This week was very interesting to say the least. I spent December 18th at my Alma Mater Clio High School with their Athletic Director Mr. Lamphere. His history is quite interesting as he happened to play professional baseball back in his hay-day. This was a great experience for me as I quickly noticed the difference between Calvert and Clio. With Calvert being a division 6 in Ohio and Clio being a division 2 in Michigan, the difference was pretty obvious. The first thing that popped out to me was how Mr. Lamphere had many different people under him at Clio. There was a secretary, an Assistant Athletic Director, and many different student workers were in the office throughout the day. This gives him the ability to push some of his daily responsibilities off to others that he trust. Giving him more time to do his duties and to be able to put 100% into them. Mr. Brickner at Calvert didn't have the opportunity to do that. He had only one other person in the office to help which was the Assistant Athletic Director. Both him and the Assistant AD also taught classes at Calvert as well, while at Clio there only job was to run the Athletic Department. I'm glad I had the opportunity to be able to experience such a big difference and to be able to realize the different aspects that are required in each job. Though they both hold the same titles, their jobs are completely different. My second day at Clio was shut down early as the whole county had threats. Later that day every school in the county ended up closing school early for the holiday because they didn't feel the risk of something happening to their students was worth it.

On Thursday, December 20th I spent my day at Mott Community College shadowing Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown holds a lot of responsibility at the college from being the Assistant Baseball Coach, to helping out the Athletic Department, and even teaching classes. Today was a big doubleheader against Owens Community College in basketball. My day consisted of preparing for the game as they were having a "black out" and expected attendance to be high. As I finished up assisting him in preparing for the game by getting the shirts ready and setting up various tables, I then helped him set up the concessions. Mott is known for their basketball nationally, so to say the game was crowded was to say the least. Working concessions for their games is nothing like the concessions we have at Tiffin. I also got introduced to the Associate Athletic Director Al Green. We both shared our numbers and I will be in contact with him after the holidays to be able to work alongside him for a few days. I'm excited to be able to say I have worked at two different high schools and now a community college. These experiences are all very different and will all help shape my future.

My last week at Calvert was a busy one! With their current league breaking apart (MAL) they are on a search to join another league. This week I spent most of it cleaning up the inside and outside facilities; getting them prepared for meetings. Making the facilities look nice and clean is important as you want to impress the other schools. With Calvert being such a known school in the area I feel that they will have a choice on which league they'd like to join. Mr. Brickner discussed with me that he'd prefer to join a league where there athletes would succeed. Nowadays that's probably not what most Athletic Administrators would say as it's turning more into a business each and every year. It's all about making money in most cases. At the high school level the big money making sport is football. Joining a conference where there are football powerhouses would benefit the school as it would bring in attendance to their home games from the away teams traveling to watch their school. The biggest problem is the travel time between schools which is crucial into joining conferences. Joining a conference where you have to travel hours to get to the other schools would not be smart as parents would most likely not drive hours to watch their children play, especially in the economy that will live in now. 

Overall this was a great experience at Calvert and I am very grateful that I had this opportunity. There are very few interns who get to experience everything that I did as Calvert is a small school which allowed me to see all the in and outs of the business as I shadowed Mr. Brickner. I was also lucky to experience the changing of conferences as some Athletic Administrators don't even get to see what I've seen in their career. I would like to thank Calvert and Mr. Brickner for allowing me to grow professionally and personally in their organization.