As this journey ends, this post will attempt to describe the man I observed and worked under during the past few months. He would be considered an unassuming man that wants no credit or accolades bestowed upon him for performing the duties he does so well in his position at Solon High School. Mark commutes an hour each way and arrives in the early morning and leaves in the late evening. He does this routine sometimes six days a week depending on meetings and scheduled events. Those hours start to add up but as he told me in our initial meeting, "I'm lucky. I love my job!" How many people can say that. His love for the position is exhibited by his many hours spent at all of the events and illustrated by his professionalism and class with the people he surrounds himself with. His influence in the Athletic Department makes for a family atmosphere where everyone is happy and smiling and together. Sure, there are situations where things don't go the planned way but Mark handles it with a problem solving approach. People might not know who the Athletic Director at Solon High School but his impact is felt in the way the operations of each and every event is held. I have worked for many Athletic Directors during my years as a football coach, but none of them come close to Mark McGuire and his methods of operating an Athletic Department.
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How did we do it back in days when there were no cell phones? Maybe people performed their duties and tasks with more dedication and thought? Perhaps they had more because they weren't on their cell phones talking, texting or facebooking? Cell phones are valuable tools that provide instant communication with vital members of the team from ticket takers to janitorial helpers to support staff to coaches to bus drivers. Decisions can be made and responsibilities handled in a few short moments. Texts can be as effective if not more as compared to phone conversations when instant communication is demanded and required. Mark is constantly on his phone communicating with everyone that is involved in staging an athletic event. Long live the cell phone! Where would an Athletic Director be without it? Last night's lacrosse game between Solon and Jackson (Massillon, OH) high schools was played in conditions where the temperatures were in the 30's. Up until 2:30 PM, the field was covered with a blanket of snow. Solon charges $6.00 for adults and $4.00 for students to attend the lacrosse contests. A question popped into my head. How much revenue will be taken in for this contest. The crowd was slow in arriving for the 7:30 PM Varsity match with a sparse attendance watching the JV game which started at 4:30 PM. It seemed that Jackson fans outnumbered Solon fans by a 2 to 1 margin but there was no way to verify that. The ticket booth was closed by halftime and the results were somewhat surprising. There were 81 adult and 11 student tickets sold generating gate receipts of $530 which should handle the costs related to the game. Last Friday night's game between rivals Solon and Hudson, the gate was over $2,100 which is very strong. This leads me to which sports are revenue generating and which ones are not. At Solon the following sports are revenue generating: Football, Soccer, Wrestling, Basketball, Gymnastics, Ice Hockey, and Lacrosse. The non revenue generating sports are the following: Cross Country, Golf, Tennis, Baseball, Softball and Track & Field. Just some observations. Buses and bus drivers are extremely vital to the operations of a sports program. They transport the athletes and coaches to the games throughout the region in which they compete. Those distances will cover anywhere from 5 miles to 100 miles depending on the sports venue and the time of year. The buses provide a ride to and from the sports events but in many situations they provide shelter from the elements such as rain, snow and cold. So it is imperative that the bus or transportation coordinator and the Athletic Director are on the same page and in concert with each other when it comes to the scheduling of the buses. But this past Thursday night when the temperatures were in the 30's, a problem occurred with a bus not being at a game to pick up the Girls Softball team. The bus coordinator communicated with Mark that the team will be picked up at 7:30 PM even though the game will have ended at 6:30 PM. One hour in the cold in miserable for the kids after a tough contest. To make matters worse, 7:30 came and went and no bus for the team. Mark called the bus coordinator and a driver was summoned to pick up the team. They eventually got picked up and Mark was chastised by a parent for the mix up. It was his fault, but he handled it professionally. Just another day or night in an Athletic Director's job description. Thank God for cell phones. A highly anticipated lacrosse game between perennial power Hudson and a very good Solon squad was being held Friday night at Solon's stadium at 7 PM with the JV match beginning at 5 PM. A large crowd was expected on a beautiful Spring night. We had two off duty officers, one from Solon and one from Glen Willow along with the Athletic Director and two support staff members to handle crowd control and other situations that might occur. The JV match ended with Solon being victorious over Hudson. The crowd for the varsity game was a little late but that was expected. By the beginning of the game, there was a line to get in with only one person in the ticket booth and two taking tickets. Mark ran over to help out and while the game begun. Some small minor incidents occurred such as some Hudson students attempted to jump the far fence to sneak into the game. Their attempts failed while one of the support staff members guided the kids to the ticket booth to purchase entry into the match. Another situation occurred when the Solon baseball players arrived from their away game and tried to stay on the opposite side of the stadium which was closed off. Mark guided them back to their the appropriate side and order was restored. The game went back and forth up to 6 minutes left in game with Solon leading 9 to 7. Then in a burst of scoring, Hudson scored 6 goals to end the game winning 16 to 9. Crowd control was in place with the fans, parents and students being allowed to greet the Solon players after the Hudson team left the field and headed into the locker room. The Solon kids were consoled and everyone seemed to linger around on the track. Finally, one of the off duty police officers shouted and instructed everyone to leave the stadium. They quickly dispersed the area and the support staff entered into the AD's office. The financial take for the game was over $2,100 which was considered an excellent gate. From my observations, crowd control, financial accounting, event planning and public relations are only some of the skills necessary for an Athletic Director to perform the task at hand. Today is typical day in the spring sports season. There were seven events originally scheduled for today with one of those cancelled due to a previous postponed triple header with a league opponent. Boys tennis have a home match against Glen Oak from the Canton, OH area while the Boys Varsity Baseball have a game at Cuyahoga Falls. The Boys Junior Varsity and Freshman squads have home games against those same Cuyahoga Falls Tigers. The Girls Varsity and Junior Varsity Softball teams have away contests at Mentor. Due to a previous postponement because of weather, these Mentor games were moved to today and an independent contest against Akron St. Vincent/St. Mary was cancelled with no possibility of a makeup. Matches that involve league members always take precedence over independent games. The weather is playing a little cat and mouse game with rain on and off throughout the day. Tomorrow is a full slate of events with 11 originally scheduled. The contests are evenly distributed with five being held at home and 5 away with 1 being cancelled. The highlight of tomorrow's schedule is the Boys Lacrosse match against powerhouse Hudson at Solon. The event is being televised. Cool thing for a fledgling lacrosse program. The sport of lacrosse is sweeping the nation especially in the state of Ohio. It has been very popular for many years in several specific regional areas such as Baltimore, MD, Syracuse, NY and Long Island, NY. In the last ten years or so, the sport has increased in popularity in the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and even Ohio. The sport has grown from the Columbus, OH area into the suburbs of Akron, Cleveland and Cincinnati and will continue to expand. This growth justs adds another sport to manage for an Athletic Director. He has to arrange for officials, workers for scorekeeping and scoreboard management along with keeping up with eligibility requirements for the athletes. Solon has had lacrosse for a few years now and today's opponent is a private school near Akron, OH, Walsh Jesuit High School. Walsh has been fairly solid in recent years but this year might be Solon's year. For example, in a span of 3 minutes in the second quarter Solon scored 5 goals to all but put the game on ice by making the score 15 to 3. Solon commanded the rest of the game and provided all of the kids a chance to gain valuable playing time. As for the operation of the game which is a primary purpose of the Athletic Department, there was a slight problem to deal with. The sound system quit operating in the first quarter. Mr. McGuire phoned the sound system "expert" that was working with the class play. His advice did not solve the situation. This will be another thing to correct come Monday when school is back in session. Onto the baseball game across the street. Solon is playing Shaker Heights for a doubleheader. It is Saturday and the weather is cooperating. The sun is out and it is a little chilly. However, the crack of the bat and the pounding of the glove along with the umpire calling balls and strikes are welcome sounds of Spring after another tough cold and snowy Northeastern Ohio winter. The game is played at the Community Park which is across the street from the high school. It has neatly groomed and maintained grass infield and the grounds is handled by the city recreation center staff. This varsity field is part of a complex that has a JV Boys diamond along with the girls soccer fields. One unusual thing that I noticed was the presence of lights throughout the complex for the fields except for one field. That field was where the Varsity Boys Baseball team plays their home games. Interesting but noticeable. Solon scores and Shaker comes back but in the end, Solon prevails 6 to 4. The second game is about to begin. While attending the lacrosse game, I noticed how impressive the stadium scoreboard is. The scoreboard is fairly new with its installation a few years ago. It has video capability along with excellent graphics and a noticeable presence for gathering attention. At halftime of the lacrosse match, a list of sponsors spun through on the graphics area of the scoreboard. The list of sponsors was quite impressive with many eateries, banks and local businesses being mentioned. These advertisers had their logos and marketing message on this presentation instead of nondescript information like a phone number or website address. These advertisers provide an excellent revenue stream that provides the Solon athletic department and the student athletes the best possible facilities and tools to compete and achieve their goals and objectives. The Solon Athletic Department is not involved in the solicitation or securing of these advertisers. Those tasks are handled by the Athletic Booster club. The Athletic Department is the recipient of the revenue generated from these sponsors which in turn goes to the student athletes involved in all sports Solon offers. Mark did not know the price of the advertisements that appeared on the scoreboard or the details of the agreements between the sponsors and the Booster Club. The sponsorship program does provide thousands of dollars to the Athletic Department which is very much appreciated and utilized very wisely. The weather cooperated today with the clouds parting the way for the sun to shine and the temperatures to rise indicating that Spring has arrived. A dual track meet between Solon and their neighbor to the south, Twinsburg began at approximately 4:30 PM. The venue of the meet is the football stadium that just recently a brand new track costing around $250,000. The meet is set up by both boys and girls team coaches with assistance from the student athletes. A tent is located at the designated finish line near the north end zone for the scorekeepers and others to gather and meet if necessary. The Head Boys Coach from Solon has a portable microphone attached in order to announce the upcoming events and the attendance of the participants. This portable microphone was an idea of Mark McGuire which provided the Head Coach the ability to control the flow of the meet along with conducting his coaching duties. From the looks of the dual meet, there must be at least over a hundred athletes participating in several track and field events in the stadium area. One paid official is present and basically manages the start of each race by announcing "runners take your place", "get ready", and then a gun with blanks is fired indicating the start of the race. Other volunteers record the times of each runner in a very orderly manner. The other events such as the pole vault and the long jump are handled by coaches and volunteers. Mark McGuire walks around to all of the events insuring the flow and organization of the event meets his expectations and high standards. The size of the crowd was impressive and it illustrated the pride both communities have for their teams and their kids. From all indications, both the boys and girls teams from Solon beat Twinsburg. |
AuthorI'm attempting at an advanced age to become an Athletic Director at the high school level. People think I'm nuts but fulfilling your dreams is a vital part of living. I will try to achieve that goal. Archives
April 2015
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