What does an AD do? Plenty

“The first two weeks are a fire drill trying to meet the needs of everybody — coaches, kids, families,” said Aragon AD Steve Sell, who took over the Dons’ athletic department in 1996 and is the longest tenured AD in San Mateo County.

In many cases, the AD hat is one of several many of these men and women wear. In addition to being AD, Sell is a physical education teacher and head varsity football coach. Hillsdale’s Brett Stevenson is the head varsity boys’ basketball coach and a co-dean of students. Melissa Schmidt, who was already the girls’ soccer coach and a teacher at Sequoia, added the AD role prior to this past season.

How does one do perform the duties of an AD — that is a full-time job in and of itself, while taking care of coaching and teach responsibilities?

“You look at Steve Sell and you say, ‘Wow. Where does he find hours in the day and do it all well?’” said Serra AD Dean Ayoob.

Like all the schools in the West Catholic Athletic League, Ayoob is a full-time AD at Serra: no in-class teaching and no coaching (unless it’s an emergency). Being focused solely on the school’s athletic department allows Ayoob to best help his coaches to prepare the players to put them in the best position to succeed.

“(I focus on) just setting our coaches up to just coach,” Ayoob said. “Not (have them) scheduling buses or the other administrative stuff that goes into it.

“There is so much change going on in the league and the section and the state. You have to be constantly communicating with [coaches] about all that stuff.”

‘Stuff’ will fall through the cracks

When the AD is also a coach, and a teacher or administrator, they have to come to the conclusion that some things just will not get done in a timely manner. It’s one of the biggest challenges of the job: a time frame, or more precisely, a lack thereof.

“Every AD in our district, they could show up at 8 a.m. and leave at 5 a.m. doing AD work and not get caught up,” Sell said.

“Sports has become year-round endeavors,” Stevenson said. “You’re constantly thinking about it, putting out fires, talking about it.”

All three public school ADs interviewed agreed that the hardest part to overcome is making everyone happy all the time.

“I lived in fear my first year,” Schmidt said. “I’ve gotten really good at the, ‘Hey, I’m really sorry I screwed up’ (speech). Most people are really good about it as they see how hard [I’m] working.”

The lack of a firm time frame is the biggest complaint, Sell said. Hiring a new coach is much more than a firm handshake and a hearty “You’re hired!” declaration. There is a mountain of paperwork and background work that has to be completed before a new coach steps on the field and completing all those tasks take time. From the coach getting, and filling out, the proper paperwork and turning it into the AD, to the time it takes to sign off on said paperwork can, conceivably, take weeks.

Then there is the simple fact that most ADs are splitting their time between teaching and coaching part of the year, in addition to their AD duties.

“I know sitting down to do a lesson plan, it was so nice (to have a schedule),” Sell said. “Bill Gray (former longtime AD, coach and teacher at Terra Nova) asked me if he should become an AD. I said, ‘Bill, you can only do it if you’re comfortable saying I couldn’t get to it. If you can’t do that, you’re going to be so unhappy because you’re going to let people down all the time because you don’t have the time.”

No down time

But these ADs do it. They do it all — from filling out forms to filling out budgets for the seasons, an exercise that can range into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. They do it because they recognize the value sports can provide to high school students, which is about so much more than wins and losses.

“(It’s about) getting those boys prepared to give them the best chance to be successful,” Ayoob said. “It’s about educating your coaches and getting teams ready and teaching life lessons. That’s been the role of an AD.”

For many local ADs, there is also a strong emotional attachment to schools and hence, a desire to see the athletic teams do well. Ayoob, Sell and Stevenson are all graduates of the schools at which they work and they want to show their alma maters in the best light possible.

“This is my fifth year as AD. I kind of fell into it by default. It was kind of my turn, in a sense,” said Stevenson, who took over the AD role after the school went through two previous administrators in a short period of time.

“It’s not really a job people line up for,” Stevenson continued. “But I went to Hillsdale and it meant a lot to me (for the athletic department to be successful).”

A lot of that success in predicated on making sure a small problem doesn’t morph into a huge one. To that end, ADs are in constant contact with coaches, players and a wide variety of other people through the wonders of modern technology.

“When I first became AD, there was no email, there was no internet,” Sell said. “You find yourself now just texting and emailing all the time. When you wake up in the morning, while the coffee is brewing, you’re checking email.”

Oh, but ADs take the summers off, like teachers and the rest of the school staff, right? Not quite. Not even vacations are immune to the barrage of issues that constantly crop up in an athletic department.

“[My wife] gets mad at me (when I’m working during vacation). It’s not 40 hours a week, but you can’t take your hand off the steering wheel,” Sell said. “If you don’t take care of it while it’s a small brushfire, then you’re really in trouble.

“A lot of things aren’t that big of a deal — until they are.”

A love of the game

To a person, the ADs interviewed all said they wanted all teams in the department to be successful in one way or another. None want to be seen as favoring one team — most likely the one they coach — over the others. Spending time at games and matches (other than their own sport), showing the coaches, players and their families that they care about their team can build a lot of goodwill.

Schmidt seemed destined to be an athletic director. Her father was her AD when she was in high school. He was also the school’s football coach, but she saw how he went out of his way to support all sports.

“I noticed a shift in him when he became AD and started trying to pay attention to other sports,” Schmidt said. “That was 20 years ago. It was good for me to see him put in the time (at other events).”

To Schmidt, attending various sports also enables her to keep a pulse on what is happening in and around the department.

“I think it’s a huge part of my job. One of my biggest jobs is to mentor coaches. I can’t know what’s happening if I’m not there,” Schmidt said. “It’s very important to get out to practices and games to get a feel for how things are going. And I know the parents really appreciate it, too.”

Stevenson said being an AD has opened up his athletic horizons a bit more, as well.

“The positives are, I’m more in tune with other sports,” Stevenson said. “Before, it was just a laser focus on basketball. Now, I want to root for boys’ golf to make it to the Bay Division.”

Ayoob said the only real way to make sure there is a proper balance between AD duties and the rest of his life is to simply do it.

“I just made that decision my first couple years as AD not to stretch myself too thin,” Ayoob said.

Stevenson just rolls with it.

“You just end up multitasking,” Stevenson said. “You try to do the best you can with the time you have.”