What does it take to be an Athletic Director? Well, for young men and women looking for a career in sports becoming an Athletic Director keeps you in the game. I have talked with many ADs over the past three years and I have yet to find an Athletic Director who did not say "how much they love their job." Not everybody can say that. It's not an easy job and certainly not a 9 to 5 position. For one, it has a ton of responsibilities assigned to the AD. First, an AD is an "Administrator." He or she is responsible for developing and maintaining a sports program usually at a high school or college. But the job may place you in a recreation or league environment. An Athletic Director at a large high school may be responsible for thirty sports and over a 1000 athletes, not to mention the coaches, fields scheduling and other things that fall to their supervision. I spoke recently with Mike Fanizzi, who is the Athletic Director at Hillsborough High School in Hillsborough, New Jersey about his job, his family and his life. His insight will give you a better understanding of what it takes to be an Athletic Director.
Mike Fanizzi has been the AD at Hillsborough High School for three years. Before arriving at Hillsborough, Mike was the AD at a smaller school, Belvidere High school, also for three years. Fanizzi mentioned that this isn't a "9 to 5 job." He is responsible for 28 sports annually on a trimester schedule that breaks down to about 9 sports each period. He oversees not just the high school but the middle school too. Hillsborough High School has about 2400 students with about 900 kids participating in team sports. That's alot! This spring Mike has 9 sports with three levels (varsity, jr. varsity and Freshmen) each running, simultaneously. This spring, track & field has 160 kids with 400 students participating in total. As we spoke, his phone rang constantly as did his walkie-talkie, which keeps him abreast of school operations with the adminstration, principal's office and building and field maintenance people.
Mike descibes his job as "non-stop." A typical day begins with Mike getting his two young children ready for school, a daughter, Danielle 8 and son, Nicholas 4. Because of his demanding schedule, Mike is determined to keep things in perspective. He drives his kids to school everyday. At his desk by 8:15 every morning, he knows he may not be home until 7, 8, 9 and sometimes 10PM and quality family time is important for him. His wife of thirteen years is a physical therapist also in Hillsborough, where the Fanizzis call home. Mike says, "his job makes it tough being away from his family" but one can clearly see that Fanizzi loves being the AD at Hillsborough.
Despite the hardships, being the AD is a "fun job" says Fanizzi. But not always easy. The day I spoke with Mike, a situation occurred involving an athlete. Mike likes to "sleep on serious issues." His method is to gather the facts. Talk with the parties. "Don't jump to conclusions," he said. "And come back the next day and figure it out." On this day, the coaches, athlete, parents and Mike met, talked and decided how to resolve the incident which incidently resulted in a short suspension. For Mike, everybody walked away knowing they were dealt with fairly. "That's important," says Mike.
The job of Athletic Director is a serious position with important decisions to be made on a daily basis. It's not unusual for the Hillsborough teams to have fifteen school buses ready at 2:45 to take over two hundred student athletes or more to sporting competitions throughout central New Jersey. As a participant in the Skyline conference, which includes schools from Hunterdson, Warren and Somerset counties, sports for Hillsborough township is a no-nonsense, earnest business. A lot of this falls on the shoulders of Mike Fanizzi. With a history of alumni becoming professional athletes such as Shawn OH'ara and Ricky Poehl of NFL fame and Lori Pells who played Professional Women's Soccer. Mike is determined to keep Hillsborough ahead of the sports curve in New Jersey. Certainly it looks that way with the results of recent teams. Hillsborough High School is the current conference champion in baseball, swimming and are regularly competitive in football, boys & girls volleyball, basketball, lacrosse, ice hockey, soccer, cheerleading and bowling. Mike was eager to point out that "both the boys and girls sports program at Hillsborough are highly successful."
Probably the most important aspect of his job is hiring coaches. "So much depends on whom you hire." says Mike. The process at Hillsborough is Fanizzi will interview the various applicants for a specific position. He will then recommend certain applicants to meet with the Principal and Superintendent of the school district. Mike doesn't actually hire the coaches. This is done by the Hillsborough Board of Education. But Fanizzi is responsible for the person who will guide his athletes and Mike takes this responsiblity very seriously. He looks for people persons, good people with certain life skills that reflect how they "hopefully" will treat their athletes. "Will this coach praise them or punish them? How does he or she talk to athletes? The little things count a lot," said Mike. Actually, Fanizzi says "he doesn't care all that much for resumes with lots of wins. You can always teach the Xs and Os, but communicating important values to kids come first." And that's what he looks for in a coach. "These are the people who will have to cut a kid, maybe destroy somebody's dream of becoming an athlete, making the high school or middle school team." If you want to coach for Hillsborough High School and Mike Fanizzi, you better be able to talk with kids. Fanizzi mentioned, "how kids are so impressionable. What you tell them can have a huge impact!" Mike is also very blunt about academics. As Athletic Director, Fanizzi must stay on top of the academic requirements for his department as well as work with the teachers and guidance counselors at Hillsborough High School. Staying on top of each athlete's academics is vital for each coach under Mike Fanizzi. "It's all about life skills." Athletics for some lucky enough to play on Red Raider teams is all about teaching life skills, period," said Mike.
Fanizzi becomes reflective when talking about his humble beginnings. He was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. As a youngster his family moved to Barnagat on the shore. Mike grew up in the Long Beach Island area playing baseball and running track for Southern Regional High School. He attended Tulane University in New Orleans for a year on a ROTC scholarship before returning to New Jersey to complete his education at William Patterson College. After graduating, Mike found a internship at Synder High School under Bob Murton who was the AD at the time. Mike coached Volleyball, Basketball and Baseball. He volunteered to set the gym up, he attended meetings, did whatever he could to learn the job of AD. He became fascinated with the work. Mike noted that Bob Murton became a role model, a mentor for him. He enjoyed watching Murton interact with the athletes and coaches from their school and the competiton and community. Evenually getting his Masters from Montclair State University, Fanizzi set forth on his career path. He strongly recommends his field for young people interested in sports, teaching and sports adminstration.
Looking around his office are momentos from his time at Hillsborough. I was captured by a picture over his desk of Mike Fanizzi with the two other men who have been the Athletic Driectors at Hillsborough, Rocky Forte and Bob House. Both were there for many years. That's no stretch for Fanizzi. He's loves being the AD at Hillsborough High School. And we expect him to be there for a long while.
