Latest / Cover IV Podcast / New Section IV Executive Director of Athletics with Bill Bryant

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New Section IV Executive Director of Athletics with Bill Bryant · Cover IV Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Cover Four.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a Section Four football fan, this is your podcast.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Coach Smith, and I'll be your host.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Cover Four Podcast.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Our guest today is the brand new executive director of Section 4 Athletics, Bill Bryant.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Bill.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Tim.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate uh the opportunity to come on your podcast and share some of my uh long history in athletics in Section 4 and you know my career and how I've gotten to this uh point in my life to be uh the new executive director of Section 4 Athletics.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to it.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what I want to do, Bill, is start off and tell us a little bit about your backstory uh growing up, how you went through uh, you know, in in your Section 4 athletics as a student athlete, all the way up to uh a brief NFL career that was shut cut short by injury.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, just take us through a little bit of your backstory and share with us how you got to where you are now.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up in Appalachan, uh, which was part of the Owego Appalachan school system.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh graduated from uh OFA in 1970.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my high school career.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I participated in um in a few sports in high school.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh believe it or not, I ran cross-country as a freshman and a sophomore.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh wasn't until my junior year that uh uh I was able to play football at OFA.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I I wrestled for a couple years uh at OFA, and then my senior year I played on the varsity basketball team and I ran on the varsity track team uh for four years uh at Owigo.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And um uh, you know, I grew up with uh an older brother Tommy that uh uh was an outstanding athlete in Section Four back in the late 60s.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he was my role model growing up.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he went on to Penn State uh on a full ride scholarship and played at Penn State.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, back in those days, uh freshmen weren't allowed to play varsity football.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I got to see Tommy play a couple freshman football games uh at Penn State, and he started in the same backfield uh with Franco Harrison, not Lydell Mitchell, two of their great running backs.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Franco was their fullback, uh Lydell was a tailback, and Tommy was their slapback in their offensive setback then.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And um so after I'm again in high school, uh uh I wasn't very big in high school.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was uh I was the youngest uh person in my senior class.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I was young.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I graduated at a uh 5'10, uh 120 pounds as a sophomore.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: I wrestled um 95 pounds because I only weighed 88, so I never had to worry about losing any weight because I didn't, I was I was just a small, skinny kid at the time.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but as I mentioned earlier, uh Tommy was a real inspiration to me, a real role model.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um seeing his work ethic of what he did to become the athlete that he did.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And my opportunity came uh really in my junior year when uh Coach Wheaton, our head football coach, saw something good in me, gave me an opportunity to play football.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And um uh I had a real good uh senior season uh at Owigo.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um and unfortunately, the only way I could go to school back in in those days was I had to pay for my own education.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So uh because I was I was young, uh, didn't have much size at the time.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: I I worked for the town of Owigo Water and Sewer Department, uh saved money up for a couple years, and uh that's where Mr.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Wheaton gave me another opportunity.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he grew up with Jim Wyman, who back in the late 60s was the head football coach at North High School.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Coach Wyman had gone on to Nassau Community College and really built, I think, one of the best junior college programs in the country, and it still is today.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a feeder program for a lot of the Division I programs.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And um that's where I met up with Steve Deinhart, who was a North High grad who played for Coach Weinman, and Coach Wheaton and Coach Wyman had been talking and said that uh there was a possibility that I may be interested in going to Nassau, which I did and spent a year there and uh transferred on to Ithaca College.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the highlight of being at Ithaca College are a couple things.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: One, uh Tommy and I never had the opportunity to play football together, and he was a senior, and he was the captain of the uh 73 team at Ithaca College.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um I uh I was a uh incoming transfer sophomore, and um uh Tommy was the starting tailback on the team.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I ended up being the starting wide receiver.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: We both returned kickoffs together.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I returned punts.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it was just a uh a great thrill to be able to play alongside of him, uh, just knowing uh the type of athlete that he was.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh but going back to high school when I graduated, as I mentioned earlier, I was about 5'10, 120 pounds.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And by December, I was 6'2, 175 pounds.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: I I was a late bloomer as Coach Wheaton called me, and um uh had a great career at Ithaca College.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um I played for the legendary Coach Butterfield, which now this the stadium is named after him.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh just a tremendous coach.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I I feel like I a lot of what I have done in my career uh has kind of been from what I learned from Coach Wheaton in high school and certainly Coach Butterfield at Ithaca College.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and then, you know, being at a small school, um never really thinking I'd have that opportunity get to maybe get to the next level, but I I did have that opportunity.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um uh in 76 when I graduated, uh I signed um as a free agent with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, that was probably poor timing, but because they had just come off of two Super Bowls.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: They had the best core of wide receivers in the NFL at the time with Lynn Swan and John Stalworth and Frank Grant and um a Lewis guy, I can't remember his first name, but it it was a uh a great opportunity.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I learned a lot from that experience, but um I I felt that uh you know that opportunity probably was going to be my only opportunity to to maybe have a shot because I I did my student teaching um at East Middle School back when it was on Robinson Street.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh I was at the right place at the right time.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I was hired as a high school phys ed teacher at North High School back in 76.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: But then the spring of 77, I got a call, I received a phone call from Coach Butterfield uh asking me if I would go to Washington to Redskin Park.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: They were having a uh a walk-on trial, which uh I was a little bit leery about because I had never been to a walk-on because the year before I had signed as a free agent with the Steelers.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh another former uh player that played with me at at Ithaca College, he was a linebacker, Jimmy Zerva from Rome Free Academy.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he had hired an agent, and the previous year he had a tryout with the Eagles that wasn't successful, successful.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And and then um he was he had got he had heard about this walk-on trial down in uh in Virginia.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: So um I I went down to it, it was a two-day trial.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there were over, there were like around 250 people that were at this walk-on trial.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh for the wide receivers, they broke us up into positions.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there were 49 wideouts trying out that particular day, and it was all based on your 40 time.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh luckily I was blessed with uh both Tommy and I were blessed with speed.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that isn't coached, it's you either it can run or you can't.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And uh George Allen was the head coach at the time, and he he told everybody uh in the locker room at Redskin Park that you would have you would run one 40-yard dash.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: So when it came time for the receivers uh to run, we went over.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I ran my 40.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And after I ran the 40, the two coaches that were timing timing the receivers uh walked over to me and said that uh they knew that Coach Allen had said only 140, but we want you to run another one.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: So after the other 48 ran, I ran another 40.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh after that 40, they wanted me to run another one and uh gave me a 20-minute window to recover and run a third one.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: I ran a third 40, and after that, they walked me across the field to George Allen, introduced me to him, and uh shared with him that I had run four, four forties, and uh he put his arm on my shoulder and said, Welcome to the Washington Redskins.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh two-day camp really turned into about an hour and a half camp for me.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: They took me in and signed me to a uh uh a free agent contract.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, my friend that I went down there with, there were only two people out of that 250 that signed uh that Friday or Saturday.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: There was a linebacker out of Oklahoma that that signed.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I had another opportunity, another shot at it.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, as you mentioned earlier, I kind of a freak injury.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um it was uh it was the Thursday before uh a preseason game with the Cleveland Browns.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: We were just on the practice field in helmets.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: We just had uh shorts and uh t-shirts on.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: We had no pads on other than a helmet, and it was just a seven-on-seven pass skill.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Joe Thizman was the quarterback, and uh I had a 16-yard curl back pattern to run, and I had to read the inside and outside backers, and uh Joe Thizeman threw a perfect pass between the two of them low to the ground, but I went down and made the catch.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: But before I could even bounce back up on my feet, uh I got hit in the back uh by a linebacker with his helmet and unfortunately fractured four transverse processes, and that pretty much was the end of it for me.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: But um, like I said, I I I I have no regrets uh for what opportunities I I've had in life.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's all been through athletics.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's been because of coaches like Coach Wheaton, Coach Wyman, and and certainly Coach Butterfield that gave me an opportunity that that nobody else did.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: So um in a nutshell, that's kind of been, you know, from from high school through college, that's where it's um that's been my path to where I am today.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: That is an absolute great story because every student athlete should be able to relate to this because not every student athlete is the best student athlete out there.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of what you called late bloomers, um, the ones that come along a little bit later in life.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: But that's a great story that everybody should be able to at least relate to the hey, I'm not the biggest, maybe I'm not the fastest.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: And you also, there's a uh there must have been some great work ethic that you had.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: You sound very humble, and that's probably why other coaches said, Hey, you got something special, you got athletic talent.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: You might you may not have had the physical size yet, but you had that uh desire to really uh apply yourself.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I can uh there's a perfect example, one of not perfect examples, but a good example is Ernie Davis.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: My dad had the opportunity to coach him in high school uh with Coach Harrigan, and he was a very good student athlete.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: He was kind of thin early on, but he was he just had a great work ethic.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that that must be what you had because if you didn't have that work ethic and you were small, nobody would probably want you to even give you a chance.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you're you're you seem like a very humble guy, and that's a great story for all our listeners to really take heart in and say, hey, no matter what it's not where you start, it's where you wind up.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: So tell us, Bill, about your I know you've got a lot of coaching background uh as well.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: So can you share with us a little bit about how you got into coaching and and the success that you had in coaching?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when I was hired in 76 at North High School, I had the opportunity for three years to be an assistant football coach at the varsity level at North High.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: I I coached three years of modified basketball at North High School, and I was also one of the assistant track coaches for the three years I was there.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then in January of 79, um, I came home one night from school and uh used to get a monthly placement folder from Ithaca College of job openings, and there were 51 jobs on the placement folder, and and job 51 was uh a drive red phys ed teacher and coaching opportunities at Spencer Venetton.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I I I called the high school principal, and uh he said that I I sounded like I uh was interested in the job, which I I very much was, uh, because I just knew, I mean, I loved my my kind of really two and a half years at North High School, but I knew that um my aspirations of what I wanted to do in my career wasn't gonna happen in Binghamton.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And um so the very next day on Friday, I went out and met with him and he hired me on the spot.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I started the spring of 79.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: For 10 years, I was the head men's track and field coach at Spencer Benetton.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in the fall of 79, I was the head JV football coach.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then in 1980, I took over as the head football coach and was the head coach through 87 before I um went on to Ithaca High School as the director of health PE and Athletics.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: And um in the that time, the the time I was at Spencerman, I did coach two years, I coached one year of JV basketball, and I was a head basketball coach for one year, but um at a small school, you wear a lot of hats.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um because in 1985 is when I became the athletic director, and uh they kind of reduced my teaching load to I only taught four classes in the morning, and then in the afternoon, I was back in those days, they called them dean of students slash athletic director, but I was still coaching, I was a head coach still in two sports.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I went on and got my administrative degree at Cortland State, and uh I I got that in May of '88.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um during my last semester in the spring of 88.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the opening at Ithaca came up and I applied.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And fortunately, I was uh offered the position.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, um, the only thing I I look back on or reflect on with my my coaching career is I was I was fairly young uh when I went to Ithaca, and uh I knew that uh I was now a 12-month full-time administrator and my coaching days would be over.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and maybe I did get out of coaching a little bit too soon, but again, I I I don't regret um one second of the 22 years I spent in Ithaca as the um uh director of athletics there.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was uh it was a great career in Ithaca, and uh and I hope that you know a lot of good things happened, you know, uh in my time as the AD there.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Now you mentioned something that's key there.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: You're an Ithaca bomber at heart.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: What was it like when you walked back on campus there at Cortland to continue your education?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Did you have any funny feelings about doing that?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what I would re what I used to reflect on is when we played the Cortica jug game.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we played one year we played the uh in my three years at IC, uh, my junior year we played at Cortland.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And um I mean it's it's certainly changed over there now, but the old Chugger Davis field that that was there where we played uh I mean to get through the the student body from the locker room to the field, uh I that uh that's something I'll always remember because uh uh as you well know as uh as a former coach and player that you know when you you get two big rivals together like that, especially at the college level, all kinds of things can happen.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember those those moments specifically.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: But the other thing I wanted to mention, Tim, was um Coach Wheaton, um, after a couple years after I graduated from high school, he went on to Cortland State and was an assistant coach under Coach Robinson there.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that was really that was hard for me to stand on the opposite sideline and look at the man that put me where I was on the other sideline.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it was pretty emotional times.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I can remember, you know, walking up to Coach Wheaton before prior to the game just to welcome you know him to uh uh Ithaca College or when we the one year we played at Cortland, and then after the game, um uh just really tough because I mean I really owe so much to him for what he did for me.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um and that's kind of how I've I I think when I coached and as a as an ad as an administrator, as an athletic director, um, you know, I kind of share certain things with young people that uh they have, you know, I as a coach, I always wanted to give back the same opportunity that was given to me.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think that's the one beauty of of being a coach is I still have student athletes from Spencer Venett and back in the early mid 80s that I coached, that I still have contacts with.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you you during uh at the time that you're coaching and or even as an administrator, you you don't realize that maybe there you have left an impact on on people.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's something I I learned when I retired from Ithaca, was the uh that I did have an impact on on people's life, young men's lives.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and that that was my goal in life was to just be able to give back what was given to me at an early age.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um so um, you know, I like I said earlier, I I have no regrets for um for what I call my journey in life.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh I've just had uh I I wish that you know young people that have a vision of of being involved in athletics uh would have the same opportunity that was forwarded to me, given to me uh back to them.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, those uh there's a couple of dynamics going on there.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, obviously the they're they're young student athletes, they're in their formative years, and they could come from parents that maybe are very athletic and know a lot about athletics, but at that young age, your parents don't know anything.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: But that high school coach or your uh middle school coach, um, you know, you look at them like, wow, you know, he knows who I am, or he he asked me to come out.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: But you're right, you there's a lot of, you know, because coaching is teaching, it's just your classroom is different.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you're not sitting in a structured physical classroom, you're on a court uh um uh field, you know.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Those kind of things.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting to hear you say that because coaches that typically have been in coaching for a long time, they all have one characteristic that it just they're so humble.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: They, you know, they've got like your your uh your predecessor there that uh you took over for uh Ben Nelson.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: His name is synonymous with section four.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: You say section four, you almost have to say Ben Nelson, and he set up a great situation for you to step into.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: And he's one of the first individuals I went to when I was thinking about doing this podcast because I I hadn't met him, but I knew of him, his background, his knowledge, and I asked him what he thought.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he said, Oh, this is great.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: Go ahead.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think you're doing a good job.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: And he gave me some leads to people to talk to, things like that.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: But you're absolutely right.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you you don't know a lot of times the impact that you have on student athletes, and you know, and then sometimes it's even difficult for you to recall if you've coached anytime.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: Things kind of get fuzzy sometimes from season to season, but it's weird.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: I always know the pretty much the name of the student athlete, and and I'm crazy this way with jersey numbers.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: I I recall guys jersey numbers, it's it's just it's it's crazy with me.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: And um, but yeah, you're absolutely right.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great story to to share uh with us.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I hope also the listeners take uh heed in what you talked about there if they they want to get into uh coaching.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: Now the last one is can you tell us a little bit how you got on track and became the uh executive director for Section 4 Athletics?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, the the last four years uh was after I retired from Ithaca High School.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I did a lot of interim work uh in and around the area with different districts, uh, mainly Ithaca, but uh a couple other districts.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh back in 2017, well it was December of 2016, I received a phone call from a good friend who was an athletic director in the IC asking me if I would be interested in the executive director's position.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, sure I would.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I applied.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh applications were due on the 31st of December.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I interviewed for the position in uh middle of January, and then uh at their February meeting, um uh I knew that they had already offered me the position, but at the February meeting in 2017, I was approved by the league to be the next executive director.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Bill Kwaikowski uh from Neurok Valley had been the executive director for quite a number of years.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say maybe 18 or 19 years, and uh he was retiring, and Mason Morenus was our treasurer.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he was retiring also, and so Cindy Ford um became our new treasurer, and I became the new executive director.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I really feel that um those four years uh that I spent with the IC really prepped me mentally to uh put my hat in the ring to apply for the position.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because again, I um I I still have that fire and that passion and that love for what I do.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I mean I I I've lived that my entire life.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: Athletics has been a huge part of my life, and I feel that there's more that I can still give to young people.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so I I applied for the position, uh, you know, went through the interview rounds.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there were five finalists for the position.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: And um uh again, Mr.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Nelson.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when I came back into the IEC as the executive director four years ago, uh he was he had been kind of like a mentor with with me even in my late stage of my career at Ithaca, because he came on board in '98.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I I had the opportunity to work with him for nearly 12 years before I retired, and then being away from um uh other than my interim work that I was doing, uh reconnected with him in 17.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh again, I have so much respect for him.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, you talk about being humbled.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: I I am so humbled and honored to uh to have the opportunity to um follow in the footsteps of Mr.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Nelson.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: I know big shoes uh to Phil, um, but um he did so much for Section 4.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's an icon.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh I know that you know back in the day when Mr.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nelson took over back in '98, you know, Section Four financially was not uh in the best of shape financially.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the one thing that Mr.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: that's impressed me the most about what he's done for us financially, is that we're on such solid ground now.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Even after the year of COVID of not having any real revenue coming in without sectionals being held and what have you, but um he um I again I just have so much respect for for what the job that he did that I'm hopeful that I can carry that toward John Um for all the the years that he put into it uh because his leadership was has been critical.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I like to believe that uh I have some leadership skills that uh uh will benefit the student athletes uh of Section 4.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um again, I you know I came into the job, uh I started officially on June 1st.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there were five initiatives that I I or visions or focuses that I I was I'm I've been focused on.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And uh time goes by so fast.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: I can't believe it's August.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're just a not even three weeks away from the opening of the fall season, but um uh we've put together a five-year strategic plan committee.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're gonna look at finances, we're gonna look at handbook, and we're gonna look at athletic participation.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, unfortunately, not because of COVID.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was it have it was starting to happen before COVID, but the uh across the state of New York, um, numbers have gone down in regards to athletic participation.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so uh I've got three subcommittees.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um Kevin McGough from Stack is gonna chair the finance committee.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Patty Murphy, who's on the executive board, who I I work with Patty when I was at Ithaca, she was at SETA and Catholic.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: She's gonna do the handbook, and Terry Raymond from the Mac uh is gonna uh chair the the subcommittee on athletic participation.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we just had our first meeting a couple weeks ago.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're gonna have a representative from each of the five leagues in section four sit on that.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're gonna uh we're gonna we'll have another uh they'll have meetings uh again in the fall, hopefully uh in October, and then uh we'll meet again in January, and then hopefully come March, we'll finalize everything, present it to the executive board in April, and uh have it approved at the end of the year meeting in June, and it'll be implemented starting with July 1 of 2022 to June 30th, 2027.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's one of the big initiatives.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Another one is a website.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, our website, unfortunately, uh, is kind of like a dinosaur.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's um we need to get up to speed.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: I I've looked at all of the other 10 sections uh websites in the state, and uh I believe uh we've had about four meetings with the people that were looking to get our website up and going.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe that when we do get it up and going, it it it will be the best website uh in the state.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh we're we're gonna, you know, we're gonna have a Twitter uh uh account on there.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's gonna be an app for you know that people can have on their phone that they can, if you're at a game and you've taken pictures of your son or your daughter in a contest, you can send them uh to the website.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh we're still in the early stages, but I'm excited about that.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've learned a lot because I'm not uh a real tech savvy uh individual, but um uh we've put together a section four directory of all of the right from the top down that includes the executive board, uh all of our sport coordinators, all of our standing committees uh with their chairs and the people that are on the committees, uh, all five legs of who their offices are and the ADs that has all contact information.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we've got that up and going.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we've put together an FAQ um uh for athletic directors.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we've had, I know that the four years I was with the IEC, my first year we had five new ADs, and then the second year we had four new ones, and the third year we had another five.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: This year there's gonna be three.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so we're gonna we're we're working on putting it together a new ADs workshop in the middle of August before we start on the 23rd.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of things going on, a lot of things happening, but uh looking forward to the challenges uh uh ahead uh for this upcoming season.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and just in summary, Bill, uh I there's only one way to say this.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: You are definitely the right guy at the right time for the right role for Section 4 athletics.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like based on your background, you know, not only as a student athlete, but as a coach and administrator, you've you've you've checked all the boxes up to this point.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now you bring all that knowledge and expertise and insight to your leadership position.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it sounds like you've got a real nice plan to move forward with that.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: There is so much that you have shared with us.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: I may end up having to make this two separate podcasts so that um you know people will be able to uh digest the information in a in a timely manner.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: But this is great stuff, Bill.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to thank you for not only what you've done in the past and what you're gonna do in the future for Section Four Athletics, uh, but also taking the time to uh share with us what it is you're you're doing as well.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: And one thing I want to let people know is you're the executive director for section four athletics, not just section four football, which this podcast focused on is football.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: You're section four athletics.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's all the athletics in section four.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that that even has a bigger, uh, you know, bigger demand for your time and and insight.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to again thank you for your time.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for everything you've shared with us.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I can't wait to get this podcast ready and get it out to our listeners.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Bill.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you, Jim.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: I I appreciate uh your time and effort for what you're doing with this podcast uh first section for uh the cover four is uh a great thing, and and and I I tip my hat to uh to what you're uh doing and and uh and appreciate uh what you're what you've done to this point.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: And if I can ever be of any help to you or assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out and and grab me.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: I got your email and I got your number, Bill, so we're good.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Very good, Jim.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, thank thank you very much.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: And remember, tell your friends, Coach Smith says visit cover4.com and be the next fan up.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: In football and life, it's not where we line up, it's where we wind up.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to the Cover Four podcast.