Posted by:
Jaxson
(
)
Date: August 04, 2020 02:06AM
I was a Stake Athletic Director...twice.
The first time was as a young married student at BYU in the early 1980's. I attended a "regular" ward (not a student ward) and one of my friends in the ward at the time was a fellow young married law student (and Elders Quorum Prez.) named Kevin Worthen.
I was always a "gym rat" and made sure I secured a key to the Stake Center so that I could shoot hoops whenever I wanted. The Stake Athletic Director noticed me and asked if I would give him a hand. After he moved on, I was called to the position.
I always had a strained relationship with the Stake Prez when it came to scheduling as I felt my program was not given priority, particularly when it came to scheduling the Stake Center for basketball. The tension between us came to a head though during the spring. I had run a very successful softball program and had arranged a deal with the City of Provo to use one of their city fields for a stake championship softball tournament. The challenge I had was to fit all of the games needed into a very tight timeline.
Everything was going smooth until I ran up against the Stake Prez' ward team. Just as I was getting ready to start the game, the Stake Prez decided that he wanted his team to take the field so that he could hit them some ground balls for infield practice. As he was hitting grounders I said, "Hey Prez...call your team in. My schedule is tight and we have to start the game." He ignored me. Kept hitting ground balls. Again I said, "Hey Prez, we have to get going...now!!" He shook his head and hit another ground ball. When he went to hit another I said, "You hit that and your team forfeits the game."
He let the ball drop to the ground, dropped his bat and walked over to me. He asked me to repeat what I had said. I said, "We don't have time for the teams to take infield practice and get the games in. So if you would like to continue hitting ground balls to your team, you will have the opportunity to keep doing so for the next hour because your team will have forfeited the game."
He turned flaming red, got up in my face, spitting and screaming, "DO YOU SUPPORT ME AS YOUR STAKE PRESIDENT!!" I stood my ground and said, "In the chapel I do support you. That is YOUR game. But here on this field, this is MY game. You have ten seconds." He tried staring me down and I could tell he wanted to punch me. Instead he spun around and told his team to get into the dugout.
Not long afterwards I graduated from BYU and moved away.
Years later I was once again called to be the Stake Athletics Director in my California stake. Having worked in professional sports for 20 years, organizing a stake program came easy for me.
I was nearing my breaking point with the church at the time so when I received a call from the High Counselor to interview me, I decided to turn the tables. Instead of him interviewing me, I interviewed him. I laid out for him what I would need to put on a great program (reasonable budget, new equipment, outside paid officials, etc.). I gave him a hand-written list of what I required to accept the position, and told him to share it with whatever "powers may be". I told him if my requests were unacceptable, then perhaps he should hit his knees again and ask for the name of another candidate.
He sat there stunned. After picking his jaw up, he stammered, "I'll get back to you soon." I shook his hand and said, "Great! I'm excited to put on a good program and look forward to hearing back from you." About a week later we met up again. He pulled my list out of his pocket. It was marked up with notes. As he went over it, I realized that about 80% of what I asked for had been agreed to. He asked if that would be O.K. with me. I told him, "Sufficient for my needs." He actually chuckled a little at that response.
I went on to put on the best athletic program that stake had ever seen.