It is the beginning of first block and the office of the athletic director is silent, dark and deserted.  There is no one to answer questions or anyone to receive phone calls.  The room will not come to life until the sun is high in the sky, when a teacher will have to become an athletic director in the second half of the day.

Shortly before spring break, East was faced with a decision that had to be made due to district budget cuts and that would impact the athletic program.  Jim Ricker, the current athletic director, is passionate about coaching, but he has chosen not to coach any high school sports next year and instead  coach his daughters.

“Budget cuts are made at the district level,” principal Dr. Karl Krawitz said. “The district tells you that you have to reduce by so much, if it’s money, teachers, or support staff.”

When East was notified that cuts had to be made, Dr. Krawitz thought it would be a logical decision to make the position of athletic director part-time next year.  Three years ago, the athletic director worked part-time as a teacher and part-time as director. Reverting to the past, Dr. Krawitz thought because the change was so recent, it would be easier to make the job part-time once again.

When Ricker found out that the athletic director position was being modified to a part-time job next year, he also had to make a decision.  He said that would be difficult to step away but he has missed the environment of being in the classroom. While deciding, he thought of the time commitments the two jobs would bring and how it would impact his family.  The athletic director spends a lot of time working after school hours which weighed heavily in his decision making.

“Dr. Krawitz and I discussed the pros and cons of me doing both,” Ricker said. “We decided it would be better for me to go back to the department full time.”

When Ricker returns to the World Geography and U.S. History classrooms next year teaching, he will have more time to spend with his four daughters who are between the ages of 10 months and eight years.

“I plan to coach my 7 and 8-year-olds on the same U-9 soccer team,” Ricker said. “It will be nice to spend time with my family and to coach two of my daughters.”

Although Ricker says that he enjoys the job of athletic director, the job also brings commitments — scheduling games, monitoring the budget and making sure all players are eligible to play.  The position requires time outside of the school day to attend events and games.  This time consumption is immense and made it difficult for Ricker to spend time with his family in the evening. Teaching full-time provides more free time and other opportunities.

Ricker is also looking forward to getting back to the classroom, a veteran of economics and U.S. History for 15 years.  Ricker says that although he is teaching full-time where he will have to be dedicated to grading papers and creating lesson plans, it is a different type of time commitment than being the athletic director.

“Being in the classroom is fairly fresh in my mind,” Ricker said. “I would by lying if I said I didn’t miss the kids.  When you get a student who didn’t think they could learn something and they do, it is something special.”

When the position became available, Dr. Krawitz felt that the person best suited to take Ricker’s spot would be Jeremy Higgins, currently a chemistry teacher.  Last year, Higgins was the administrative assistant.  Dr. Krawitz found that he would be a good fit for the job because Higgins had an immense amount of experience.

“Dr. Krawitz and Mr. Lowe approached me for potential interest,” Higgins said. “They saw the position I held last year and thought that I could handle it.”

One of the responsibilities Higgins had last year while being administrative assistant was to organize the standardized testing. This meant that he had to coordinate the schedule for each class to take the test. Organization is one of the skills that Higgins finds will benefit him in the job of athletic director. Dr. Krawitz saw that his past experience would help him with this new job.

Higgins will teach Chemistry part-time while juggling the job of athletic director.  He will be teaching chemistry during first, second, and third block. Taking on both positions will lead to more responsibilities and other commitments. Higgins coaches two sports now, which gives him an idea of what the time commitments will be like at night.

As Higgins steps away from coaching, he says that he is looking forward to interacting with coaches on a professional level.

“I am excited to see more kids outside of the classroom,” Higgins said, “but it will be tough stepping away from football and baseball.”


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