Spring in the State of Ohio is quite interesting and unpredictable. It can be 72 degrees and sunny one day and 42 degrees and raining or even perhaps snowing. These conditions cause havoc and stress filled days when attempting to get many spring sports events played. For example, it was raining on and off all day Tuesday with four events scheduled..........three away and one home. It is a balancing act with the weatherman, the Athletic Directors, Coaches and cell phones all playing a big part in the orchestration of these games. The fields must in "playable" condition first and foremost for the safety of the participants. Secondly, the weather must cooperate to insure not only the safety factor but also for the enjoyment of the game. Decisions must be made quickly and decisively to save teams from traveling sometimes great distances to play the games along with informing the referees, umpires and officials from showing up expecting to perform their duties. On top of that, the rescheduling of these events consume the most important asset anyone has...........time. Because the spring sports season is somewhat short due to school getting out earlier and earlier in the year and the weather, rescheduling of postponed events becomes more and more difficult to achieve. My suggestion..........play the games well into June. The Fall Sports season begins in August before the start of school. Why can't the Spring Sports season continue after school ends? Anyway the weather had its way.........all four events were postponed until another day.
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The issue at hand for tonight's contest is crowd control. The District game involving Shaker Heights and Warren G. Harding High Schools could possibly demand some extra crowd control due to the demographics and importance of the game. Both schools possess a racially diverse fan base from different areas of Northeast Ohio. Shaker Heights was at one time on the list of the wealthiest suburbs in the entire country and one of the "whitest". That has all changed through the decades with many black families moving from the poor performing schools in Cleveland, OH to the affluent neighborhoods of Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights. Warren on the other hand is an old industrial town that fell victim to the migration of many manufacturing jobs to the South, Mexico and China and the closure of many factories. They had for a period of thirty years or so two large high schools that produced many collegiate and professional athletes along with many successful business leaders. Warren fans are extremely proud of their hometown athletes and travel very well to watch these young men play in addition to being very vocal in their support. The game was well attended with the Warren side being almost full and the Shaker side of the gymnasium approximately 70% occupied. We had barriers set up to control the flow of traffic and four Solon patrolmen on duty to exhibit authority. From my observations, only one time did someone needed to talked with. A Harding fan was becoming very boisterous in his displeasure with the officials and was calmed down by the Faculty Manager Cal Washington. After that, everything went smoothly from beginning to end with Shaker being victorious in the contest. This one hurts me..........I'm a Warren G. Harding graduate. With the first District Semifinal game set to begin at 7 PM, much work needs to be done before tip off. Starting at approximately 4:30 PM, the janitorial staff at Solon prepares the gymnasium for a basketball game by having the bleachers and the two main hoops in place. Mark's staff of Cal Washington and Dave Peleg help set up the sound system along with the scoreboard by performing audio and visual tests to ensure operational functionality. The ticket takers (Carol Schultz, Joy Cardinale & Nancy Meduri) are arriving and positioning themselves at the ticket booth for purchases, another at a table to take tickets and still another for free entry such as members of the team, cheerleaders, media guests, etc. The concessions are handled by specific Booster Clubs members and operate separately and in conjunction with the Athletic Department. Signs must be posted on the doors indicating which side the respective teams' fans should sit along with "No Re-entry" signs on the front entrance doors. I handle whatever duties that are assigned to me by Mark from getting coolers of water and bags of ice for the teams to walking the teams to their respective locker rooms to aligning the seats in a straight line to ensure a uniform appearance to positioning portable crowd barriers to direct foot traffic and insuring safety. One last thing that needed to be confirmed........the arrival of the Solon student that will sing the National Anthem before the game. He arrived with 5 minutes before the introductions. The Mark McGuire team doesn't have a checklist on paper, they have it their head and perform the duties from repetition and memory and the love of serving others. While working at the boys basketball games along with the District games, I noticed that the officials are sometimes forgotten in the mix of these events. They are not part of either school in the contest and they are the ones that can the most visible when a difficult call is made or not made. They get screamed at and possibly feel threatened at times. At Solon though, they are treated extremely well with respect, dignity and facilities with perks that are second to none. From my times a other high schools, basketball officials are often quartered in outlaying locker rooms with no food or drinks at their disposal. At Solon, that treatment is not the norm. A coaches locker room is provided that has plenty of room to stretch and lounge before, at halftime and after the game. Refreshments along with pizza, sandwiches and deserts are provided making this venue a desired destination for officials. Adequate shower facilities add to the reason why Solon is a place to officiate athletic contests. Add in the respect exhibited by the Solon Athletic Department support staff, officiating contests here is a "no brainer" decision. Hiring anyone for a position is a difficult process that at times is a very hard decision. From an Athletic Department perspective, some positions are easier than others to fill while others are extremely time consuming and cumbersome. Certain sports like girls track and field and lacrosse will get very few applicants when they are vacant. On the otherhand, football and boys basketball will draw upwards of 75 applicants some as far away as Texas and Florida. First of all, a profile is created by the Mr. McGuire in terms of expertise, experience, and teaching credentials that will fit the open position. Hopefully an internal candidate that is presently employed by the Solon system will meet and exceed the criteria established for the position. However, at times the internal candidate is not the best fit for the position. They are by union contract guaranteed an interview but not the position. The best scenario for the hiring process is a committee that is small enough that provides a wide scope of feeling toward the candidate that is best suited for the position. As for screening the resumes and application letters, Mark is a stickler for correct punctuation and grammar. If there are mistakes, those resumes are filed into the trash can and rightly so. Depending on the open position, Mark will bring in up to 5 candidates to interview with 3 going onto the final round. The superintendent and principal along with Mark's recommendation make the final decision. Hiring a head coach is a very important duty of the athletic department because that individual is building a program that will impact and influence the young people that participate in that particular sport for the rest of their lives. A good credo to follow.......hire good people for the long haul. The Boys Basketball season was somewhat of a middle of the road type of season. They had their ups and their downs with a fairly young team. The team has only 3 seniors and the best player from a talent perspective is a freshman by the name of Sincere Carry and he has great potential to be special by the time he graduates. This is their first tournament game and it is down the road against Bedford at Bedford High School. This is the second year where the first two rounds of tournament games are played at the home of the higher seeded teams. This is a new procedure as for previous years all of the games were played at designated sites throughout the state. The reason behind this change was for awarding successful teams a chance to play tournament games at home for the first rounds and the schools to collect a share of the gate proceeds from pre-sale proceeds in addition to running the concession stand where the profits go to the booster clubs. From an administrative standpoint, Mark attends these games to exhibit his support of the players and of the school. From a hosting perspective, the Athletic Director from Bedford was re-positioning himself constantly throughout the contest ensuring safety and proper crowd control measures were intact. It helps with school security and Bedford police on duty to ensure an orderly contest. By the way, Bedford showed why they are a higher seeded team by beating Solon 63 - 52. Hockey at Solon as it is at other schools is not the most high profile winter sport. It might be in Michigan or Wisconsin or Minnesota, but in Ohio, high school hockey takes a back seat to the other sports. Nevertheless, the student athletes that play the sport have been involved in it since they were old enough to walk or skate. It is a very costly sport where the school contributes funds that make up a small fraction of the total cost of the program. The parents have a separate booster club that helps out with the high cost of renting ice time for games and practices along with the uniforms. These kids at times practice either first thing in the morning (5 AM before school begins) or in the late evening (after 8 PM) and this poses a huge sacrifice of time and financial resources for families of these players. I attended one the matches as the responsibilities are managed by the hockey booster club. Solon was skating against University School which is a private school that has a great hockey tradition. They battled for every puck and scored some goals but in the end the superior talent won the contest. The kids from both squads were well mannered considering the physical nature of the sport and the possibility of cheap shots happening. Mark is usually at every match and contest that Solon participates in and that is not the normal routine for the majority of the Athletic Directors. Joyce Cardinale is the secretary to Mark McGuire, the Athletic Director of Solon High School. She has been with the school system for over 10 years but in her first year in this role of secretary in the athletic department. Joy, as she likes to be called, is a valuable member of the athletic department team. Her duties are numerous and important but she always has time for a chat or a smile to make anyone entering the office feel extremely welcomed. Some of her duties include the input of data ranging from scores to grades to scheduling of games. She tracks physical forms and emergency medical forms along with a variety of other school related information. She assists Mark in tracking the eligibility of the student athletes which is an ongoing process. Some of her other duties is the accounting of the monies that are collected at the revenue generating sports like football, basketball (girls & boys), wrestling, and volleyball. Her other duties include assisting the overall organization from a functioning standpoint along with providing support and help to coaches that need answers when Mark is attending meetings or assessing field conditions. Joy is an asset to the athletic department and provides a calming effect to an otherwise hectic environment. I attended the League Meeting with Mark to observe the discussions, practices and procedures of a league meeting. Solon has been in the Northeast Ohio League for a number of years which consisted of 18 of the largest school systems in the Greater Cleveland area. As the area and related school systems go through population shifts and demographic changes, league affiliations follow that trend. The Northeast Ohio Conference will disband at the end of this school year with the affected schools already aligned with other conferences or re-establishing dormant ones. Solon will become a member of the Greater Cleveland Conference which traces its history back decades ago. The Comets will join Brunswick, Elyria, Euclid, Medina, Mentor, Shaker Heights and Strongsville in forming a strong athletic performing league. On the agenda were discussion on conference banners which must be uniform in size and appearance, league by-laws discussion on progress and philosophy, discussion on scheduling for next year's winter sports, the use of schedule star website, conference championship tournament discussion, the use of Athleticare for all of the members' sports medicine needs, the possibility of the conference members forming a group purchasing baseballs and other necessities and seeking a partner like Tri - C Community College or a regional bank to sponsor these conference championships. The meeting lasted for a few hours and the observation was invaluable. The title of this post is absolutely 100% correct. Not all schools are the same when comparing the help and assistance in covering athletic events which the Athletic Director is responsible for. Using Solon and Mark McGuire as an example, he is basically the only person covering the athletic events. During the football and basketball games, he has a facility manager to assist along with others from the community and the school for support. But for the other sporting events, he is operating solo. At a future fellow league member school, the Athletic Director has six facility managers to assist him in the efforts to cover as many athletic events as possible. Still another school which is of comparable size, the Athletic Department has a full time Athletic Director, a full time Assistant Athletic Director and six faculty managers that receive one period off during the school day to assist in the covering of the respective athletic events. This situation is quite noticeable due to the fact that Solon has the same amount of athletic teams as compared to their league counterparts but with a significantly smaller support staff to cover these events. Perhaps it is time to make the administration aware of this shortcoming in staffing. |
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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