Athletic Department Athletic Council at your school?

F

first

New member
I understand why there has been a lot of time spent covering the covid issues on this forum. It's the central theme that will control whether or not we have fall sports season. However, I thought I would post something to offer a little change of pace. I'm looking for a little input from some of you regarding school athletic councils. So the questions are:

1.) Does your school have an athletic council?
2.) If so, who are the people (head coaches, AD, etc.) that are a part of your council?
3.) How often does your athletic council meet?
4.) Who determines the agenda for the meetings?
5.) Are there topics/issues that are not to be discussed by your athletic council?

I would appreciate hearing what the set-up is for your school. The questions may seem odd, but between my school and couple of other local school districts there is a huge variance in how the athletic councils are set-up, what they may or may not discuss in their meetings, etc. So I want to get some information about the way some of your school athletic councils operate.
 
 
Although this will be of little help to you, none of the high schools I've worked in over the years (5 in 2 different states) had an athletic council. I can definitely see the advantages of having such a group.

My current school (D. 1) has not had an athletic dept. meeting in recent memory. Our school athletic boosters - a great group - do meet monthly, though.
 
Last edited:
Considering I don't know what an athletic council is, I guess that answers the question of whether or not my school has one.
 
We had one years ago made up of the Principal, AD, and coaches. One coach questioned one of the Principal's statements during the first meeting, was later reprimanded in his office, and it never met again.
 
We have one. The athletic director leads the meeting. The high school principal, head coaches, superintendent, and one board member attend. Topics that are discussed are presented prior to the meeting to the AD by anyone that will be attending.

It works really well to address major concerns that need to get resolved. However, sometimes (depending on who was the AD at the time) it is a way to steer the path of the school athletics a different way that the AD wants to go (which has been either somewhat good or very bad).
 
grange45 said:
We have one. The athletic director leads the meeting. The high school principal, head coaches, superintendent, and one board member attend. Topics that are discussed are presented prior to the meeting to the AD by anyone that will be attending.

It works really well to address major concerns that need to get resolved. However, sometimes (depending on who was the AD at the time) it is a way to steer the path of the school athletics a different way that the AD wants to go (which has been either somewhat good or very bad).
Click to expand...

What's the best outcome that you can remember from such a meeting?
 
Getting the head coaches voices out about concerns to both board members and administrators. Mostly it is really good about addressing athletic policies that are questionable and trying to move it in a more positive direction.

However, it only works if the admin are listening AND take a proactive approach to resolve the issue. Most times at my school the Ads over the years have used it as just a way to let coaches vent to everyone on the council with nothing getting resolved.
 
Sorry. I didn’t answer your last question. The main outcome that came out of one of our meetings was concerning lowering pay to play along with changing athletic eligibility for students to a more reasonable policy that addresses that at risk students.
 
grange45 said:
Sorry. I didn’t answer your last question. The main outcome that came out of one of our meetings was concerning lowering pay to play along with changing athletic eligibility for students to a more reasonable policy that addresses that at risk students.
Click to expand...

Does the council have the power to make changes to those things? I would have expected nothing more than being able to make recommendations to the school board.
 
It had to go through the school board approval but they listened and they ad presented the recommendations at their board meeting.

I guess you would have to have a board as well that will listen to it’s coaches and ad.
 
We have an AD. He has a meeting with us before every season. We are told what is expected. We are told any new safety concerns. We are told coaching philosophies that I take 1% something away from and 99% don't care. We then complain about the stupid stuff and praise the good stuff and all agree that we just want parents to let us do what we do best.
 
psycho_dad said:
We have an AD. He has a meeting with us before every season. We are told what is expected. We are told any new safety concerns. We are told coaching philosophies that I take 1% something away from and 99% don't care. We then complain about the stupid stuff and praise the good stuff and all agree that we just want parents to let us do what we do best.
Click to expand...
We have those too before every season and I think it’s required by the state. The athletic council meetings we have occur every school quarter with all the head coaches at the high school to discuss athletic policy and other general topics.
 
grange45 said:
We have those too before every season and I think it’s required by the state. The athletic council meetings we have occur every school quarter with all the head coaches at the high school to discuss athletic policy and other general topics.
Click to expand...
I really don't see a point. However, we are a smaller school and as coaches, we know most of the other coaches and talk to each other from time to time anyway. I could see at a larger school coaches might need to be brought together once in a while. We aren't reinventing the wheel. It's athletics and coaching. It's been going on forever.
 
You are pretty lucky if you do not see the point. Those mandatory athletic staff meetings are needed for 5% of the coaches. The people who do not communicate with parents by any means, yell and berate kids, so-on and so-on. Of course this could be addressed with the offenders only but someone at a school district level or above decided a blanket reminder was the way to go. As someone who tried to do things right when I coached, I did not see the point, but understood who it was being pointed at and why.
 
psycho_dad said:
I really don't see a point. However, we are a smaller school and as coaches, we know most of the other coaches and talk to each other from time to time anyway. I could see at a larger school coaches might need to be brought together once in a while. We aren't reinventing the wheel. It's athletics and coaching. It's been going on forever.
Click to expand...
I wasn’t arguing lol. They happen in my district and like I said before they’ve been good sometimes but not all the time.

I think it’s better to have it though because sometimes major things arise like each sports funding and changing of athletic policy (I know once in a great while) but when they do it’s nice to be able to discuss it. I don’t mind sitting in the unnecessary meetings in order to have a meeting that we need.

Again, I’m talking not about the mandatory preseason meetings but one quarterly meeting with all the head coaches, ad, board member, and admin.
 
Last edited:
Interesting stuff. Have always wondered why the OHSAA script for PA announcers used the phrase "the athletic council of __ high school"
. I assumed it was an old-fashioned or possibly legal term for athletic department.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top