Athletic Director

An athletic director is the person that is usually in charge of the coaches and staff members that deal with the intercollegiate and interscholastic sports programs. Athletic directors are employed in middle schools, high schools, colleges. The athletic director role is to oversee the coach in his job duties. Athletic director duties may seem more than what the coaches do, yet the athletic director salary is often less than what the coaches are compensated. One of the main athletic director responsibilities is to assure that the coaches always maintain a professional ethical behavior in their coaching of students.

As with most high school or college positions, athletic directors also need a certain amount of college and athletic director training. A bachelor's degree in this field or similar field is required along with being certified by the state. Having a certificate in CPR and First Aid is also an athletic director qualification. Because athletes are often injured during sports, the athletic director must be able to administer first aid until medical attention can be obtained. Some interview questions for athletic director would be:

• What type of athletic training do you have in this field?
• What type of experience do you have in implementing and maintaining a sports program for students?
• Are you willing to donate your time on evenings, weekends and even holidays?
• What are your goals for our school's sports program?

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If you are representing the school, these are just a few of the questions to ask an athletic director candidate. A lot will have to do with what is on the athletic director resume, but the interview will also tell a lot about what type of person the candidate is and how they will fit into the school's curriculum. There are many surveys for high school athletic directors that tell the common goal of each school regarding their athletic and sports program in the communities. If you are interested in athletic director jobs, most colleges have school papers and connections with post graduate programs and job postings. You may wish to research different athletic directors to see what their careers have entailed, such as Tom Schweer, an athletic director who worked at St. Charles North High School in Hinsdale, Illinois.

It is up to the athletic director to integrate and maintain the sports program of the high school or college athletic program and keep it in conformance to the divisional as well as state and federal regulations. They will determine what sports programs the students will participate in, implement a health and fitness program within the sports and coordinate all athletic events for the entire school year. These are all part of an athletic director job description.