Last year Dan Barner announced that his years as the Athletic Director at Lafayette would be over after the school year. The search for a new Athletic Director began and our own Coach Linn started the application process. I had the pleasure to interview Coach Linn about the position and how he came out on top. I asked Coach Linn, why switch to athletic director after all the years of coaching and success? His response was simple, “I’ve been here 20 years and have seen what Dan Barner has done and I don’t know if I had trusted it with anyone else.” Regarding the application process, Linn said, “It was very similar to when I applied for the football job 6 years ago, except there were more internal candidates applied for this position.”  Coaching the past 6 years, Linn has made himself stand out among all Lafayette coaches in any sport. Linn has led the rams to a 49-3 record over the course of these past 4 years. So when I asked Coach Linn why he stood out for this athletic director position, he fittingly responded, “I’ve been around a long time and I definitely bleed blue and gold.”  Linn says he hasn’t faced his biggest challenge yet but believes it will be the day football is out there and he’s not coaching for them. Along the way Mr. Barner has given Coach Linn plenty of advice including that “You have to maintain the program but you still have to put your own mark on it.” That won’t be hard for Coach Linn as he has definitely put his mark on his football team and shown what they’re capable of.

When asked about the challenge of filling Mr. Barner’s shoes, He responded, “I don’t think you ever fill someone’s shoes like that, but I think you just have to make them proud and try to continue what they did.” Finally I asked Coach Linn what his main goal was moving forward? He answered like I had hoped he would, “To keep Lafayette as the best school in Virginia.”