The Life of a High School Athletic Director

Alexis McCoy (photo by Bruce Chapman)

In the Friday, May 31 issue of the Winston-Salem Journal, special correspondent Steve Hanf writes about the busy lives of athletic directors at area high schools including Alexis McCoy at Reagan and Brad Fisher at Reynolds 

  

“Even during family time, you’re answering phone calls and email. There really is no time off,” McCoy told Hanf. “For me, it’s the student athletes. To see them be successful either on or off the field or the court, to get the little ‘thank you’ you get from a kid every once in a while, that’s what makes it worth it.”

 “It’s very difficult to have three preps and then work in the afternoon at one event and drive six miles to go to another event,” Fisher told Hanf. “Someone like Alexis, I don’t know how she does it, teaching high-level math.”

Brad Fisher

McCoy and Fisher oversee 38 teams each – the maximum number sanctioned by the NCHSAA — plus field-hockey and ninth-grade basketball teams. Reynolds even includes its dance team in the athletics department. Of the approximately 1,700 students at the school, Fisher said, about 850 have physicals on file to play sports.

“The paperwork is really the longest part of the day. You’ve got to have good time management to get it all in,” said Fisher, who replaced long-time AD Jim Spivey this year. “The hours and the nights, none of that came as a surprise. If you didn’t love it, you wouldn’t be doing it. That’s why people either stick around and do it for years, or they don’t.”

 “You’d be miserable if you didn’t love it,” Fisher said.

For the full story, go to Winston-Salem Journal