Daily Sitka Sentinel

Director Likes New SHS Activities Post

By BRIELLE SCHAEFFER

Sentinel Staff Writer

When Susan Ross was growing up, activities were a big part of her academic experience. 

She has been swimming since she was 6, she played basketball, softball  and rowed with the crew team in college.

Susan Ross

Activities gave her “something to look forward to at the end of the day,” Ross said. “School wasn’t just about books.”

As the new activities director at Sitka High, she wants to provide her students with the same positive experiences.

“Not everything can be taught in a classroom,” Ross said.

Sports and other extracurricular activities teach kids teamwork, and help them manage their emotions and become better people, she said.

Ross took over as the SHS assistant principal of co-curricular activities on Monday, leaving her position as P.E. teacher at Blatchley Middle School. She had been there for 10 years. Connie McCarty is taking over that position as a long-term substitute for the rest of the year.

“My last day at Blatchley Middle School was bittersweet because I’d been there for so long,” Ross said. 

But “it was time for a change.”

And it is a change indeed, she said.

“The last three days have been quite a transition,” she said. “It’s a different hat for sure.”

As the former Sitka High School swim coach, she knows what teams must do to raise funds, secure housing and travel for competition, she said. Managing those things will be a big part of her new job. 

And because she was at Blatchley for so long she knows a lot of her new students.

“I am qualified to do this job,” she said. “I am so happy to be here.”

Sitka School District had a hard time hiring – and retaining – someone in the sometimes grueling position that requires late nights picking up teams from the airport and ferry as well as many hours on weekends managing events. The high school has had five activities directors in the last five years and was scrambling to find a new one after Lindsey Jorgenson, who had held the job for a year, resigned in July.The school district decided to make the activities director into an administrative position to make it more appealing to applicants and more versatile. A school administrator is already required to chaperone all sporting events, so changing the classification of the director position would fulfill that need.

Ross said the administrative label “absolutely” attracted her to the post.

“It’s a big job and there are lots of hours involved,” she said. “I’m more willing to put time and energy into it.”

Sitka High School Principal Lyle Sparrowgrove also is allowing her flexibility with her schedule, meaning she can take time off during the week if she has to work several hours on a weekend.

“It’s the only way I’ll be able to sustain this,” she said. 

Superintendent Mary Wegner is pleased Ross has taken the position.

“She’s highly qualified,” she said. “She’s organized. She’s very kid-centric. She works well with families. She understands the school system here.”

Wegner is also pleased the district moved to classify the activities director as an administrator so Sitka High has three administrators – Principal Sparrowgrove, Assistant Principal Sondra Lundvick and Ross – to spread the load. The school modeled the new system after Mt. Edgecumbe’s administrative team, she said. 

Ross already has some big ideas to improve the high school’s activities. She’d like to raise money for teams by tapping into Sitka High’s alumni base. She wants to start offseason trainings to prevent injuries for the student athletes and even create coaching manuals, something that hasn’t been done. 

The school’s goal is 100 percent student participation in activities, she said, and she wants to work toward that. 

“I am not all about the win,” she said. “I am all about representing Sitka. Good sportsmanship is the absolute best for me. This is more about the joy and the learning experience of being a part of the team.”

Ross grew up in upstate New York, studied exercise science at Northeastern University in Boston and at the University of Oregon, where she rowed and swam. She moved here in 1997 to coach the Baranof Barracudas swim team.

After doing that for several years, she went back to school to get a master’s degree in teaching and started as the P.E. teacher at Baranof Elementary.

“I was only going to come for five years,” she said. “In March it’ll be 20.”

In her spare time she enjoys camping, boating and hanging out with her family, including her 8-year-old son Brett. She also coaches his baseball and basketball teams. 

Ross plans to make the activities program stronger, she said, but she needs help from the community.

“I want people to come to me with ideas or if anybody wants to help refereeing or has a skill to raise money,” she said. “My door is always open.”