Field Experience Summary

By
PJ Graybeck
ATH 550
Event Planning and Public Relations in Athletic Administration

Nova Southeastern University

August 13, 2016

For the last year I have been in the Athletic Administration Masters at
Nova Southeastern. Throughout this time I gained valuable knowledge on
how to be a better administrator. Not only did I learn how to be a better
administrator at the educational side but how to become an effective Athletic
Director. My goal is to one day become an athletic director at either the high
school or college level. This program made me think like a future athletic
director and had me research, write and implement many areas of the
profession that I will one day hold the title of. Leadership, delegation, event
planning, budgeting, problem solving, marketing and understanding the legal
aspects of sport, were all areas that were concentrated on extensively and
helped further my development in athletic administration.
For fourteen weeks I had to put many of those skills to the test as I
participated in the Athletic Administration Field Experience. The field
experience was done at Riverwood International Charter School (RICS) in
Sandy Springs, Ga. This was an ideal situation as I am currently and
employee at the school and was able to work extensively with the athletic
department and the current Athletic Director Mike Santoro.
While participating in the field experience I was lucky enough to see
first-hand how a high school athletic department is run in a school that is one
of seventeen high schools in the Fulton County School District. This situation
is different from other high schools in which there is only one or two high
schools in the county. High schools in a big county like the one RICS is in, has
many more restrictions, paperwork, budget complications, larger chain of
command and more equality among high schools which limit certain options.

The RICS athletic department is bound by the limitations that are put forth
from county and can at times, make an athletic directors job harder without
being compensated appropriately.
When I approached Coach Santoro about participating in this program,
he was gracious to accept the responsibility of being my mentor and site
supervisor. There were many days in which I would sit down with him and ask
questions about certain situations that athletic directors encounter. We
talked about the hiring and firing process. We discussed what he felt is his
main role as athletic director in an affluent school like RICS. He went over
how the budgeting process for the whole department and each individual
team works. One area I found very useful was how he keeps things organized
and maintains records of everything he does for future references.
The most valuable lessons I learned though were when I was allowed to
take on many athletic director duties. The field-experience which started the
first week of May, happened to be the last month of spring sports for the
school year. During that time, I had several responsibilities on two different
occasions for the boys soccer team. One was when RICS hosted the
semifinal game of the playoffs and the other was the championship game
down at Mercer University. For the home game, I was given the responsibility
of being the game supervisor. As the game supervisor my duties were to take
care of opposing teams and referees locker rooms. I had to make sure they
were locked and stocked with water. Prior to the game I helped direct fans to
stadium seats and during the game monitored the fans for behavior and
decorum. At the end of the game I escorted the opposing team and referees

off the field and then cleaned up and emptied the stadium. This experience
allowed me to show and work on my organizational skills by keeping fans in
order and directing the fans to their appropriate place. I had to use effective
communication skills when directing the teams and referees of the field at
the end of the game. One are I felt was very important was to take the
initiative and clean up the field after the game. This shows my commitment
to providing a positive athletic environment and a perception that we care
about our teams and facilities. For the Championship game, I was given the
responsibility of supervisor and bus chaperone. I chaperoned 65 students on
the bus to and from the game and had to make sure all students were safe
and accounted for and behaved in a proper manner on the bus. During the
game I monitored students for behavior and sportsmanship and directed fans
to the victory end zone to celebrate. For this game I had to show effective
leadership, my organizational skills, safety procedures and that I have
effective communication skills to oversee so many students at one time.
Throughout the playoff run, I was able to learn what goes into all the
planning that makes a playoff team successful. I watched as Coach Santoro
made plans for buses, budgeted for food, tickets and organized the trip to
Mercer University. Later in my field experience, I learned that winning a state
championship take a lot of work from the athletic director. Buying
championship rings, organizing a celebration and ordering t-shirts requires
one to understand the financials of the athletic program and how to use
them appropriately and effectively within the programs means. Its

important to make the proper decisions not only helps the soccer team but if
a poor decision was made, it could affect the whole athletic program.
One area that I got to experience was sitting in on the interview
process for a head coach. I found it very important that the interview process
is organized and runs smoothly. I had the opportunity to ask a few questions
myself. The questions that were asked were written out and communicated
with all administrators in the interview prior to meeting the coach. This
allowed everyone to know exactly what to ask, make sure the questions were
legal and, showed that the program was prepared.
I spent a good portion of time sitting in on the end of the year
evaluations of all head coaches. The evaluations provided both positive and
corrective criticism to all the coaches. This information is necessary to make
sure all the athletic teams are heading in the direction of the philosophy of
the athletic director and school. I actively listened to the questions, took
notes on how the information was communicated and I noticed how well
organized and documented all the information was. I realized that it is
important to document as much as possible and to have a folder of both
positive and negative information on each coach. As a future athletic
director, being able to communicate your concerns and ideas on change to
head coaches takes a lot of balance and thought on what to say. You need to
be able to effectively get your point across without causing issues that will
make matters worse.
Organization was noticed a lot during my field- experience. Whether it
was for an interview, evaluations or when it can to the overall operation of
the athletic program. Being organized allows things to run more smoothly or

to be able to catch issues and correct them quicker and more effectively.
Thats why I had to do equipment inventory for each team. I spent about
three hours each day doing inventory for all sports equipment. We would
meet with the head coach of a sport and go over the equipment inventory.
This allowed us to figure out what was missing, see if we can find it and store
the equipment that still available. Anything that was missing was written up
and later on we went through the budgets and financials to make purchase
orders.
During the summer hours I was given the opportunity to take over an
administrative role in a lower level capacity. I was given the role of grounds
supervisor for the summer. My responsibilities included, making sure all
fields and gyms were ready to go for the day, walked around to make sure
practices were run smoothly, made sure all athletes had their physicals,
returned emails and phone calls from parent concerns for summer practices
and coordinated each team to make sure they had a field and times
available. I had to use several key qualities to be affective. I had to be
extremely organized and adaptable when it came to practice time and
facility usage. I need to make sure each team had their own times and a
place to practice but also had to make sure there were accommodations
made in case of in climate weather. Every week I sent out a schedule to all
the teams and made sure I communicated with all head coaches any
changes or concerns that I had. Many of the concerns dealt with player
physicals. It was very important that we had each athletes physical on file
and up to date. I would update the list every Sunday and get it out to all

coaches for the week. I spent a lot of the time responding to parent or player
emails. I feel it is very important to be prompt on the response to ease any
concerns they may have. Making sure the constituents are satisfied is key to
running a successful program. There were times I had to delegate
responsibilities to other coaches. Those coaches were ones I felt comfortable
with and trusted would do what was asked of them. Summer ended up being
very successful and there were very little issues that came up.
Lastly, I spent quite a bit of time sitting in on budget meetings with
every head coach, the head of the Riverwood Athletic Association and the
parent representative of each team. I took notes and noticed how each
meeting was organized, communicated properly, and was developed in the
best interest of each team and as it related to the overall function of the
entire athletic program. It was noticed how each team had a starting budget.
It was also noticed that each budget fit into the overall budget of the athletic
program. Throughout the meetings hard decisions had to be to made by the
athletic director. In the end all budgets were agreed upon and no team was
in the red. That shows how effectively run the athletic program is.
The overall experience I had could not have prepared me more to
become and athletic director. I took on many responsibilities, took notes,
listened intently, and observed how an athletic program should be run.
Experiencing the aspects of running a program will allow me to apply them
when I eventually get an athletic director position.