ADs should be lauded for demanding job

Athletic directors have a demanding, year-round endeavor and should be appreciated for the time and energy they devote to local high school sports, Fuad Shalhout writes in a column.

Last year, I wrote a column on how a coach’s job goes beyond wins and losses at the high school level and how they should be appreciated for what they bring to the table.

Allow me to go a step further and declare how the people above them should be appreciated, too.

In what is mostly a thankless and exhausting job, athletic directors have the weight of a cannon ball on their shoulders.

They are in charge of everything within an athletic department — and more. One misjudgment or mistake, and an athletic director can potentially harm the future of a student-athlete.

An AD’s job doesn’t entail showing up to a game, making sure everything runs smoothly, and going home to a good night’s sleep. Their days, I’m guessing, start super early in the morning and don’t end until late at night.

Reading an article in the Telegraph Forum last month about the rapid job turnover for athletic directors sparked the idea for this column. In it, OHSAA executive director Jerry Snodgrass had interesting comments about the aspects of the job.

“I spent 17 years as an athletic director and the demands of the job even then were impossible. But, my job is to make their lives easier and I am always available to help in any way,” Snodgrass said in the article.

He later added: “There was a stat that said 36 percent of all of the administrators in Ohio retired after this past school year. That means that 36 percent of all of the administrators for this year will be new.

“The time commitment is without a doubt the biggest reason for the job turnover. Not to mention the pressure these people are under is more than troubling to think about.”

The pay for ADs is usually nice, especially at a Division I high school. But with that comes a ton of sacrifice. Most ADs have families they don’t get to spend time with because of their duties, and they need cooperation from their spouses to hold the fort down with them not home. An AD also, in most cases, has media obligations to take care of. Anything we journalists need, they usually deliver — especially most of the ADs in The Morning Journal coverage area. (Thank you, for those of you who are reading this.)

I spoke to one particular AD in the area earlier in the year, and in casual conversation, he brought up his schedule for the day. He bounced around three sporting events that day, then had to attend his daughter’s graduation the following morning and do it all over again.

Handling the paperwork aspect of the job and more isn’t something I’m smart enough to ever understand, but I’d imagine it’s never ending. While the job has its upsides, it requires perseverance and the ability to work well under pressure.

Athletes, families and fans involved in high school sports should appreciate the work the athletic directors do.

Shalhout can be reached at FShalhout@ MorningJournal.com; on Twitter: @shalhoutf