The Journey Ahead

Let’s be perfectly clear.
Andrew Stanley, who became Collegiate’s director of athletics July 1, knows he has tough acts to follow.
 
If you trace the lineage of the position to which he’s ascended, you’ll learn that the venerable Petey Jacobs (1959-1981), John Moreau (1981-1987), Charlie McFall (1987-2013), and Karen Doxey (2013-2022 after serving first as assistant, then associate, then co-AD since 1990) preceded him.  
 
Now, let’s also be perfectly clear.
 
Stanley, an associate AD for nine years, isn’t the least bit intimidated by the challenge. Is he humbled by the confidence the school has placed in him? Yes. Is he passionate about his calling and excited about the possibilities that lie ahead? You bet. Is he ready to take the best of the past and add his own touch? Absolutely.
 
“If you have any chance to succeed,” he said, “you have to be aware of a couple of things. One, you’re not (your predecessors) and trying to do it the same way they did would be a recipe for disaster. Two, you’re not going to try to do it the way because you’re not running the same department they ran. This is a very different place than it was 15, 20, 30, 40 years ago, so the job’s very different. When you look at the culture, you have to be eyes-wide-open. You have to hold onto what really, really matters. It’s not daunting, but I’m very aware of maintaining the parts that need to be maintained as we navigate the future.”
 
A Baltimore native, Stanley holds degrees from Randolph-Macon College (B.A. in psychology) and Virginia Commonwealth University (M.Ed. in counselor education). During his 25 years at Collegiate, he’s served in a host of roles including Lower and Middle School teacher, associate director of admission, Upper School advisor, varsity boys lacrosse coach (229-114 record, one VISAA and four Prep League championships in 17 seasons), Cub football coach, and executive director of the Geronimo Lacrosse program in addition to athletic department leadership positions.
 
One day recently he reflected upon his career and offered thoughts about the journey ahead.

How hard was it to give up coaching lacrosse to be the AD?
It wasn’t hard to give up being the head coach for three reasons. If it was, then it would be more about me than about the kids and the program. It wasn’t hard to give it up because I knew we had the right person ready to take it over in Zack Schroeder.

It wasn’t hard because now I get to empower all our coaches. I hesitate to say “coach the coaches” because we have such good coaches that they don’t need to be coached by me. Coaches I respect will always say, when they have a good team, “Well, at least I didn’t mess it up.” I don’t need to teach these people anything. I just need to put them in a position where they continue to do what they do well and offer them the support they need.

And it also wasn’t hard to give it up because you can’t accept the job of athletic director in today’s world while being tied so strongly to one sport. I don’t do things well halfway. It takes multiple hours every day of the year to be a program leader. It’s not physically possible to be equally balanced no matter how strong your integrity is this day and age. Karen (who coached field hockey) did something I couldn’t do. Going forward, I hope I’ll be able to build in the time to be involved in the player development side of things in the two sports (lacrosse and football) I know better than others.

What will you miss about the day-to-day of coaching?
The selfish part. I love being out there. I love the relationships. Any of us who don’t admit that we get something from all that we give are probably not being honest with ourselves. Knowing that I’m going to have to replace that somewhere else gives me a little pause. If you can name it, you can tame it. Right? So I can walk into it eyes wide open.

What have you learned from your predecessors that resonated with you?
The one time I remember McFall, quote-unquote, pounding the table was when he sat in the Reeves Center classroom after he’d won a bunch of (football) state championships and looked at all of us in that August (coaches’) meeting and said, “I know the pressure to win is coming at all of us. You need to know that that’s not why you’re here. Your job is not to win state championships. Your job is to take care of the kids and coach to the best of your ability.”

Was being an AD always in your plan?
No, I was always intrigued, and have been since I was a little kid, with what makes a school run. When I was in high school (at Gilman School), I would hang out with the Upper School head and with the people in the offices. When I came here (as a Lower School teaching assistant), I would hang out in Karen and Charlie’s office every day when I had a free period. For a while I was trying to put myself on a path to be a division head or head of school, but that would have involved a move. When the opportunity in the athletic department came, I knew it was something I could do for a long time.  

In this world of rapid change, what needs to be maintained from an athletic department perspective?
Integrating school values and athletic values. Focusing on sportsmanship and doing the right things for the right reasons regardless of scoreboard outcomes. Pressure is a monster that can overwhelm you if you’re not careful. I have to do my part to relieve the pressure on our coaches and students to achieve certain outcomes so they can never lose focus on what really matters. And I like the fact that Collegiate has worked really hard to develop athletes from the young age up. That’s something we need to hold true.

What changes do you envision?
For sure, I have to stay current and surround myself with people who are willing to tell me I’m wrong. We have to look very carefully at how we do things in terms of teaching competition, confrontation skills, conflict-resolution skills. We have to hold ourselves compatible to our abilities and potential individually and programmatically. It’s okay to challenge ourselves, push ourselves even harder, and examine how we’re putting in the foundational systems at a very young age here to encourage kids to pursue loftier goals. That’ll translate to how they’ll pursue goals academically and in life. That’s why we have sports. We’re primed to really examine our priorities, name them, and own them.

And I want to help people understand that you can get “there” from “here.” It’s not an accident that we have people going off and succeeding at high levels. Our coaches know their stuff and take their jobs seriously and do it for the right reasons.

Sounds like you’re ready to roll?
It’s a great opportunity. We have really gifted coaches. I’m excited about the chance to help them do their job better. Our goal should be to make it feel better to coach here every day and be an athlete here every day. We want this to be something that every kid who comes to Collegiate wants to be involved in and can’t imagine not participating in in some capacity. However we can do that in the years to come will be good for the kids, good for the coaches, and good for the community. As someone who wasn’t born here but has grown up as an adult here, I understand the importance of the history that led us to where we are and hope that the community is ready to take that history and mold it into the model for the future of what school athletics should be.
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