A Highland native has been hired as the new Waterloo School District athletic director and Waterloo High School dean of students. 

Tim Gould, who taught English at Columbia High School for the second semester of the recently completed academic year to help fill a need there while completing graduate school courses, was chosen to succeed Brian Unger in Waterloo. 

Unger left to be the new athletic director in Freeburg. 

“We are encouraged by the experience he brings and look forward to him getting settled in,” Waterloo Superintendent of Schools Brian Charron said.

Gould starred in soccer at Highland High School before graduating in 2001, after which he played at Blackburn College in Carlinville.

Out of college, Gould started his professional career as an English and social studies teacher at Carlinville High School, where he also served as head boys and girls soccer coach and assist girls basketball coach. 

From there, he entered the college coaching ranks, first as head women’s soccer coach and assistant men’s soccer coach at Blackburn. Then he went to Mississippi College for Women, serving as head men’s soccer coach.

He returned to the metro east in 2019, teaching English and serving as head boys soccer coach at Alton Marquette Catholic High School. There, he guided the Explorers to an IHSA Class 1A state runner-up showing.

With a master’s degree in positive coaching from the University of Missouri, Gould stepped into the role of athletic director for the first time at Eisenhower High School in Decatur, then at Ka’a High School in Pahala, Hawai’i.

Gould, who started in his new role at Waterloo last Tuesday, said he’s happy to be back in the St. Louis area and as part of Mississippi Valley Conference athletics – this time for a different school of Bulldogs.

“It’s good for me to be in a conference I’m already familiar with,” the Highland grad said, adding that the MVC is “very stable and competitive.” 

As for his approach as Waterloo’s AD, Gould said his predecessor worked well with the coaches and student-athletes, so he doesn’t anticipate any major changes in the near term.

“I’m basically going to be building upon what’s been in place, supporting the coaches and doing what I can to promote the student-athletes,” Gould said.