Spring Changes in the Athletic Department
By Cliff Odenwald | Friday, May 15, 2009 12:58 PM
The first three months as Director of Athletics of the UIL have gone by quickly. The pace has been incredible. It seems just like yesterday that I was changing offices and preparing for the challenges that lay ahead.
With the promotion of Dr. Mark Cousins to Director of Policy and Rachel Seewald moving to Indianapolis, Indiana, the first priority was to hire two assistant athletic directors.
I knew it was going to be hard to replace the knowledge and experience of Rachel and Mark. Both of them were great leaders in the athletic department and were respected by all of the superintendents, principals and coaches in the state.
After going through a strong pool of applicants and an extensive interview process, Sheila Henderson and Traci Neely were named the new UIL assistant athletic directors.
The athletic department is privileged to have the addition of these new staff members. Both Sheila and Traci have experience as teachers, coaches and athletic administrators. Before joining the UIL, Sheila Henderson served as assistant athletic director for Austin ISD, and Traci Neely served as the assistant athletic director for Round Rock ISD.
When contacting the athletic department, you will notice several changes to the directors assigned to cover each sport. Traci Neely and Shelia Henderson have been assigned as directors of Track & Field. Traci Neely will also take on the assignments of director of Cross Country, Volleyball and Swimming & Diving.
In addition to Track & Field, Shelia Henderson also has been assigned as Director of Girls’ Basketball and Softball for the spring of 2010.
Peter Contreras will be director of Softball for the remainder of the current school year. For the 2009-2010 school year, Peter has been assigned director of Wrestling, Soccer and Golf.
Darryl Beasley will be the director of Team Tennis, Tennis, Boys’ Basketball and will also take on the additional assignment of Baseball in 2010. Mark Cousins will finish out the current school year as director of Baseball. You can contact me with any questions concerning football.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 was a historic day at the UIL. That is when the decision was made to postpone all interschool UIL activities because of H1N1 virus. For the first time in the 99-year history of the UIL, all interschool activities across the state were postponed.
I can’t tell you how proud I am of the entire UIL staff who worked countless hours contacting 20 regional track meet directors, working with the University of Texas to reschedule the state track meet and rescheduling the softball and baseball playoff dates to ensure that all students would not miss any games or meets.
It is difficult to understand the magnitude of this kind of rescheduling when facilities are reserved and calendars are set years in advance to host these events.
I would like to thank all of the regional track meet directors, the University of Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds and the entire UT athletic department for making it possible to reschedule all of these track events.
I understand the hardships that the rescheduling placed on school district administrators, coaches and students. I would like to thank each of you for the extra time, energy and sacrifices that were made to adjust your schedules to help accommodate these changes.
As we close out this school year, I hope that everyone gets some well-deserved rest this summer.