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Isaiah Rodgers
Dr. Buchanan
HHP 430
October 11, 2016
During class on October 6, Mark Palmer from Patrick Henry came and spoke with us
about several managing aspects and challenges you face being an athletic director at the
interscholastic level. This relates heavily to the textbook chapter 7 which is about the subject of
interscholastic athletics and its various issues, ethics, etc. Listening to Mark Palmer I learned an
abundance of information anywhere from meeting the needs of athletics itself, to meeting the
needs of the parents and the entire organization.
One the most important things I learned when it comes to interscholastic athletics is that
education always comes first for the students, and that is really at any level in my opinion.
According to Pedersen and Thibault (2014), Athletics should be viewed as an extension of a
good educational program. (p.171). You want to always make sure the students are eligible, as
well as have insurance, make sure they are aware of their counselor and meet all NCAA
requirements. Another thing that keeps the wheels going is how well you work with your fellow
staff, coaches that is. You want to always have a steady flow of communication amongst the
coaches and parents with all the different teams. Make sure all coaching staffs know their budget
and make sure they are maintaining their facilities, and lastly having evaluations at the end of
each season. When it comes to working with parents, it is always best to have meetings before
the season to let the parents know everything that is going on and know your coaching
philosophy, etc. You want to talk about booster information and reaching out to the community
and how you bridge to the middle school program.

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Palmer really stressed the process of planning, scheduling, organizing, etc. when it comes
to being the athletic director of an organization. According to Pedersen and Thibault (2014), In
sports organizations, the management process typically starts with planning and ends with
controlling and evaluating. (p.113). As an athletic director, you have to create and approve all
schedules and organize the different school websites. You have to assign game duties to all the
faculty as well. Also, you have to schedule bus trips and if there is a cancellation, there is a long
process that goes along with that and you have to make sure all organizations and persons
involved are aware of the cancellation. Budget, like I mentioned before, is huge because you
have to maintain inventory, provide field supplies, uniforms, etc. for every team. There are
conference costs, concessions, awards, and making sure all of the bus drivers and officials of the
games get paid.
In conclusion, there are many more aspects of being an athletic director that are essential,
such as being an admin, effective publicity, legal issues, etc. At the end of the day, I think the
many things Mark Palmer discussed just expanded on the many situations and aspects that the
book discussed. Being the athletic director and lead operator of an organization(s) can be a very
stressful and challenging tasks that takes an abundance of time and hard work. It also tasks
someone who is versatile, with an open mind and willing to work with others and being able to
adjust to any situation. However, it is a very fun and rewarding career and can be done with the
right attitude and a good staff and faculty that support you and your decisions. The ultimate
message I got from Mark Palmer is that you need to be a great listener, you need to be honest,
and you need to always have your staffs back to an extent, and lastly you need to always be
willing to do the right thing.