Creating Monthly Checklists for High School Athletic Directors

When you are swamped with tasks, responsibilities and due dates, it is easy to forget some of the things that have to be accomplished. One possible solution or helpful tool to keep you in line and to avoid problems is a checklist; and considering the vast number of items and details that you have to attend to, a checklist for each month would be beneficial.

If you have been in your position for a number of years, you may already have these tools, and you only have to revise and update them. On the other hand, if you are new – either to the profession or starting at a different school – where and how do you begin to create your checklists?

The following tips should help.

• Ask your predecessor for a list of some major responsibilities and their accompanying due dates that they faced. This would be a good, logical place to start. The former athletic administrator might even have compiled a few checklists that you could use as a reference.

• Contact a few colleagues in neighboring schools for some suggestions, if the person you are replacing is no longer available. After all, these individuals probably would have the same or similar tasks and expectations that you have, and the due dates related to state association responsibilities, for example, would definitely be the same.

• Sit down with your principal or one of the assistants and ask for due dates for items such as your annual budget proposal, the completion of coaching evaluations, the schedule for bus transportation, and so forth that have to be completed. While the exact date will change year-toyear, you will know in which week and month they will normally occur.

• Take note of major, special events that are associated with your position, such as preseason coaches meetings – for each season, as well as the corresponding preseason parent meetings – the seasonal awards evening or program, the homecoming pep rally, and graduation to name a few. With each of these special or unique happenings, there will be planning and preparation that will have to be done prior to the day that they take place.

For example, you will have to ask your coaches to submit their award winners for their team, with the correct spelling of the athletes’ names, to send to the vendor to ensure the plaques or trophies arrive on time. With preseason meetings – for both coaches and parents – you will need an agenda and a PowerPoint presentation that has to be prepared or revised.

• Reach out to the officers of your booster club and get a list of their monthly meetings. These sessions commonly would occur, for example, on the same day each month such as the first Monday, and for oversight, you should attend. Also, list all league meetings, informational sessions that you are required to attend related to your state association, events and conference dates for your state athletic directors’ association, and the dates of the national athletic directors conference.

• Attend association conferences and read professional magazines. Both of these possibilities represent valuable resources, and they can provide you with ideas or responsibilities that others commonly include on their checklists. They may include items that you would never have thought of but would be wise to add.

While these are not the only tips that will help you to create monthly checklists, it is equally important to periodically revise them. Providing that you keep a copy on your computer, it should be relatively easy to add new items, delete unessential or outdated tasks, and to make any necessary corrections.

A sample monthly checklist by Jim Inskeep, CMAA, athletic director of Carmel (Indiana) High School is shown below.

Dr. David Hoch is a former athletic director at two high schools in Baltimore County (Maryland) for 16 years. He has 24 years of experience coaching basketball, including 14 years on the collegiate level. Hoch, who has a doctorate in sports management from Temple (Pennsylvania) University, is past president of the Maryland State Athletic Directors Association, and he formerly was executive director of the Maryland State Coaches Association. He has had more than 800 articles published in professional magazines, as well as four textbook chapters. Dr. Hoch is the author of five books: Coaching within the Education-Based Athletics Concept; The Parents’ Guide to Education-Based Athletics; Leading an Education-Based Athletic Program; A Lifetime of Memories from Education-Based Athletics: Humorous, Inspirational and Occasionally Sad; and Refocusing on Education-Based Athletics – A Call to Action. Hoch is a member of the NFHS High School Today Publications Committee.