2024 Institute for Athletic Directors | Schedule

Speaker: Mike Ellson, Consultant, NIAAA & FinalForms

Leadership with legacy leads to ultimate satisfaction and fulfillment. Building relationships, developing an authentic culture, and having joy in the journey are the true measures of success in an athletic program. Everyone who works in education is an influential leader and is involved in coaching students and adults in various ways. Utilizing the power of story allows us to be a source of encouragement for heads, board members, division heads, and teachers about the unseen things that go on in the life of an athletic leader. We must focus on supporting the value of having positive relationships with parents, officials, and other individuals who make athletics fun and memorable.

Speakers: Tim Green, Athletic Consultant, Southern Teachers, and Matthew Jones, Associate Athletic Director & Head Football Coach, Kentucky Country Day School

Athletic directors can quickly forget what it is like to be a coach. This session will use the findings of a broad survey of head varsity coaches to remind ADs of what their coaches are experiencing in today’s school-based athletic world. Almost every sitting athletic director was a coach at some point. However, the responsibilities of the AD position quickly alter the point of view from when you were a coach. In this session, we will identify what coaches are experiencing in their positions today, cultivate the value of communication with coaches, and practice effective ways to maintain professional connections with your coaching staff.

Speaker: Craig Ashley, Director of Athletics, Greensboro Day School

This session will focus on identifying appropriate sports for your school, hiring of coaches/teachers, coordinating schedules, balancing academic load with athletics, and managing parent expectations in educational athletics.

Speaker: Mike Ellson, Consultant, NIAAA & FinalForms

This workshop will assist athletic program leaders with measurement criteria that focus on continuous program improvement to strengthen the infrastructure of the athletic program. The primary focus of the presentation centers around ten key categories of evaluation established by the NIAAA. The categories include philosophy, educational compatibility, mentoring, safety and risk management, access and equity, budget and fundraising, personnel and program assessment, technology, sports medicine, and innovation and creativity. The session will help create awareness of the depth of responsibility for the leadership position of an athletic director.

Facilitator: Mike Ellson, Consultant, NIAAA & FinalForms

This course will examine the training, preparation, and guiding of coaches, by athletic administrators, to understand the inherent tasks related to education-based athletics. The administrator will be better prepared to integrate new learning opportunities for coaches through the nurturing of suggested coaching knowledge, skills, behaviors, and attitudes. Attendees will be better empowered as the athletic administrator to deal with the constant turnover and training of coaches that can demand much of the administrator’s time.