Announcer (00:01): Highlighting the amazing stories from inside the North Clackamas School district. This is the Proud To Be NCSD podcast, hosted by longtime principal and current community relations director, Curtis Long,

Curtis Long (00:18): Ah, the sounds of winter have certainly descended upon us this time of year. Whether you're bravely meddling through the maze of mayhem at the local shopping mall, or shifting your way through shoulder to shoulder shopping carts down the grocery store aisles. And in recent seasons, even these early morning sounds of winter have become all too familiar coming from your tv.

TV News Anchor (00:40): We don't need to tell you that all major school districts are closed today, including Portland Public Schools, the Beaverton School District, the North Clackamas School District, all giving kids a snow day. These are just...

Curtis Long (00:50): But in the North Clackamas School District, the first true signs of the winter season's arrival aren't heard in a mall, a grocery store, or on a television weather report. Instead, you'll hear them on the mats of wrestling practice

Wrestling Coach (01:02): 10 side to side go

Curtis Long (01:06): In the chlorine treated waters of the local aquatic park, and especially in all of NCS D'S high school gyms. December means the tip off of the winter athletic season when hundreds of district students dribble duck under dive and dance as members of several basketball, wrestling, swimming, dance, and cheer teams at all levels, at all four NCSD high schools.

Curtis Long (01:33): But starting up a new high school athletic season isn't just a simple layup. Ever wonder who hires all the coaches, who schedules all the practice and game times with possibly three or more teams competing in each sport, who arranges the buses for away contests and who makes it their number one priority to make sure all of NCDs high school athletes give it their best effort on the court, on the mat, or in the pool. But even more importantly, in the classroom at the same time, it's our four high school athletic directors and we've whistled them all into our recording studio today. So let's dive right in. As a Mustang, a Kingsman, a Cavalier and a Hawk cheer about why they love their job as a high school athletic director,

Cheerleaders (02:14): We want a basket.

Curtis Long (02:16): What are the joys and challenges of this unique job? How they build relationships with their student athletes and coaches and what it's like to see their students using skills learned in athletics way beyond high school. The winter athletic season is underway. So let's take a time out with our high school athletic directors as the Proud To Be NCSD podcast tips off right now.

Curtis Long (02:39): And it's not very often we have the athletic programs of all four of our NCSD high schools represented all in one place. But that's exactly what we have here on the Proud To Be NCSD podcast as we have athletic directors, Tom Moore of Milwaukee High School, Dana Cappelucci of Adrienne C Nelson High, Tricia Halonen of Rex Putnam High, and John Arntson of Clackamas High School. And we're gonna answer the question, what happens when we get a Mustang, a Hawk, a Kingsman, and a Cavalier all in the same room altogether. Tom, Dana, Tricia, John, thanks so much to each of you for taking time out of your busy schedules to join us today.

All Guests (03:09): Thanks for having us, Curtis. Thanks for having us. Thank you very much.

Curtis Long (03:11): Well, so many things that I'm looking forward to visiting with you about as we start a new winter athletic season. But first off, I'd like to have each of you introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about how your background led you to your school's athletic director position.

Tom Moore (03:22): Sure. I'll go first, kind of a unique way Pathway was, uh, I came from, uh, working after, uh, years at Portland State. So I worked in the athletic department there, got my master's in education and was able to come to the North Clackamas District and, uh, worked at the high school at Milwaukie High School.

Curtis Long (03:37): So you went from being a Viking to now a Mustang?

Tom Moore (03:39): That is correct, yeah. <laugh>.

Curtis Long (03:41): Dana, how about you? Yeah,

Dana Cappelucci (03:42): I was also a Viking. I worked in college athletics for a number of years and decided that I wanted to change it up a little bit, stay in athletics, but at a different level. And that's how I ended up at Adrienne C. Nelson.

Curtis Long (03:56): And Tricia, how about you?

Tricia Halonen (03:56): Oh yeah. So I, uh, started out my early life, my young educator life as a coach and played a little bit of collegiate, uh, sports myself, uh, studied some sports and medicine, uh, then went into the academic side of education and I find myself, um, back where I really have my roots and I'm really excited to be here.

Curtis Long (04:13): That's awesome. And John, last but not least.

John Arntson (04:16): Yeah, I spent, uh, my first 25 years as a, as a teacher and a coach. I was a head baseball coach and those 25 years were all at clmi. And then as luck would have it, the opportunity to for the ad job opened up at clmi and I, something felt like I couldn't turn down. I was ready, ready to do something different and affect all the kids at the school a little bit more. So it's worked out

Curtis Long (04:34): Well. So how many years now at Clackamas High?

John Arntson (04:36): This is year 29.

Curtis Long (04:37): 29. Two different locations for you? Yeah.

John Arntson (04:40): Wow. Yeah, actually almost three because we had the East campus too. Oh,

Curtis Long (04:42): That's right. Had the east campus for a while too. That is now Rock Creek Middle School in our current setup. So a new winter athletic season, just underway. But before we get to that, what are each of you most proud of? Looking back at this most recent fall season, all of you, I'm sure have some teams of student athletes and coaches you're proud of and not necessarily doesn't have to be the varsity level. As you look back at the fall, what will you remember most about this past fall?

Tom Moore (05:02): I think for Milwaukie, we had zero teams last year, uh, fall into the top 10 as far as uh, GPA and this fall season we had three teams, uh, in the top 10 GPA, also in the state. And so I think foremost, I think we should be out of that the most. Mm-hmm

John Arntson (05:15): <affirmative>. I think I'd say at Clackamas, probably just the participation numbers across the board have have improved all around, you know, in in particular the, the sport that stands out to me as our cheer program. When I took over we had four cheerleaders and now I think we're at like 24 or 25. So pretty cool to see what that program's doing. But all of 'em in general are growing.

Tricia Halonen (05:31): I'll say at Putnam High School, we had two teams go very far in postseason. Our girls cross country made it to state, which was amazing. And then also our girls soccer made it to semi-finals. And so really proud of of our teams and our growth.

Dana Cappelucci (05:44): Yeah, at Adrienne C Nelson, we, we saw improvement on in all of our programs. But the thing that I think I'm most proud of is the increase in support they're giving to one another. The amount of kids that are coming out from one team to support another team was really cool to see this year. That was more than what I saw last year.

Curtis Long (06:01): It's always fun to see those cross country runners out at the football games or the volleyball players at different sporting events. It's really fun to see them support each other. Now how excited are you to get this winter season underway now that includes boys and girls basketball, boys and girls, wrestling, cheer teams, dance teams. Am I forgetting anything? Swim. Swim. Swim teams. Swim team as well. So how excited are you to get the winter season underway now? Very excited.

Dana Cappelucci (06:24): <laugh>

Tom Moore (06:25): Can't wait. Especially, especially with the temperatures dropping in indoor sports. Sounds like a good idea.

Curtis Long (06:30): Yeah. So all the indoor ones, now you're in the gyms in the wrestling, room, wrestling takes place in the gym as well. How about swim? Does that take place at the Aquatic park for North Clackamas?

John Arntson (06:39): Yeah, North Clackamas Aquatic Park.

Curtis Long (06:39): Of course, coaches need to be in place, but I think what lots of people don't realize is the work that goes into making sure you have enough teams to support the number of athletes who would like to participate. When do you get a sense of how many teams you'd like to have at each level?

John Arntson (06:54): Usually it's kind of those, those first couple days at tryouts. A lot of it you're figuring out at the last minute. Like for, I know like Dana had to, she added a team Oh, even after the fact. So it's, there's a, there's a lot of, of last minute work scrambling getting schedules put together once you know your exact numbers.

Curtis Long (07:07): Yeah. I want to talk about scheduling too. 'cause that blows my mind that you guys take on that responsibility as well or your staff's help take on that responsibility. So at the beginning of a winter season, you have a general idea of who signed up for winter sports, but it's really probably that first day of tryouts where you get a little nervous thinking, oh my goodness, we have more athletes than we thought. Or maybe less athletes than we thought.

Dana Cappelucci (07:25): Yeah. We always wanna try to give as many kids an opportunity to play as we can, which is partly why we added another girls team at Nelson. We had enough girls to almost make a third team. And so we decided to go out and recruit a few more <laugh> instead of cutting Aw. To keep it at two. And so it'll give us an opportunity to give an an additional 10 to 12 girls an opportunity to play.

Curtis Long (07:47): How'd that recruitment process go? You needed a few more girls. Did you look for the tallest girls in the hall or how'd that work?

Dana Cappelucci (07:52): Um, you know, coach brought pizza in and that, and that attracted people.

Curtis Long (07:57): So, so you've got enough for a third team so everyone gets to play. And that way you didn't have to make any cuts at all. Yeah, that's gotta be tough too as an athletic director. I know the coaches are probably the ones that have that conversation, but to have that conversation with the coaches to say, Hey, we can't accommodate everyone that wants to play. And I'm sure that does happen. That's gotta be tough in your position.

John Arntson (08:13): The nice thing from the athletic director position versus the coach though, is that now we can go to those kids. 'cause it's usually like basketball that we're having to make cuts and say, Hey listen, we offer wrestling, we offer swimming. We, there's these other opportunities for you to be involved where the coach doesn't necessarily get to give them those opportunities. But as an AD you can.

Curtis Long (08:29): And Dana, you mentioned you added an extra team, so I imagine you need to add an extra coach and all of you guys have been in that situation before. What are you looking for in prospective coaches?

Dana Cappelucci (08:37): Looking for somebody that's going to give a good experience. And that's, for me, that's more than just on the court or the field. Like understanding that athletics is an important part of our students' lives, but it's not the only part of their life. And so really making sure that they're caring for our student athletes in a bigger way. And so winning is great, but it's not the only thing. And so making sure that they're able to be a coach in other ways and encouraging them to be successful and, and take pride in the classroom and to show up for their family or their friends, things like that. And, and knowing that they've got more than just their sport.

Curtis Long (09:13): I love that.

Tom Moore (09:14): That was really good. Dana. One of our responsibilities is coaching coaches, you know, as an athletic director mm-hmm <affirmative>. And coaching them up to the position where they, they're keeping our, our, our children safe and they're helping 'em. They remember that if they're a student first, athlete second and giving 'em life skills and giving 'em a sense of community and giving them a better reason to be in school and, and do well mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so all those things, all those things are really great things that activities and sports can do for a kid in high high school.

Curtis Long (09:39): And thanks to our four special guests, wanna know other great things that high school activities and sports do for students in North Clackamas? So far we've heard about points of pride from this past fall and how hiring the right coach can mean more to a team's success than wins and losses still to come, learn why when it comes to keeping tabs on the different schedules for all of the school's athletic teams, the term AD could never stand for almost done.

Tom Moore (10:03): And then you're really on the phone or the email quite a bit changing times. Getting Yeah, that's

Curtis Long (10:08): What

Tom Moore (10:08): I imagine. Yeah. It's a, it's not, it's never ending changing either. The the venue, the location. Yeah. The time. 'cause then you have, you have, uh, oh, I can't get a bus. We can't, it's not gonna work. <laugh> can I, can you host?

Curtis Long (10:21): In fact, Tom and Tricia needed to leave our interview early for an evening meeting. But John and Dana don't call a time out. The ADs from Clackamas and Nelson High Schools go a few extra innings to talk about the current official shortage in Oregon.

John Arntson (10:33): But I also think some of it is, you know, it goes back to the sportsmanship piece and fans getting on them and even sometimes some, some players can be that way. And, and as much as we can alleviate that so that the officials are also having the positive experience, I think that's really important.

Curtis Long (10:46): And what they love most about serving as the athletic director at an NCSD high school.

Dana Cappelucci (10:50): I think some of my favorite moments are actually showing up for the kids. Not in an athletic capacity, but just being able to be there to support them in other things that they do. And they expect us at the, the athletic competitions, but being able to have a shared experience outside of athletics has been really cool.

Curtis Long (11:08): Catch the rest of this really cool conversation with our North Clackamas athletic directors before time runs out right after this.

Commercial Voice (11:17): Are you looking for a job right now? Looking to work in a fun and supportive environment with great pay and a rewarding career? The North Clackamas School District is hiring. We're currently filling full and part-time positions. You can work and make a difference in young lives and education as a classroom assistant or substitute teacher apply to work in one of our school cafeterias where our lunch staff serves up big smiles with great food every day. We're also looking to hire before and after school caretakers, custodians, and bus drivers. In North Clackamas, we promise it won't take you long to learn why our employees say they're proud to be in NCSD. Apply today on the North Clackamas school district website or call 5 0 3 3 5 3 6,000. That's 5 0 3 3 5 3 6,000.

Curtis Long (12:11): And it just shows that the four of you are looking much more than just at wins and losses. I mean these are after all 16, 17, 18-year-old kids who are just starting out in their, in life. And you know, let's be realistic. Not very many are going to move on to play the collegiate level and especially the pro levels. You're just making, wanna make sure they have the best high school experience they can. I also don't think people realize that you're in charge of scheduling all the games or meets that each team will take place in. I wanna know how that works. 'cause I can't imagine how you figure out among all the different league schools when gyms are available, how you coordinate all those different times. Especially if you have three different teams that are playing. How does that work?

Tricia Halonen (12:46): Well I have no idea. <laugh>

Tricia Halonen (12:48): I haven't done that yet. Okay.

Tom Moore (12:50): It's kind, it's kind of in three parts. Um, or maybe four. You have a big conference meeting, you know, in the spring and you try to lay out all your conference games, you know, for the year then. Okay. So that helps that those are long days going from sport to sport and

Curtis Long (13:04): Oh, so you do all the sports at one time?

Tom Moore (13:05): We try to, yeah. Get a big chunk of it done. Yeah. Okay. But then you have meetings with OSAA at the state level where you're working out all your non-conference games. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Then you have that meeting and then you have another meeting for your lower level games and then you're really on the phone or the email quite a bit changing times. Getting...

Curtis Long (13:23): Yeah, that's what I imagine.

Tom Moore (13:23): Yeah. It's a, it's not, it's never ending changing either. The the venue, the location. Yeah, the time. 'cause then you have the, you have, uh, oh, I can't get a bus. We can't, it's not gonna work. <laugh> can I, can you host? Yeah. Oh no, I can't get a ref. Okay, let's change it to Thursday. So there's a lot, my goodness, it's never really ending. So, and then come spring, then you got rain. It's a whole new gamut to it.

Curtis Long (13:46): And two of you are both share a league. So Tom and Tricia, you're in the same league. So maybe you can share venues sometimes. I know at one time we had bad air quality at Clackamas. So the game got moved to Nelson's.

John Arntson (13:57): No, our lights went out. Our lights went, went

Curtis Long (13:58): Out. Lights, that's lights

John Arntson (13:58): Went out and it, it was uh, it was at four 30, the lights in the stadium went out and we called over to Nelson and that was Vicki at the time. And I said, I need your stadium. Can we please use your stadium? And she allowed it. And it was, that was my first year as AD. It was crazy. But we pulled it off.

Curtis Long (14:12): And I think people don't realize too that you also have at least an administrative assistant to help with those kind of things as well. Do, do your administrative assistants, what kind of role do they play in the, in the athletic office?

John Arntson (14:20): A huge role. <laugh> a huge role. They're, they're a lot of the communication stuff. Um, they help with a lot of the scheduling. Yeah. They play a big part of it for us.

Curtis Long (14:28): Now with all those different events happening virtually every night, do you feel like you need to be at every event? How do you dole out those responsibilities?

John Arntson (14:34): I think we try to make the focus be our varsity events. The, the one nice thing with our school district is they allow us to hire some event managers to help kind of cover some of the lower level stuff, which makes the job a little more doable. <laugh> <laugh>. But yeah, like all the varsity events you gotta be at for sure. And then, and then trying to get to the lower level as much as you can so you can, can see what's happening with those athletes and those coaches.

Curtis Long (14:53): When you're watching your students compete, no matter what level of competition, what are you most looking for from your school's athletes? I'm guessing sportsmanship is more important than winning or losing. Winning or losing with grace is probably pretty important. What are you looking for in your student athletes?

Dana Cappelucci (15:05): I'm looking to see if they're having a good time. Okay. Obviously it's more fun to win than to lose, but I've seen teams that are winning that don't look like they're having a great time. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And teams that are losing that look like they're having a great time. So, you know, I think it's, it's how, how the students are experiencing the sport. I wanna have a reputation of being good sports and conducting ourself in a respectful way with our opponents. Um, and just for them to have a good time. That's what this is about. You know, like you said, they're not all going on to play after high school, so this needs to be the best time that it can be for them.

Curtis Long (15:36): And when you notice things, maybe they're not representing the school in the way you would like them to imagine sometimes that's gotta be a tough conversation. Do you ever have to have those tough conversations with kids about expectations and, and what you're hoping to see in student athletes and what you're not seeing? Yeah,

Dana Cappelucci (15:50): Absolutely. That's part of the job and that's what we're all here doing is helping them to develop into the adults that they're going to be. And so those are learning moments for them and that's part of the job is, is helping 'em to recognize if they've mistepped and how to, how to correct.

John Arntson (16:07): Yeah, I would agree with that. I think, again, you know, the thing you're looking for is that they're having a positive experience. And when, you know, you talk about sometimes they're, they're gonna make mistakes and that's, I think a big part of athletics is learning some life lessons and, and that's part of it. And so sometimes it's their coaches hold 'em accountable. Sometimes as the athletic director, we have to intervene and, and have that conversation with them and you know, just remind 'em again. You're, you're, you're representing the school. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. You're representing the community. It's, it's something that's bigger than you and, and you need to be aware of that.

Curtis Long (16:32): I know statewide, there's a shortage of officials in nearly all sports. In your opinions, why do you think that is? And what can athletic directors do to help alleviate that? Or is there anything you can do to help alleviate that?

John Arntson (16:42): I don't know so much from the athletic director chair what we can do. I I, they have increased prices across the board in all the sports. And I think that's helping. The numbers are getting better and you know, even though that becomes a burden on, on athletic directors and our budget, I'm still a person who's in favor of it because I, you know, you gotta have officials and you gotta have good officials. But I also think some of it is, is, you know, it goes back to the sportsmanship piece and fans getting on them. And even sometimes some, some players can be that way. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And, and as much as we can alleviate that so that the officials are also having a positive experience, I think that's really important.

Dana Cappelucci (17:13): Yeah, I would agree. It's not an easy job and I don't think that the officials are given as much grace as we may want. And I think that that leads to some burnout for officials. And so I, I think if anything that athletic directors can do, it's just to continue to remind our fans that we want to create a positive environment for everybody that's coming into our building or onto our fields. And keeping that in mind when they're watching the games.

Curtis Long (17:41): And John, I know you do something and Dana, you probably do something very similar. You have a, a meeting at the beginning of the year of all the different sports. Right. And you've told the family straight up, Hey, guess what? Officials are gonna make bad calls. Yep. It's gonna happen. Be prepared.

John Arntson (17:52): Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I, I think letting them know that, and especially at the lower levels, that's where the, the new officials are. And they're gonna make mistakes and, and having some grace with them 'cause they're gonna grow and get better.

Curtis Long (18:01): Yeah. Now, I know you're involved in every athletic competition for your school, but are there other activities that are not necessarily sports? I'm thinking speech and debate. Anything else? I'm not thinking of that you're also in charge of?

John Arntson (18:11): All of the performing arts. Oh, okay. Our band choir, orchestra drama. We, we oversee that. Probably not to the extent that we do with some of the athletics, but we're overseeing that and organizing things for them and helping with their field trips and a lot of those things.

Curtis Long (18:24): And I think we forget band, orchestra, choir, they go to state tournaments as well do. Yes, they do. Yep. They can qualify for that as well. I think it's great that they're able to do that. Okay. I know you're not probably supposed to admit it, but do you have a favorite sport where you try not to miss any of those matches, games or meets <laugh>? John, you are a long time baseball coach. Uh, I can't imagine missing a whole lot of those.

John Arntson (18:41): I, I don't, but I'll, I'll be honest with you. What's been cool for me is I never in 25 years saw a softball game. Okay. I was always coaching baseball, so getting to go over and watch softball, it's been pretty cool for me.

Curtis Long (18:51): Uhhuh. Yeah. Dana, how about you?

Dana Cappelucci (18:52): You know, I've realized that every sport has its own kind of personality. Every team has its own kind of personality and so I don't know that I have a favorite because they're all a little bit different. And I, but I find that at the end of every season, I'm really excited for the next season to start.

Curtis Long (19:07): And John, you mentioned softball. You didn't get a whole lot of chance to see them. Dana, do you have a sport that maybe you didn't know a whole lot about or weren't as familiar with that you've kind of fallen in love with through this job?

Dana Cappelucci (19:16): Well, I, opposite of John, I was a softball player and a softball coach. Okay. And so baseball I didn't get to watch a lot of, and so I can see a lot more baseball now. Mm-hmm

Curtis Long (19:26): <affirmative>. Now as we start to wrap things up, it's very obvious that all of you love what you do. In your words, what's the best part about being an athletic director at an NCSD high school?

John Arntson (19:34): I think for me it's, it's, it's still the relationships, particularly with the student athletes, but now it's, it's, you know, before as the baseball coach, I had this relationship with the baseball players and now it's all the athletes. And getting to see some of these different kids and the things that they do and who they are, that's for me, that's, that's why you do it. It's, that's without a doubt, that's the best part.

Dana Cappelucci (19:53): Yeah. I think some of my favorite moments are actually showing up for the kids. Not in an athletic capacity, but just being able to be there to support them in other things that they do. And they expect us at the, the athletic competitions, but being able to have a shared experience outside of athletics has been really cool.

Curtis Long (20:10): I gotta think maybe graduation ceremony, seeing some of those athletes that you've seen come along from freshmen, the JV to varsity now there they are with their cap and gown on. That's gotta be pretty cool.

Dana Cappelucci (20:19): Yeah. It's a very cool experience and celebrate with their families.

John Arntson (20:22): And especially when it's one of those kids that you've been working to try to keep them eligible and staying on track to graduate and then they graduate and it's like kind of turns full circle. They see it too and they're like, Hey, thank you for being on me.

Curtis Long (20:32): Yeah, thanks for getting me to this point. Absolutely. Well, in the nearly 50 episodes of the Proud To Be NCSD podcast, we've had students, we've had teachers, we've had support staff, principals, the superintendent. But until today we've never heard the amazing perspectives of our high school athletic directors. And the purpose of episodes like this is to give listeners a behind the scenes look at some of the people who help make our students and certainly our district shine. Tom Moore, Dana Cappelucci, Tricia Halonen, and John Arntson, thank you for leading and inspiring so many of our NCSD students each day. And thank you for being a part of today's podcast and good luck and the upcoming season.

Guests (21:04): Thanks very much. Thank, appreciate you having us.

Curtis Long (21:07): Thanks for listening to The Proud To Be NCSD Podcast. In North Clackamas. We know that education is a community effort and we're so thankful that you and your family are a part of our community. Until next time, remember, there are always great things to see wherever you go in NCSD.