Winker will leave Xavier in 2016

CEDAR RAPIDS - What's next? Mike Winker has no idea.

'I don't have any secret job lined up,” Winker said Tuesday afternoon, hours after announcing that he will vacate the Cedar Rapids Xavier athletics-director position that he has filled since the school opened in 1998.

'This has been a wonderful, positive experience. But there's just something inside telling me it's time to make a change, in the best interest of the school, the students, myself and my family.”

Winker, 50, will serve one more school year. His contract will end June 30, 2016.

'I'm sad to see him go, but I'm glad that we have one more year under his leadership,” said Xavier football coach Duane Schulte. 'He has been a pillar to Xavier's success.”

And that success has been massive. In its 17-year existence, Xavier has won 28 state championships in nine different sports, including nine in girls' soccer, six in boys' soccer and four in girls' basketball.

'Xavier activities programs have flourished under (Winker's) leadership, with (more than) 90 percent of the Xavier student body participating,” principal Tom Keating said in a release Tuesday.

'(Our) programs have achieved unparalleled success during Mike's tenure and that is due in large part to the high standards Mike has set for students, coaches and directors. We will miss the energy he brings to the school, the support he offers coaches and directors and most importantly his commitment to the students he served. We thank Mike for the positive impact he has had on our school and our community and for the way he represented Xavier. We support his decision and wish him the very best.”

A 1983 graduate of Cedar Rapids Regis and a 1988 graduate of Mount Mercy, Winker returned to Cedar Rapids' Catholic school system. He served as a football coach and athletics director at Regis (beginning his AD role in 1993), then was instrumental when Regis and LaSalle merged to become one school on 42nd Street NE.

Xavier is the state's second largest private school behind West Des Moines Dowling.

'(The merger) was an exciting process to be involved in,” said Winker, who chaired the committee that chose the school's colors and nickname. 'A lot of people were concerned as to whether we could compete in the (Mississippi Valley Conference), but I really pushed that this was the league that we needed to be in, that we could compete.”

Winker's youngest child, Luke, will graduate from Xavier in 2016.

'I just feel that the timing is right to step aside at that time,” Winker said. 'I wanted to give (Keating) and the school enough time so that they aren't rushed and can hire the right candidate and decide in which direction they want to go.”

As for his post-Xavier occupation, Winker said, 'I honestly don't know. That's the nervous part, but that's also the exhilarating part.

'I don't know what's in store for me, but I've got 14 months to figure it out. And in the meantime, I want to make the 2015-16 year at Xavier the best year ever.”

l Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder@thegazette.com