- April 18, 2024
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Growing up in Huntington, West Virginia, Alex Boyer always fostered a love of sports. Boyer was a standout athlete for his high school’s soccer, basketball and track teams. And as a 16-year-old, he volunteered to help with the city’s parks and recreation department.
He took his love of sports to Marshall University, where Boyer was heavily involved as a student employee in youth and campus recreation.
From day one, he knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his professional life.
“I enjoyed campus recreation, but as a young professional, I went through the concept to actually be able to do it, not teach it,” he said. “I had the idea of being able to work in it and be more hands on. Working for a government body really made me feel like I’d get to be more involved in the day-to-day aspects of recreation.”
So, in January 2016, Boyer took a job as an athletics supervisor with the city of Palm Coast department of recreation and parks. By November, Boyer was promoted to the director of the department, where he still serves.
In his year as director, Boyer has worked closely with his employees. He doesn’t care much about job titles or positions, though. They all work together to better the community.
“I wanted to be a non-micromanaging, hands-on kind of person,” he said. “Even though there’s a hierarchy, position aren’t really the weight of what we do down here. We all know what we’re good at and what our strengths and weaknesses are. I think we’ve really changed the culture here to a really fun department.”
Looking ahead to 2018, the next project he and his staff are working on is helping with the transition to the new community center, which went under renovation in early 2017. The new center will total 21,232 square feet, making it three times larger than its predecessor.
Boyer said that although there is no established date yet, the city plans to unveil the new community center in March 2018.
Boyer hopes the increased size will help create more opportunities to be involved for people in each age demographic of the community.
It’s a lot of work, but at the end of the day, Boyer said he doesn’t see it as such.
“I’m not coming to work a job,” he said. “I’m coming to do what’s in the best interest of the community. That’s what the end result is. I always want to be the first person here and the first person to start getting things done.”
