Notre Dame-Belmont athletic director Jason Levine, will be replaced by alumna Christina Okubo

“It’s a family change,” Levine said. “Something we’ve been thinking about for a while.”

The Tigers’ new athletic director won’t need a lot of time getting familiar with the Belmont campus, however, as Levine’s replacement is Christina Puno Okubo — the school’s certified athletic trainer since 2010 and a 1996 alumna of the school, where she was a four-year varsity soccer and softball player.

Okubo said she had been contemplating the next move in her professional life and had been thinking of branching into athletic administration. She said when Levine broke the news he would be leaving and encouraged Okubo to apply for the job, that was kind of the final push she needed.

“Athletic administration is something I’ve been thinking about for several years. It wasn’t a difficult decision to apply, I just had to convince myself I could do the position,” Okubo said. “The moment he dropped the bombshell on us that he was leaving, we were really caught off guard. Automatically, he encouraged me and said, ‘You would be my top choice.’

“It definitely gave me the confidence in taking that first step to apply for [the position].”

Levine said it was important to him to fill the position with someone familiar with the school, staff and student-athletes.

“We wanted to keep (the new hire) in-house in order to make [the transition] as seamless as possible,” Levine said. “ She’s a great fit.”

Okubo said a huge part of her decision was based on the fact that she would still working with many of the same people she has been working with for several years.

“That was the No. 1 factor in taking the position. … It was knowing I would be working with all the colleagues I’ve been working with for years,” Okubo said. “Another reason I feel confident is knowing I have a lot of resources outside the school. … I feel like I have a good network to reach to if I have questions.”

She also takes pride in being the school’s just second female AD.

“I think it’s a huge sense of responsibility,” Okubo said. While doing research into female ADs, she said the number of women serving in high school and college AD roles was roughly 22% across the country.

“[Women] are still a minority as far as being a high school athletic director,” Okubo continued. “For me, it was a sense of responsibility (to let female students at the all-girls school) that we can be in a leadership role and do the job.”

Okubo may be stepping into a new position, but she does have some familiarity with what the job entails. In addition to being the school’s head trainer, she has assisted Levine with athletic operations. She also has spent the last three years as the athletic director at Notre Dame Elementary School, which has given her a taste of what to expect, just on a smaller scale.

Filling Levine’s role as athletic director is but one of the challenges facing the school as Levine has worked his way up the ladder during a 22-year career at Notre Dame-Belmont as an English teacher, coach, athletic director and the last couple of years, summer school principal and interim academic dean.

But after a professional lifetime of late nights after basketball or volleyball games, or getting up and going home in the dark after a soccer or softball game, Levine was looking to take a step back from all that being an athletic director entails. He said his role with Notre Dame Prep is one that will take him out of his comfort zone, but will also give him more educational experiences.

“Change is sometimes uncomfortable,” Levine said. “I had a lot interviews for AD stuff. But the thought of serving in another role (allows) me a broader background in my educational life.”

And while Okubo still has several months to pick Levine’s brain, she’s going to have a lot of irons in the fire. In addition to learning the athletic director notes, she still has the responsibility to make sure her athletes are healthy to play. She also teaches an athletic training class at the school, in addition to her AD work at Notre Dame Elementary.

“I’ll be wearing a lot of hats for the next several months,” Okubo said.