Each year, the Ohio High School Athletic Association and Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association honor a select group of schools for excellent and honor those that support and promote education-based athletics.
The OHSAA and OIAAA recently announced the six winners for the 2020 school year. The selections were made in 2020. But as in all things 2020, COVID got into the way.
Then, the executive director of the OIAAA, Bruce Brown, unfortunately passed away last June. Apparently, the 2020 schools were selected, and a press released had been written. But no one knew, until recently.
“It was kind of a shock to find out,” said Fort Frye Athletics Director Barb Sleek, as her school, along with fellow OVAC-school Shenandoah, along with Brunswick, Plymouth, Streetsboro, and Turpin high schools were selected. “I applied back in January 2020 and I figured maybe we’d hear something around the boys’ tournament in March, but we never heard.
“The pandemic kind of took our focus. I didn’t think too much about it, and when I did, I had learned that Bruce Brown had passed away.”
Sleek received her surprise when the new executive director, Glen Gillespie, contacted her to let her know about Fort Frye being a recipient of the newly named Bruce Brown Award of Excellence.
“Glen said he found this press release within Bruce’s records about the winners and wanted to make sure that it got taken care of. It was arranged through the OHSAA and we got to go up and enjoy a nice luncheon.”
The ADs from the six schools, including Sleek and Shenandoah’s Eric Sholtis, traveled to Columbus to partake in a luncheon and a honorary ceremony at the OHSAA offices on Monday.
Choosing the Honorees
But what does the Bruce Brown award stand for?
Gillespie, along with Doug Ute, the executive director of the OHSAA, and OIAAA President Rick Guimond, issues this statement jointly:
“Ohio Interscholastic athletic programs have always been considered some of the most exemplary programs in the country in reflecting the value our schools and communities place upon education-based sports. The recipients of the ‘Bruce Brown Award of Excellence‘ have demonstrated a consistent and well-developed plan to keep focus of their sport programs upon delivering life-long skills for all participants and mirroring the educational mission of their respective institutions.”
For Sleek, that meant submitting a lot of documentation on what transpires within the Fort Frye athletic community, not only things she does herself, but the program as a whole.
First, to be a member of the OIAAA, an athletics director must, within 12 months of his or her hire, obtain their Certified Athletic Administrator certification.
That’s the initial eligibility for the school to be considered for the award. However, there’s much more to the process than that.
“You have to show you meet different criteria, such as communicating with the public, cooperating with the booster clubs, writing articles.
“Everything you, you accumulate points, if you will, in the application for doing all of these things. You have to prove that you did them.”
Sleek admitted when she finally submitted her application, it was nearly 70 pages long. It’s a lengthy process, but worth it to show the dedication and effort on display at Fort Frye.
“I have good people that we work with,” Sleek said. “There are so many good people that work in all aspects of our athletic department.
“Just for example, if we need a bus, our transportation department gets us a bus and a driver, and if one isn’t available, they do everything in their power to make it happen. A big part for us is our top-notch people.”
Education Comes First
It’s no secret the Cadets’ sports teams experience success across the spectrum from fall, winters, and spring sports for both the girls’ and boys’ teams.
The success rate is matched by community support. But education is still job No. 1 in Beverely, and that includes for the athletes.
“They are called student athletes because they are students first,” Sleek said. “I take that pretty seriously, including with my own kids.
“Studies come first and athletics, while a great product, is not the leading factor at this school.”
That’s evident by the accountability and standards the school holds its athletes too. The OHSAA temporarily dropped the academic eligibility requirement for sports because of the time missed and remote learning because of the pandemic.
Now to be fair, Fort Frye only missed two full weeks of in-person class, and that was because of a temporary hybrid schedule. The rest of the time, Cadet students and student-athletes were in the classroom.
So, the school’s 2.0 GPA requirement for sports eligibility was never lowered.
“We hold our kids high to the standards of what a student should be,” Sleek said. “We do hold them accountable for their grades and didn’t veer from our 2.0 GPA requirement.”
Sleek noted that while the state doesn’t have an official GPA, to remain eligible, student athletes must, at minimum, be passing five classes. Sleek noted that in a seven-class schedule, a student doing the minimum could pass with five D’s, two F’s, and still be eligible with a .667 GPA.
Shenandoah’s is slightly lower than Fort Frye’s, but far above the state’s minimum. And like Fort Frye, the Zeps retained their eligibility requirements for any students who normally attend in the high school.
“Our students that attended in our building, we kept that requirement,” Sholtis said. “Ones that transferred in or attended the vocational school, we’re not sure what happened in those buildings.
“They may not be able to provide the same resources and support that we did.”
Sholtis noted that he and the SHS principal delivered books, and Chromebooks and materials in their personal vehicles to students to make sure they had all the materials necessary for learning remotely.
“We wanted to eliminate any excuse of why they might not be successful.”
Trying Year for Sleek, ADs Everywhere
An Athletic Director’s job isn’t easy. It’s far more than scheduling games and taking ticket money at the door.
That’s during a good year. This last year has been nightmarish at times for athletics directors. Consider this unenviable task.
Last winter the Cadets’ girls’ basketball team was enjoying a pep rally and readying to board a bus to Columbus to play in the state basketball Final Four in Division IV.
But before they could leave, Sleek got the call and had to break the news to her disappointed players.
“I had to walk into the pep rally and halt everything, cancel the bus, and it’s been non-stop from there on out,” Sleek said. “People say well you weren’t playing games, but even if we weren’t, we were rescheduling, trying to find a way we could play.
“It’s been next to non-stop for a year. It’s really unbelievable what ADs have been through this last year.”
What’s helped out Shenandoah, even in these difficult times, is the school’s emphasis on its coaching education and evaluation program.
Prior to COVID, Shenandoah started implementing the principles of the InSideOut Iniative (ISOI). The ISOI is a national movement that, in Ohio, the Bengals and Browns have partnered with the OHSAA to bring to the state’s high school programs.
It’s described as follows:
- … a national movement that empowers and equips school communities to implement purpose-based athletics by connecting student-athletes to transformational coaches in a nurturing community for their social-emotional and character development.
“It helps us refocus our purpose with our athletics, from more education-based and less about on-field and on-court success,” Sholtis said.
