Search for New CIF Head Narrowed to Four

A national search for a new executive director of the California Interscholastic Federation has been narrowed to four finalists, The Times has learned.

Margaret Davis, associate commissioner of the CIF; Nancy Lazenby Blaser, commissioner of the Central Coast Section; Rick Stout, principal of Paradise High near Chico, and Dave Gordan, assistant superintendent of elementary education for the Elk Grove Unified School District near Sacramento, are in line for the position.

Marie Ishida, president of the CIF Executive Committee and principal of Carmel High, said she hopes to announce the director at a state council meeting in San Francisco next Friday.

“That has been our time line all along, but we’re not going to rush this,” Ishida said. “If we’re not done with all of our interviews and research, the decision may be put off past the original deadline.”

Tom Byrnes, head of the CIF since 1980, is stepping down May 26. The CIF is the nation’s largest high school athletic governing body with 1,176 member schools.

Although the job was advertised in educational journals nationally, the eight finalists interviewed by the CIF Executive Committee last week were all from California.

Sources within the CIF said Gordan, 48, is the front-runner. “I see this as a great opportunity to do a lot of good things for kids, and that intrigues me,” Gordan said.