After decorated accomplishments in previous jobs, Bo Beck and Dan Gallagher have decided to take on new challenges for the upcoming school year.

Beck will be the athletic director and activities director at Aberdeen Central, while Gallagher will be the athletic director and activities director at Aberdeen Roncalli.

Interestingly enough, one person wanted the new position, while the other was reluctant to take it.

“This is a position I’ve always kind of wanted to do in my life,” Beck said. “When I was in Eureka, I was K-12 superintendent, athletic director the 14 years I was there, I would always say that, ‘Man, if Gene Brownell’s job would ever open up, I’d love to apply for it.’ Or the (South Dakota High School) Activities Association would be another good job. And both those opened up since I worked here in Aberdeen. I didn’t apply for them the first time, and so I thought this time I’m going to apply for it and take a shot at it.”

Brownell was the long-time Central AD before Dawn Seiler handled the position for the past five years, stepping down this past school year.

Gallagher is replacing Derek Larson in the position at Roncalli.

“I remember Derek brought something up in December,” Gallagher said. “He told me, ‘Hey, I’m not going to keep doing this. I just want to be able to spend time watching my kids grow up. You’re the first person we’re going to ask.’ And my first response was no, not doing it.”

Over time Gallagher reconsidered it, and decided to take the job.

“I decided it would be a good fit,” Gallagher said.

Both men are walking away from positions where each garnered major accomplishments. Beck, who was the principal at Holgate, was named the South Dakota Middle School Principal of the Year by South Dakota Association of Secondary Principals in 2025, and Gallagher won the prestigious National Milken Educator Award in 2025.

Not only is Gallagher leaving the classroom, he had to relinquish his role as defensive coordinator for the football team.

“For the AD I had to step away from coaching football which was difficult,” Gallagher said. “Stepping away from the classroom to be Dean of Middle School, that’s going to be difficult.”

Both men have already noticed a major difference even though school hasn’t even started, yet.

Beck has been a principal for the past 28 years.

“When they had freshman orientation and student registration here this past week, that was really odd for me not to help out,” Beck said.

Gallagher, who will remain Roncalli’s head boys’ basketball coach, viewed football practice on Thursday from a whole new angle.

“So watching football (Thursday) was a little hard,” Gallagher said. “Sat off to the side and ‘evaluated.’ “

Both Beck and Gallagher have already discovered some new challenges associated with their positions.

“The biggest challenge so far has been, holy cow I’m on my phone a lot,” Gallagher said.

While Beck has had some experience in the similar positions, they haven’t been near the scope of a school the size of Central.

Beck recently put 28 schedules on the school’s website.

“I think that’s the biggest challenge,” Beck said, “coordinating the schedules and getting the workers.”

Beck, who also served as a long-time basketball, football and volleyball official, will have to give up those duties, but will now become the tournament director of the State B Boys’ Basketball Tournament in Aberdeen.

“I’m excited about that,” Beck said. “I’ve coached in three of those when I was in Midland, three in a row back in the 90s, and then I’ve reffed six State B boys’ tournaments here in town. So, it’s kind of cool to have coached, reffed, and now be in charge of the State Bs.”

Gallagher was able to work with Larson last spring to get a feel for the new position. The two were able to evaluate things associated with Roncalli extra-curricular activities.

“We looked into what’s the mission of Roncalli athletics? What’s the mission of Roncalli activities in general? What are the values that we really want our kids demonstrating, our coaches demonstrating?” Gallagher said. “So we came up with a new mission statement. We came up with five values.”

Those values spell out the acronym FAITH: Fulfill your role, All-in effort, Integrity, Toughness, Honor the standard.

Gallagher said that while the students will attempt to emulate those core values, being successful will also be an important goal.

“While we want to represent our Catholic faith, we’re still in things to win,” Gallagher said. “We desire to win. We want to win. Winning’s important to us.”

Beck knows that he has big shoes to fill, but is looking forward to the challenge.

“I’m excited for it. I started July 1 and every day I walk in that door, to me it’s exciting,” Beck said. “I’m happy to be here and like I said, it’s what I’ve always wanted to do.”

He is hoping to uphold the standard that has been set in the past.

“I’m just proud to take over from Gene and Dawn,” Beck said, “and I want to keep the Golden Eagle tradition going.”