Tosa West Hires New Athletic Director

The top administrators at Wauwatosa West High School may face a bit of a dilemma in giving directives to the new athletic director coming into their school.

How do you give orders to the man who used to expect strict obedience and discipline from you; who wielded the authority of a god on Earth; who demanded of you and got 110 percent every day?

How do you boss around your former college football coach?

Both Principal Frank Calarco and Associate Principal Matt Byers played on Concordia College teams for Jeff Gabrielson, who has accepted the post of athletic director at West.

"I guess it makes it something like a homecoming for me, just because I know so many people at West," Gabrielson said. "Calarco was a great running back; Matt Byers was a strong offensive lineman.

"We all knew what we had been doing for the last 25 years."

Gabrielson was an assistant coach at Concordia from 1983 to 1990 and head coach from then until 2007. Since then, he's been at New Berlin Eisenhower.

"I went to Eisenhower because I had a daughter who was growing up real fast and I wanted to spend more time with her," Gabrielson said. "Coaching football at the college level is a 24/7 job.

"I loved it Eisenhower, but they wanted to bring the position more into the classroom, and I prefer to just work with the coaches and teams. So West is a great fit for me."

Former West athletic director Nathan DeLany , so the school was in something of a rush to fill the position. Gabrielson was brought in so quickly he has effectively begun work at West before having left Eisenhower.

Besides the attraction of working with former players – who are now old friends – Wauwatosa West is more convenient for Gabrielson, who lives in Menomonee Falls.

"As (athletic director), you're here most of the time. Being quite a bit closer, maybe I can sneak home and cut the grass."