years, and Jeff spent his childhood cheering for the Wisco Vikings. In 1981, Jeff himself joined the faculty, and in 1985, he became the WLHS athletic director. During his time as athletic director, Wisconsin Lutheran coaches and athletes earned 131 conference championships, 26 state championships (16 WISAA, 10 WIAA) and another 26 state runner-up finishes (14 WISAA, 12 WIAA). Jeff coached lower level football and girls basketball for several years, but was involved with the boys and girls track teams from 1981-1997. As the head coach, his boys teams won 2 WISAA state titles while his girls teams were state runners-up several times. Jeff developed and wrote the WLHS Student Athlete Handbook, the WLHS Coaches Handbook, and WLHS Code of Conduct. He developed and established the Viking Volunteer Booster Club. He also proposed and developed the WLHS Hall of Fame. Outside of WLHS, he served for 12 years on the Wisconsin Athletic Director’s Association Board and was on the executive committee for 4 years, culminating in the Presidency of WADA in 2006. He was appointed to serve as the Section 4 representative on the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, served for 5 years on the NIAAA Board of Directors, and was elected President of the NIAAA in 2018. During his 40-plus years in service, Jeff has received countless awards, some of which include the WISADA Man of the Year (‘99), NFHS Citation (’17), Wisconsin AD of the Year (‘20), NIAAA Distinguished Service Award (’21), and WADA Hall of Fame (‘23). Jeff served on numerous building and campaign committees. Most recently, Jeff served tirelessly to help raise $6.5M to complete an outdoor athletic facilities upgrade. Jeff retired in 2022, but his legacy lives on through the Sitz Family Scholarship and the many accomplishments of WLHS athletics.
