It is a great pleasure for me to be writing this as a new member of the St. Martin's community.  It is a true blessing to be able to serve this community as Director of Athletics and Assistant Headmaster for Sports Development.  St. Martin's is a great school, and I am committed to helping it be even greater.

I come to St. Martin's with ten years of experience as a private school administrator, teacher and coach. Before I began my career in private schools I served as an Assistant Director of Annual Giving at the University of Pennsylvania and as an Assistant Basketball Coach with then Head Coach Fran Dunphy.  I also headed up Penn's JV program which made the whole Penn experience a truly great one for me.  Prior to my time at Penn I served as the Head Basketball and Lacrosse Coach at Haverford College for seven years.  In addition to my college coaching, teaching and fund raising experience, I was a public high school teacher (the whole spectrum of social studies) and coach (football, basketball, track, baseball and tennis) in North Carolina for the first six years as a professional in the field of education.

I come to St. Martin's with a lot of good experience under my belt and the resolve to work to make our athletic program one of the best in the city of New Orleans. This won't happen over night but with our dedication to being the best professionally every day we can be we will get there.  Project Adventure is a tremendous addition to our overall curriculum, and will help us develop the overall quality of our school community as well as our athletic programs. I will work tirelessly as a part of the Project Adventure (PA) team to assimilate PA into the overall school curriculum over the course of the up coming school year and continue to develop its limitless resources over time. 

Philosophically, Project Adventure adds a great deal to the primary goal of our athletic program which is to develop all facets of our students' character.  The greatest value of any extracurricular program in schools is their ability to develop and strengthen our childrens' character and social skills. Whether we are teaching students to sing, act, throw, run or jump, we are automatically in a position to develop self-confidence and self-esteem.  In any program that requires students to interact, a great environment for social skill development is created and teachers and coaches (truthfully one in the same), have the opportunity to help mold students in to stronger and better people.  This may have to happen through a display of "tough love" such as suspending an athlete or not giving them their desired part in the school play.  Teaching our children the hard lessons in life and helping them to know how to get back on their feet quickly after life knocks them to the ground is crucial to helping them develop into strong and balanced individuals. One of the great things about Project Adventure is that it teaches trust, cooperation, mental toughness and self-sacrifice to accomplish a goal.  These are all skills required to work successfully with others in a team context or later in life a working environment.  My primary goal will simply be to make sure we are doing everything in our power as teachers and coaches to help the young people in our charge develop, through all their experiences, into people of the finest possible character. In the process, our athletes should have fun working and playing hard, and this should result in them having a great deal of success. We will develop skill sets for both our team sports now and lifetime sports for down the road. As a staff we will set an example of the strongest commitment to our students and we will expect the same level of commitment from them in return- a commitment to excellence, in each and every one of the extracurricular programs in which they chose to involve themselves.  We will be committed to developing each child's integrity, self-esteem, self-confidence, physical and mental strength, compassion, cooperation, selflessness, sportsmanship and resilience. It is my sincere objective that each and every "SAINT" who participates in our programs and receives a St. Martin's diploma, has had a memorable athletic experience and is a much better human being for having been a part of our programs.

Dr. David Hooks
Assistant Headmaster for Sports Development
(504) 736-9943
David.Hooks@stmsaints.com