{"id":439,"date":"2020-06-07T18:52:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-07T23:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sm-tnsports.com\/2020\/06\/07\/athletics-important-to-mcps-director-finalists\/"},"modified":"2020-06-07T18:52:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-07T23:52:00","slug":"athletics-important-to-mcps-director-finalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sm-tnsports.com\/2020\/06\/07\/athletics-important-to-mcps-director-finalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Athletics important to MCPS director finalists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Maurice Patton<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After narrowing down the field of potential replacements for Chris Marczak as director of Maury County Public Schools to three, the finalists \u2013 Mickey Hall, Michael Hickman and Aimee Wyatt \u2013 each recently visited Columbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in town, they each took part in a question-and-answer session with members of the community, facilitated by the Maury County Education Association, at Columbia Central.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Southern Middle Tennessee Sports was on hand to discuss their athletic backgrounds and their views on   the importance of athletics to the overall educational experience, particularly as it relates to high schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the MCPS board meeting Monday and expected to possibly announce a decision, here are the comments from the three candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mickey Hall (deputy director\/chief financial officer, Wilson County Schools): <\/strong>\u201c(Athletics) not just in high school are very important. Athletics keeps kids in school; band keeps kids in school; arts keep kids in school. I grew up playing sports, I\u2019ve been a coach, in baseball and AAU (basketball). My son and daughter have experienced the state tournament. \u2026 Those extracurricular activities keep a lot of kids in school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mickey Hall (left)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201c(Regarding county equity) That\u2019s a two-headed sword. You can do a self-audit, at the district level. At the district level, they\u2019ll appraise each of your schools. But you\u2019ve got to be willing to live with the consequences. I\u2019ve been through two (Office of Civil Rights, a sub-agency of the U.S. Department of Education) investigations in our district. When they come in, they do not care who you are; they care that \u2026 the female athletes have the same opportunities as the male athletes, that they have the same number of locker rooms for both male and female. If you\u2019ve got a weight room that\u2019s labeled \u2018football\u2019, you\u2019re in violation of OCR right now. If it\u2019s a weight room and it\u2019s scheduled for all athletes, you\u2019re OK. They\u2019re going to look at how you advertise your program, if there\u2019s as many female pictures as male pictures. A self-audit can be done, but you have to be willing to live with the consequences and either take away or add to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael Hickman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Michael Hickman (principal, Mt. Juliet Elementary School): <\/strong>\u201cObviously I played sports. \u2026 I coached basketball and baseball at the middle school level. \u2018The importance of sports\u2019 \u2013 you gotta be careful. I\u2019m going to talk about sports, activities; all of these are very important. There are some students that, they\u2019re coming to school for sports. That \u2018mentor\u2019 is their coach. It keeps them pushing in school. For some kids, that\u2019s their only outlet. But it goes to the clubs, some of the other after-school programs. Kids need to belong to something. I\u2019ve told many parents in my career, \u2018make sure your kids joins a club, a sport, something after school\u2019. They want to belong. If they can\u2019t find something, they\u2019re going to find something on their own and it\u2019s probably not going to be something you\u2019d want them to be a part of. It\u2019s integral \u2013 the different leaderships, all the qualities it can lead to. You don\u2019t want to leave out or make clubs and all these other things we do any less (than athletics), because it\u2019s all the same for what it can give to kids. The extra education, the extra mentors, it\u2019s huge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aimee Wyatt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Aimee Wyatt (director of state and district partnerships, Southern Regional Education Board): <\/strong>\u201cAthletics and extracurricular activities are important to me. We\u2019ve been a part of a research study where we put all the students\u2019 (grade-point averages) down, we put down how many activities they were involved in, and there\u2019s almost an exact correlation between the GPA of the student and the number of clubs, organizations, athletics that they\u2019re in. Arts, athletics, anything you do outside of school is experiential learning. It helps with socialization, it helps with being a better citizen, and that all goes into making you a well-rounded student. \u2026 You also want to make sure we have something for everybody at some school. We\u2019ve got to make sure we find as many things to float their boat. My one son wasn\u2019t an athlete, but he was in chess club. My other son was a baseball player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c(Regarding gender equity) So there\u2019s a short-term plan and a long-term plan. You have to devise what the ideal situation looks like and map out how we get there, and in the meantime you have to look at alternatives, scheduling, play, so that they still get the same services. It\u2019s not OK that they don\u2019t have the same quality. So how does that look? What facilities can we look at or share or maneuver schedules so that can happen until we can get the adequate facility that is equal to the other facilities around?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Columbia Central football coach Jason Hoath, who was in the audience for each of the three forums, expressed optimism regarding the candidates and the support he\u2019d expect from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think if you ask any coach, we\u2019d always want more,\u201d Hoath said. \u201cBut you notice all three of the candidates said something along the same lines: Athletics, as well as clubs, different things students are involved with are important and encouraged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI guess the hope is that we can be able to compete with the counties around us as far as facilities and things of that nature \u2013 what\u2019s going to entice people living in Middle Tennessee, what\u2019s going to make us stand out from other counties. In the coaching world, that\u2019s always going to be facilities. Wins and losses play in that, too. If you\u2019re going to place a child in a school system, academics are going to be No. 1, but if they\u2019re involved in athletics or other activities, what does this school have to offer, as opposed to one county over? Those are things I would look at \u2013 what\u2019s the program like, what are the facilities like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHopefully we\u2019ll have that support and as we enter this new era, it\u2019ll be good on all ends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maurice Patton is the editor for Southern Middle Tennessee Sports. He can be reached by e-mail at mopattonsports@gmail.com<\/a> or on Twitter at @mopatton_sports.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Maurice Patton After narrowing down the field of potential replacements for Chris Marczak as director of Maury County Public Schools to three, the finalists \u2013 Mickey Hall, Michael Hickman and Aimee Wyatt \u2013 each recently visited Columbia. While in town, they each took part in a question-and-answer session with members of the community, facilitated … Continue reading Athletics important to MCPS director finalists<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184945300,"featured_media":435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[33354],"tags":[49797901,20479611,35890,348025,257673124,330352,67737,503863],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sm-tnsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/img_6812-1.jpg?fit=640%2C636&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbWF0s-75","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":279,"url":"https:\/\/sm-tnsports.com\/2020\/05\/19\/return-to-local-gridirons-hits-snags\/","url_meta":{"origin":439,"position":0},"title":"Return to local gridirons hits snags","date":"May 19, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"By Maurice Patton As summer workouts for Tennessee high school football teams gear up under local COVID-19 restrictions, squads in Maury County are still on hold. \u201cRight now there\u2019s not been a decision made,\u201d Maury County Public Schools athletics director Chris Poynter said of plans for Columbia Central, Mt. Pleasant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "High School Football"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/sm-tnsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/img_6616.jpg?fit=639%2C511&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":388,"url":"https:\/\/sm-tnsports.com\/2020\/05\/30\/local-coaches-discuss-plan-for-return-to-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":439,"position":1},"title":"Local coaches discuss plan for return to work","date":"May 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Columbia Central\u2019s refurbished weight room will get busy as summer workouts under COVID-19 guidelines are set to start on June 8. Mt. Pleasant and Spring Hill will begin offseason practices then as well. (Photo by Maurice Patton) By Maurice Patton High school coaches in Maury County now know when they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "High School Football"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sm-tnsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/img_6705.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":420,"url":"https:\/\/sm-tnsports.com\/2020\/06\/04\/split-vote-leaves-dead-period-in-place\/","url_meta":{"origin":439,"position":2},"title":"Split vote leaves dead period in place","date":"June 4, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"By Maurice Patton Following a vote taken by the 12-member Legislative Council during a specially called remote meeting Thursday, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association\u2019s two-week dead period will remain in place. After the mid-March dismissal of schools statewide because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the correspondent stoppage of athletic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "high schools"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sm-tnsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/img_6723.jpg?fit=560%2C538&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":812,"url":"https:\/\/sm-tnsports.com\/2020\/07\/07\/maury-athletics-takes-steps-still-room-for-growth\/","url_meta":{"origin":439,"position":3},"title":"Maury athletics takes steps; still room for growth","date":"July 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"For Chris Poynter, Paul Lamm and certainly numerous others, $500,000 spent recently on athletic facility improvements at nine of the 11 middle schools and high schools in the Maury County system represents \u201ca good start\u201d.","rel":"","context":"In "high schools"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sm-tnsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/img_7133.jpg?fit=750%2C537&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":531,"url":"https:\/\/sm-tnsports.com\/2020\/06\/15\/columbia-central-suspends-football-practice-due-to-covid-19-case\/","url_meta":{"origin":439,"position":4},"title":"Columbia Central suspends football practice due to COVID-19 case","date":"June 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Special to SM-TN Sports Maury County Public Schools Athletic Director Chris Poynter and Columbia Central football coach Jason Hoath have suspended football practice due to a recent Covid-19 case. 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