In 2000, after 18 years in collegiate recreational sports, Leroy Hackley, Jr., shifted gears to become Athletic Director at Byron Center (Mich.) Public Schools. From the outset, the tasks seemed similar to ones he'd performed at Eastern Michigan University and Grand Valley State University--but he soon discovered that he was in a brand new world.

Over the next five years, Hackley learned the ins and outs of working with teenagers, parents, coaches, and administrators, and in 2005, he took over as Athletic Director at nearby Jenison High School. There, he has increased the number of tournaments the school hosts, worked closely with the program's boosters, and emphasized the importance of community service. In 2009-10, all of Jenison's teams finished in the top half of the Ottawa-Kent Conference, which is one of the toughest in the state, winning a wrestling district championship and a volleyball conference title.

Hackley has also taken a leadership role on the state level, serving on the Executive Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA). In this interview, he talks about responding to budget cuts, working with parents, officiating basketball games, and dealing with an unexpected request last winter.

AM: At the end of last year, you hosted four tournaments--district baseball and softball and state tennis and track--on the same day. How did you manage that?
Hackley: Between the four tournaments, we had about 12,000 people on campus, so we needed a lot of help to pull it all together. The wrestling program organized parking, boosters handled concessions, and everybody stepped up to the plate. In today's economy, it's hard to pass up a chance to raise money, and as long as we have the facilities, we like to keep them filled.

We've hosted state tennis for the last few years, and the baseball and softball tournaments rotate around the district. Early in the year, the state asked us about hosting track, and even though we could have passed, I looked at it as a challenge. Before the weekend was over, we joked that next time we should add the state water polo tournament.

How do you get the community to help out?
A lot of it is relationship building. Our motto is "Wildcat Pride," and everywhere you go, you see our paw print logo. It's not just a moniker, it's a way of life. The whole community saw the tournaments as an opportunity to show what we've got, and we weren't going to let that go.

What are budget cuts like at Jenison?
We're struggling--not just the school system but the whole state. Over the past four years, I've probably made close to $150,000 in cuts to athletics.

When you're faced with deficits like that, where do you start?
First, we look at each sport and ask ourselves, "What are we getting in return for the dollars spent in this program? Is it worth it?" The answer has always been yes, so we take a second look to see if there are extras we can do without, and we've been able to make cuts in transportation costs and equipment purchases.

In years past, the athletics budget provided the meat and potatoes, while the boosters provided the dessert. Well, there's no dessert any more, so if coaches need something above and beyond the budget, they have to ask the boosters. They've given us $70,000 for next year, which helps a lot.

How are you generating new income?
Gate receipts are an important source, which is why we've brought in so many tournaments. But really, our biggest fundraiser is concessions. When we renovated our athletic facilities, we put concessions throughout the complex, including places you wouldn't typically expect to find them, like near our tennis courts and softball field.

Some teams do their own fundraisers, too, which is a great way to bring in extra money. Everybody sees how tight things are because there are stories in the paper almost every day, and everyone knows we need to keep hustling.

How did you handle the transition from Grand Valley State to Byron Center?
I was a campus recreation director for 14 years at Grand Valley and for four years at Eastern Michigan before that, so I'd been in rec sports for a long time. Taking over at Byron Center, I was responsible for a lot of the same nuts and bolts--scheduling facilities, hiring officials, and setting up transportation--but nothing prepared me for dealing with parents. Working in recreation, it's all about fun and games. At the high school level, it's a whole different story, and it's amazing to me how much emphasis people place on winning.

In 2009, pressure from parents caused a girls' basketball coach at a nearby school to resign, and you then hired that coach at Jenison. How are you making sure the same situation doesn't arise in your program?

I've known this coach and his family for a long time, so I'm confident it won't be a problem. We also have an open door policy with our parents, which works well.

In our program, nothing is off-limits. I know in some schools, coaches don't discuss playing time with parents. But for a lot of parents, that's the one thing they want to talk about, and if you don't give them that opportunity, those feelings will fester. They'll sit up in the stands, find other parents who are unhappy, and before you know it, you've got a cancer growing.

Our message is very consistent: If you have a problem with a coach, you have to talk to that coach. I tell parents that instead of asking, "Why isn't my kid playing more?" they should ask, "What can my kid do to get more playing time?" That alleviates a lot of problems, because oftentimes, what the parent hears from the kid is not really what's going on.

On the other side, I encourage coaches to always talk honestly and try to understand the parents' point of view. We have a lot of young coaches here, and I tell them, "Until you become the parent of a student-athlete, you don't know what it's really like." Having three sons go through my programs has given me a much clearer sense of where parents are coming from.

What's the challenge of being an athletic director at your sons' school?
I was fortunate that all three of my boys made All-Conference, so there was no talk about whether they were playing because I was the athletic director. If they were having a problem with a coach, I expected them to take care of it themselves. If my kids didn't want to talk to their coach, I'd say, "Then it sounds like you don't have a problem. Because if you do, you need to deal with it."

After a backboard shattered during a state boys' basketball tournament playoff contest at a neighboring school this past winter, you agreed to move the game to your gym. How did you make that decision?
I had just settled down at home, it was about 8 p.m., and my phone started ringing. The athletic director at Rockford High School called to ask, "Is there anything going on in your gym tonight? Because the backboard just broke and we want to finish the game at your school."

When I realized he was serious, I called my assistant athletic director, principal, and superintendent, who all agreed we should open the gym. I called our police liaison officer and custodial staff, and within 20 minutes, we were ready to go. The gym was packed, everyone was appreciative we could host the game on such short notice, and we received a lot of positive press.

While you were on the MHSAA Executive Council, the Supreme Court ruled the association needed to switch sport seasons to provide equity for boys and girls. Where did you stand?
I think the Supreme Court got a little lazy with that one. They said we needed to put sports in their traditional seasons, but we'd always played girls' basketball in the fall and girls' volleyball in the winter. It gave us a great way to maximize facilities, which is why Michigan was always in the top five nationally in high school participation rates. But the court ruled we had to switch, so we did, and there were a lot of unintended consequences.

What were the consequences?
During the fall, we used to have girls' basketball in the gym on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Now with volleyball games on Thursdays, we have an empty gym every Tuesday night. Then winter hits, and all of a sudden, we have a ton of activities going on.

We've lost coaches who'd been coaching both boys' and girls' varsity basketball. We've had multi-sport athletes forced to choose between teams. We were fortunate at Jenison because we have two gymnasiums, but some schools needed to put in new locker rooms for nights when both the boys' and girls' basketball teams are playing. We're also still tweaking schedules. This year, we're going to play girls' basketball games after boys' basketball games, even though athletic directors, coaches, and players all understand it's not good for the girls.

The MHSAA has been outspoken about not participating in national tournaments. Do you agree?
I do. During the school year, we limit teams from traveling too much, and if you don't understand why, just take a look at basketball. When I see college and AAU teams going all around the country, I have to ask, "When are those kids actually in class?" They're missing a ton of school, and in my mind, that's not right.

It may sound strange coming from an athletic director, but I think schools place way too much emphasis on athletics. This is an academic setting, and athletics should be a byproduct, not the main focus. All too often, if a kid is failing a class, the parent doesn't say a word. But if that kid doesn't get enough playing time in a game, the parent will be in my office the next day. I'm glad people think athletics is important, because that's why I have a job. But I want to make sure we're graduating good kids, which is how an athletic program should be judged.

Why does your program emphasize community service?
It goes back to "Wildcat Pride," which is central to everything we do. All our teams do community service, which gives them a better appreciation of the world. For the most part, our kids are very fortunate, so for them to help people who are struggling is an important part of their education. This year, working with a neighboring school, our football program raised $9,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project, and our girls' basketball team did a Shoot for the Cure pink-out, which generated a lot of money. If there's somebody in need in our community, our student-athletes step up.

You have been officiating basketball games at the NCAA, NAIA, and community college levels for many years. Why do you do this?
It's hard for some people to understand, but it's a really good outlet for me. I enjoy every minute I'm on the court.

Even when spectators and coaches yell at you?
Actually, it's not so different from being an athletic director, in which I'm often faced with situations where people are upset and I need to calm them down. I listen to coaches, let them have their say, and then get back to the game, saying, "Here's a solution, and you may not be happy with it, but we have to keep playing." Officiating helps me as an athletic director because it teaches me to always be on an even keel.

Earlier this year, a local newspaper published a list of public school salaries, including yours. How has that changed the way you do your job?
A friend of mine called to tell me how much money I made. I said, "What are you talking about?" and he said, "It's in the newspaper," because they printed the name of everybody who earns over $100,000 a year.

After that story come out, it felt like everyone looked at me a little differently. They'd always seen me working 13 or 14 hour days, but I started feeling pressure that I'd better be working 13 or 14 hours a day.

Where is high school athletics heading in the future?
More and more, we're going to see high school athletic programs moving away from tapping the general fund and toward self-sufficiency, where they operate like club teams. Down the road we might all need corporate sponsors to keep our programs viable. I hope that never happens, but we're clearly moving in that direction.

What do you tell people who are thinking about going into the profession?
I always say, "Make sure it's something you really want to do, because it's not for everybody." The hours are long, and sometimes it feels like a thankless job--people don't often call just to say hello. But it's fun too, and at the end of the day, I can sit back and watch a game knowing I had a hand in putting all those people together. That's very gratifying.