Dave Woltman Says Goodbye As Athletic Director This Week

Actually there were no typical days as an athletic director, first at Effingham St. Anthony High School then at Effingham High School.A typical day for Dave Woltman? Actually there were no typical days as an athletic director, first at Effingham St. Anthony High School then at Effingham High School.

Woltman is ending 32 years as an athletic director, 37 years in education and his actual last day before retiring will be Sunday, June 30.

"There really isn't a typical day for an athletic director," said Woltman. "Something different happens every day. During the day there are also things happening with school that need attention as well. In the morning I would go in and check voicemail and email. I would follow up on things from previous days. Then at 10:30 to noon, there was lunch supervision. I would eat and then get back in the office about 12:30 and prepare for upcoming events that night or the next day."

Woltman began his tenure at St. Anthony, not as an athletic director, but as a volunteer.

"It all started when Mike Wilson asked me to help with the St. Anthony basketball program,"  said Woltman. "I was a volunteer that first year. The following year I got hired as a coach and health and P.E. teacher at St. Anthony. When Dave Bartlett got the principal's job, he asked me to be the athletic director. I was nine years at St. Anthony and the last five years I was the A.D."

What does an athletic director do?

"The basics of the job include scheduling games, getting officials and organizing events as they happen," said Woltman. "Over time, it's evolved into much more than that. Things like fundraising, being involved in the Koerner Golf Tournament, advertising on the football field and in programs. It's really an infinite list of tasks that people don't realize have to happen. I took care of the banquets and college signings and made sure the photos and information of those events got out to the media. Those are the types of things that create a lot more to do that people don't even realize I took care of.

"I order supplies for all the sports, order the awards and get everything prepared for award nights. I hired most of the coaches by basically sitting down and talking to people to figure out if they are the right fit."

Along with those tasks include being at the school for games and scheduling workers for home games.

"I have to go to the games, whether they are on the road or at home," said Woltman. "Sometimes I'd be late coming home after having to leave early for those games. The timeline is usually similar for home games minus driving. It's mostly about time and trying to be as organized as you can be.

"Another task is to schedule workers for the games. You have to be sure somebody is doing concessions and get them committed. Then there are the security workers, ticket takers and people selling tickets, working the clock, keeping the book and taking care of the video board.

"When I was first hired, I was in charge of the concessions. When Dr. Clasby was hired, he essentially told me, 'you are not going to take care of the student council, we have teachers for that' so that was one thing I didn't have to do."

When Woltman first began as an athletic director, all documentation and the statistics were all handwritten.

"Technology has helped in the job," said Woltman. "I used to have all handwritten documentation, stats and scores. When I was at St. Anthony, I got a FAX machine and thought that was wonderful. A lot of things have changed to help but all that goes on with the job still takes time."

Fall sports at the high school include boys and girls cross country, football, boys and girls golf, soccer, girls tennis and volleyball. The junior high sports are baseball, softball, cross country and girls basketball.  During the winter there are boys and girls basketball, cheer and wrestling along with junior high school boys basketball and volleyball. Spring brings baseball, softball, boys tennis and boys and girls high school and junior high school track.

"The events, particularly in fall and winter, are in the evening," said Woltman. "During spring there's just as much going on but it's after school and that cuts down on the late night hours considerably. When I started this was definitely a commitment and a sacrifice to my family. Unless they were at the games, I wouldn't see them until I got home after a game. Sometimes it would be a late night coming home and you'd have to leave early if the game was out of town. My family would come to see the games and to spend time together."

Most of the time Woltman has been the athletic director, he has done the job himself.

"It was pretty much just me at St. Anthony and the first 26 years at Effingham," said Woltman."Last year we hired Gail Warner to be my secretary and she has been great. But, the first semester was a learning time for her and then our computer system got hacked and she spent a lot of time doing things for teachers and we couldn't do a lot with the computer."

There have been tough times through the years as well as some great times.

"Covid was probably the worst experience I had because kids enjoyed doing their sports and parents enjoyed watching," said Woltman. "But when Covid happened, everything was restricted and we got information from the state at the last minute. The IHSA would say this is the plan and then the governor would come in and say, no, you're not doing that and it would change.

"In the case of basketball, we only had three weeks to get things together. The athletic directors were behind the scenes trying to talk out how to create schedules and plan for the accommodations. Sometimes the information and decisions weren't given to us until the last minute. This was the case for every athletic director. It was disheartening. Things happen that you could not resolve or fix and that was frustrating because people then turn to you and it's actually out of your hands.

"But there are certainly things that I enjoyed and the obvious thing is when you have a State champion in a sport or your teams have done well in a State series. I get as much satisfaction with the simple things. A 10th player on the team that does something you wouldn't expect them to do, or a personal best time. Those are as important to me as the obvious things.

"I would say, any situation that interferes with the process was what I disliked the most. If something breaks down or you have an unruly fan you have to deal with. You try to have a plan and then when something like that happens, you try to deal with it. Of course the weather is another thing that's out of your control."

Woltman came to Effingham High School prior to the new school being built.

"I was hired when they were in the process of building the new high school. They were in the planning process. But I was involved with the planning and process of getting the athletic complex set up. Jim Littleford and I were going to those planning meetings together on the building and the athletic complex and the next year Jim moved to the junior high as an assistant principal.

We were trying to figure out how to pay for the track, football fields, softball diamonds, etc., because they were not a part of the original referendum. Honestly, some of those facilities need to be improved now. We've recently improved the track by resurfacing it, turfed the football field and resurfaced the tennis courts. Those facilities are 25 years old. It would be nice to focus on renovating the baseball and softball fields now."

What will Woltman miss about being an athletic director?

"I certainly will miss the interaction with all of the coaches. I've had the opportunity to work with several recognized coaches at the high school and that certainly made my job a lot easier. Ron Reed, Jeff Schafer, Mike McDonald, Laurie Bohnhoff, Brett Hefner, Jerry Trigg, and Chris Fleener. Having the same varsity coaches for a long time helped. When you have coaches who really care about kids and have the opportunity to work with that type of person is satisfying.

"The administrators who I was honored to work closely with and have impacted me were Mike McCollum, Tom Fish, Dean Keller, Mike Schmitz and Kurt Roberts. Certainly my good friend and mentor Dave Bartlett, who in the beginning was a mentor for me in education and the athletic director position was instrumental, but Dave was, and still is a mentor for life. I still call him to this day and talk with him. I used him as a sounding board for many things along the years including when Covid was going on.  In addition, the athletic directors in our area and around the state have been great to work with as well.

"The thing I will miss as much as anything is all the relationships with administrators from other schools, officials and media."

Woltman and his wife Julie have two children, Michelle who is 30 and a surgical nurse at HSHS St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital and Michael, who is 27 and is a corrections officer at the Effingham County Jail.

"My wife was so important through all of this," said Woltman. "She went to lots and lots of games. She knew what was going on with being there a lot. This job was definitely a commitment to and a sacrifice to my family. Unless they were at the games, I wouldn't be back home a lot of times to see them."

What is ahead for Woltman?

"It's been a good career, rewarding and challenging. I'll probably still keep working the Koerner Tournament and the Christmas Tournament. 

"I don't have concrete plans right at this moment. My plan is to do hobby work through the summer. I'll probably sub because it's a way I can still see the kids and talk with them. I will definitely miss the kids. That's why I chose a career in education to begin with, was to work with kids."

Photo of Dave Woltman from The News Report