At STHS we have many clubs and sports that students can participate in and lead, however with every club or team, there is at least one adult advisor or coach needed to do all the behind-the-scenes work that the kids can’t do. This year, the girl’s soccer team, the golf team, and the cross country teams all changed their main coaches; and a club, Youth and Government (YAG), also changed their advisor. The process of finding new people to lead in sports and clubs can look different, but they all have the same goal of finding a qualified person to lead and advise the sport and club. Looking especially at the STHS Girls Soccer Team and Youth and Government (YAG), a full process is required to find a new coach or advisor.
Finding a New Advisor For Clubs: Diving into the Process for Youth And Government
Youth and Government (YAG) is a statewide club that holds mock state government sessions and includes writing bills, debating, and having a convention at the Harrisburg capital building. In YAG, advisors help to “organize a lot of things,” such as “transportation because it is a statewide club, so [they] need buses,” and to “reserve space for meetings at night,” says co-president of YAG, senior Helen Lutz.
This year the group needed a new advisor since the former lead advisor resigned. While the group was looking for a new advisor, Ms. Maguire, the assistant advisor at the time, worked with Mr. LaRocco–the STHS assistance principal in charge of student activities–to coordinate the search. She noted that “typically, when a new advisor is needed, it’s posted on the school job opportunities website and it is open to all staff and then it will be open to community members.” However, after multiple talks with Mr. LaRocco, both ultimately concluded that Ms. Maguire would take the head advisory role. While behind-the-scenes leader changes were happening, co-presidents Helen Lutz and Serena Choi were still prepping and starting the STHS YAG year. Though advisors do a lot for the organization, Lutz made it clear that “[the officers] run the meetings” and play a major role. While the officers running the club were generally unaware of exactly what was happening in finding a new advisor, they were still the first ones in the club to hear updates and were spending a lot of time starting the year recruiting and working with new members, as well as leading meetings.
After deciding that Ms. Maguire would be the new head advisor, the attention shifted to the question of the new assistant advisor. Following the same process as the search for the head advisor, the group found a new assistant – Ms. Maguire, Ms. Maguire’s mom!
Looking at the process of finding a new advisor for YAG gives a better understanding of how clubs at STHS find new advisory leadership. By posting the position, going through applicants, and working with Mr. LaRocco while the student leadership continued their roles of running the club, the active search for a lead advisor was completed.
Finding a New Coach for Sports Teams: Diving into the process for STHS Girls Soccer
After the end of the last season, three of the coaches for the STHS Girls Soccer team resigned for various reasons leaving only one remaining. According to Joe Ferraro, Springfield’s Athletic Director, a coach’s job is to “ instruct the kids on how to play a sport, develop strategy for said sport, determine playing time, determine who is on the roster through tryouts,” and additionally, coaches are “really the adults in charge from after school until the end of their activity.” With the amount of work coaches do for a sports team, losing three on the girl’s soccer team was a challenge for the athletic department and the girls.
After this loss, it was time to take the steps to find new leadership by posting the new positions to the STHS hiring website, as well as partnering with organizations such as Indeed and PAREAP to promote the positions. Not only are coaching positions posted to people outside of the district, but Mr. Ferraro makes sure to advertise the positions at STHS to the staff. Additionally, it is not uncommon that the high school will get references from outside coaches and Springfield will reach out to them to see if they want to apply. The process after getting applicants for the job is lengthy as it is filling a job at the school and requires reviewing applicants, interviewing with sometimes multiple rounds, a reference check by human resources, and then a final offer for the candidate to accept. After all of this, the now-new coach meets with Mr. Ferraro to go over the specifics of the team and the job begins. “It’s a long process, it takes a long time, but you know, it’s important,” says Mr. Ferraro, who is primarily in charge of this. Through this process, a new coach, Coach Tomarelli, was found. He was referred to STHS because he was the coach of the Springfield Soccer Club for a very long time and our school reached out to him.
In addition to the adults making decisions on new coaches, the student-athletes play a big part in the decision-making process. “We definitely have had student advocacy when it comes to hiring coaches,” says Mr. Ferraro. When a head coach has stepped down before, “We have certainly had students come to us and say [the] assistant coach would be an excellent head coach you should really consider them.” This has also occurred but in reverse where the students might feel that the assistant coach wouldn’t be the best head coach. In both situations, Mr. Ferraro considers the athlete’s feelings and uses them to help make his decisions.
Though there is a direct path to be taken to find new coaches, it doesn’t always go as planned if there are not people who are willing to take the job. Mr. Ferraro remarks that not having a coach in time for a sports season is “a stress dream that [he has].” Though it has never happened while he has been at Springfield it has come very close. The middle school has had a football position open and not filled until about a week before the start of the season, but Mr. Ferraro notes that “we are fortunate to have the community that we have when we get into a position where we’re really pinched and we don’t have somebody, someone typically steps in for us.”
All coaches for Springfield’s sports teams are found similar to how the coaches were found for the girl’s soccer team. Our athletic director, Mr. Ferraro runs the process of finding new coaches with the help of human resources, while the student-athletes put in their two cents about new coaching.
Clubs and sports are very big parts of STHS which require different levels of adult leadership and have different processes for finding new leadership. Whether finding an advisor or a coach, administrative and athletic leadership in our high school, such as our athletic director and assistant principal, largely deal with finding people to run clubs or teams. However, in both processes, students play a big role and have their voices heard–ultimately, these activities and leaderships are to benefit the students of Springfield.
