After 26 years as Arlington Public Schools’ supervisor for health, physical/driver education and athletics, Debbie DeFranco has retired.
DeFranco — whose last day was Tuesday, following 34 years at APS — is being succeeded by former Wakefield High School principal Chris Willmore.
The supervisor’s responsibilities included overseeing the school system’s high-school and middle-school athletic programs. She was a pioneer of sorts: extremely visible in her job, attending many events — even out-of-town state athletic tournament competitions that included Arlington teams.
She was involved with everything from helping to hire athletic administrators and some coaches, to establishing policies, to sometimes filling in as a trainer and an announcer for sport events and handling crowd control.
Prior to taking over the central office position, DeFranco was Wakefield’s athletic trainer from 1991 to 2000. Over the ensuing years she maintained her license as a trainer, and she still plans to fill in as a trainer at county athletic events when needed.
DeFranco said she chose the end of September to retire because a new school year is well underway, with her responsibilities as the supervisor in place for and established for the year.
“I feel like it is a good time to retire, and it’s time for me,” DeFranco said. “The new school year is on a roll and things are in a good place.”
DeFranco initially took the supervisor position because she wanted to do more for the school system in many aspects, including communications. She wanted to be a leader for athletics and the teachers she hired, and help secure more staffing for trainers and events.
Former longtime Yorktown High School football coach Bruce Hanson once told DeFranco that he never saw her predecessor, but had already seen her multiple times during her initial days on the job.
“I never forgot what he told me,” DeFranco said.
DeFranco acknowledged she didn’t like sitting behind a desk as much as being in the field. She attended sporting events because she wanted to talk to people and hear from them about their concerns and what they needed. She believed there was no better way to do so than being at the many events.
“I enjoyed that,” DeFranco said.
The Massachusetts native with a health and physical education degree from the University of New Hampshire plans to still be around at some of those events while becoming more involved with scheduling and running tournaments at USA Softball.
Her husband, Joe DeFranco, is Wakefield’s former head girls softball coach and still regularly umpires girls high-school softball games in Northern Virginia. The two met when they worked at Wakefield.
