EASTHAMPTON — For just the third time in over 70 years, Williston Northampton School has a new athletic director, following Mark Conroy’s retirement from the position after 24 years.

Jade Morris, a Hampshire Regional alum, stepped in as Williston’s new athletic director on July 1 and will start her first fall season when the Wildcats begin games on Sept. 7. She is Williston’s first female athletic director.

After graduating from Hampshire, Morris played soccer and basketball at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and then earned a master’s of education in athletic administration at Springfield College in 2013. She spent nine years in athletic development at Boston College before working the last two as the associate director of athletics at Belmont Day School, a preK-8 private school in Belmont.

“This area is awesome,” Morris said. “I love Boston for a lot of reasons, but it’s nice to be home. It’s really great to be back home and it’s nice to be closer to family.”

Through her work at Boston College, Morris served in a number of roles on the developmental side of the athletic department. She spent the first half of her tenure there working mostly in fundraising and the second half of her tenure working with student-athletes on career planning, community service and networking.

Though she was nearly 100 miles away, she saw the influence Williston had on athletes who attended BC. She singled out hockey player Caroline DiFiore, who graduated from Williston in 2019 and served on the student-athlete advisory committee at BC.

“I look back to her and think, ‘wow,’” Morris said. “This is how Williston is preparing kids for college and that’s what matters.”

After the NCAA allowed college athletes to profit off their NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) in 2021, Morris assisted BC student-athletes with financial literacy before leaving for the Belmont School in 2022. She had always dreamed of becoming an athletic director and wanted to spend more time with her three children. 

When the Williston job opened, she jumped at the chance.

“Taking this job and going back home is like blending those two worlds,” Morris said.

Morris cited her older brothers, as well as her husband, Michael, who worked in football operations at Dartmouth, Harvard and BC, and her father in-law, Tim, a high school football coach for the past 30 years at Melrose High School, as major influences in her career in athletics. She also noted the women she worked with in the athletic departments at Hampshire, MCLA, Wellesley and Boston College.

At Williston, she said she’s going to wait to make any immediate changes and wants to be thoughtful and intentional about those changes. Morris also noted the decades of experience her support staff in the Williston athletic department boasts.

“It’s obviously working and the ship is on track,” Morris said. “It’s just, how can I take it to a different level.”