Personal Narrative: An Interview With Athletic Staff

This interview was conducted to discover and examine the myriad administrative duties and responsibilities of organizational leaders. I interviewed Mr. Dan Phipps, who is the Athletic Director for Muscatine Community School District. He is also the Dean of Students. This double role makes for an extremely busy day. As it turned out, he has served in the military. He was a sergeant in the Marine Corp, serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. I started the interview by asking about the hiring and firing procedures of coaches. He referred me to state code 279.19A, Extracurricular Contracts. This code is quite lengthy but very necessary to the hiring and firing of coaches. Hiring procedures are quite simple, the school district in a “good faith …show more content…
They must submit a form to the athletic director prior to their season explaining their efforts for fundraising. The fundraising line item can roll to their activity line item for a positive balance. Any donation made from the booster club or outside source to an activity must be deposited into that activities general fund. “Managing of the facilities is easy”, he said. His coaches and sponsors work together to make sure there is no overlapping of facilities. A google document has been created, view only, on a month-to-month basis, consisting of date, time, and activity using the facility. The athletic director secretary manages the document to make sure all activities are represented. “We have enough gym spaces available to cover our activities”, said Mr Phipps. Mr. Phipps says he has the most difficult time with athletic clearance. He has made a few changes the past couple of years. Before, the athletic secretary would print a clearance sheet for every coach. Each coach was responsible for ensuring that every athlete was represented on this sheet. Each coach was responsible for “getting on the athlete” that was not cleared and reminding them to get his/her paperwork into the office or they will not be able to practice/participate. Mr. Phipps said for some reason coaches would not keep accurate records of participating athletes. Some athletes would get to their next sport and still not be cleared …show more content…
Phipps about parents specifically. I thought this would be a hot topic. He said, “typically yes parents can get nasty, but I make a point of asking four questions before having a conversation with a parent or setting up a meeting”. “Is there a safety or ethical issue concerning your son/daughter? Has your son/daughter talked to the coach about their concern? Have you talked to the coach about your son/daughters concern?” If the parent has taken the proper steps, Mr. Phipps will set up a meeting with the parent for the following day. He will personally talk with the coach about the concern this parent has so he has a “heads up” about the situation before having the meeting the next day. He calls this his “24 hour