A Lebanon High School graduate is coming back a little closer to home for work.

Steve Atkinson is the new athletic director and vice principal at Jefferson High School.

The move from North Marion High School in Aurora brings Atkinson, 43, to a job just 12 miles from his house in south Salem.

Atkinson, 43, started Monday and is working to verify and finish up fall sports schedules for the season, which begins with practices Aug. 20.

He’s met all of his varsity coaches and is looking forward to the school year.

“It’s just a great group of people to work with and it should make for a good team,” Atkinson said. “I really like the idea of one high school in a small community.”

Atkinson coached varsity girls soccer at Lebanon for six years, three while getting his teaching certificate at Western Oregon University in Monmouth.

He received his administrative credential at Portland State.

At Lebanon, Atkinson taught math and alternative education and also coached softball.

He later moved on to Sprague High School in Salem, where he also taught math and coached girls soccer and softball.

Atkinson was a vice principal and shared athletic director duties with another administrator at North Marion.

Atkinson replaces former Olympic medalist Dave Johnson, the new athletic director and assistant principal at South Salem High School.

Johnson was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

He won the bronze medal in the decathlon at the 1996 Summer Olympics despite competing with a broken bone in his foot and was a four-time national track and field champion.

Johnson, a Crescent Valley High School graduate who grew up in Montana, was a special education teacher and coached football and track and field at West Albany High School before starting at Jefferson in 2005.

Johnson said he considered himself “average” at both his positions at Jefferson and had no opportunities for any projects at the school.

“I felt I was just doing the job,” he said.

At South Salem, where there are four other administrators, Johnson’s primary responsibilities will be primarily in athletics.

“I get to be part of a pretty amazing administration that’s going to make things happen,” Johnson said.

Johnson steps in for Lara Tiffin, now the principal at Salem’s Judson Middle School.

Last year, Johnson moved to Salem.