A DAY IN THE LIFE
Lehigh Valley athletic directors haven’t had it easy in the ever-changing world of high school sports during the coronavirus pandemic
At 8:30 a.m. on a Wednesday, Randy Atiyeh’s legal pad is full, and he knows that every time he checks off a completed chore from it, he probably must add another.
“I have to have this list,” Allen High School’s first-year athletic director said. “I lose sleep over it.”
But with a 1-year-old son and 7-yearold daughter at home, he was already used to limited shuteye.
So settling into his office at the school offers little respite. That’s because Atiyeh doesn’t sit for very long during the course of a normal day, which he allowed The Morning Call to document — to paint a picture of the lives of Lehigh Valley’s athletic directors during a pandemic that further complicates their jobs.
Any hour spent with Atiyeh would prove that.
Any single day offers a fascinating look at the challenges Atiyeh and his peers face.
Atiyeh’s must coordinate with Allentown School District’s other high school A.D., Dieruff’s Dave Stoudt, each day. The phone calls are nonstop.
“I probably have more conversations with the Dieruff A.D. than [with] my wife,” Atiyeh admitted.
On this day, one of Stoudt’s calls is to make sure they’re unified on what to present at the next morning’s meeting with other Eastern Pennsylvania Conference athletic directors, who get together every two weeks at Green Pond Country Club.
Atiyeh counted his business-related phone calls from the day before. There were 54, not including those that were made on the landline or on his walkie-talkie, usually to communicate with Allen’s security director, George Clay — who doubles as the head football coach.
Atiyeh’s job is complicated not only by the limits of scheduling during the pandemic and restrictions on attendance that seem to change by the hour, but by Allen’s urban campus — which does not connect its sports facilities, like at many other EPC and Colonial League schools.
No matter. Atiyeh, the EPC’s youngest athletic director at 32, has a trusted Toyota Corolla that gets a serious daily workout while shuttling the A.D. around.
Here are a few highlights of Atiyeh’s day Sept. 30. Including every task would require endless online scrolling and pages of newsprint.
8:55 a.m.
Atiyeh jumps in his car and heads to the school district’s 15,000-seat facility, J. Birney Crum Stadium, which hosts football games for three schools: Allen, Dieruff and Allentown Central Catholic. Soccer and field hockey are also played there.
It’s possible that no further sports will be permitted here this season. A potential sinkhole is feared to endanger the southwest corner of the playing field. A depression in the turf is marked by orange construction cones around the perimeter and the stadium is closed indefinitely.
Atiyeh wants to meet with the facilities crew for an update on the problem. They still don’t know for sure.
But since the field hockey team must now use the grass field (near Union Terrace Elementary School) for games until the stadium is open again, Atiyeh must fix a hole in one of the goal’s nets.
Atiyeh wonders how he’s going to attend to all team practice and game venue needs because Allentown’s city parks also are closed indefinitely due to the pandemic.
“Trying to figure out this schedule was already insane with the city parks closed,” Atiyeh said. “Now we lose our stadium, which normally we can get