The Work Never Stops, Part IV

With his smiling countenance and affable manner, he’s a familiar presence in the Collegiate community. He puts in long hours, knows pretty much everybody, and has a wealth of institutional memory, which he offers freely to anyone wise enough to engage in conversation with him. He’s truly a been-there, done-that, seen-everything colleague and friend who can recount humorous, serious, and if-these-walls-could-talk moments as if they occurred yesterday.

 

During his 42 (going on 43) years on North Mooreland Roads, Athey has served in a variety of capacities, the longest as logistics, set-up, and special events coordinator. In the spring of 2021, he moved to the athletic department, where he operates as equipment and field coordinator, pitching in elsewhere when needed. Over the years, he’s also coached boys varsity basketball, first as an assistant with Alex Peavey, then Del Harris, and now Nick Leonardelli.

 

One recent morning, serenaded by the rumble of an 18-wheeler slogging along Lansing Lane and the more cheerful sounds of a youth lacrosse camp on the nearby Grover Jones Field, Athey spoke of his career at Collegiate, where his days are full and his time with friends and colleagues fulfilling and meaningful.

 

“You seem to go full bore through the school day,” I began. “What keeps you motivated this time of year when the pace is slower?”

 

“The summer’s actually been pretty busy,” he replied. “Right after graduation, we went into Summer Quest sports camps. I worked some of the basketball camps, but I had to prepare for some of the other camps by marking fields and getting equipment ready. Now, I’m working on fall sports. Getting ready for football to start August 5. I’m in the process of pulling all the equipment out and storing it at location so when the kids get here, the coaches can get them on the field, and the equipment’s ready to go.”

 

“Sounds like a lot of details to get ready for the fall season,” I observed. “How time- and labor-intensive is your athletic department gig?”

 

“I do a little bit each day,” he said. “I’ve been working on it for about two weeks now. pumping up the footballs, getting all the jerseys lined up. Right now, I’m rearranging the shed (at the west end of the Jim Hickey Track) that used to be for lacrosse. Now, it’s football, so when the players and coaches come in, everything’s ready to go. We’re talking about the football bags, practice jerseys, kicking tees, blocking dummies, and sleds.”

 

“Is this a one-man job or do you have help?” I asked.

 

“I pretty much do it myself,” he said. “If I need help, I always call. Most of this stuff, I can do myself.”

 

“You really seem to enjoy what you do,” I offered

 

“I love what I do,” Athey said. “Everything I do out here, I do for the kids, so in order to make their experience great, I keep doing it. When they come out, all they have to do is be ready to go. They don’t have to prepare for anything other than the sport they’re participating in.”

 

“What other responsibilities do you have other than getting equipment ready?” I asked.

 

“I do fields, something I never thought I’d do,” he said. “Building fields. Keeping them lined. It’s part of the job. We have to have practice fields on the main campus and out at [the] Robins [Campus]. We’re putting a practice field up on the upper field (on North Mooreland Road). All the fields pretty much go away during the summer, and we have to rebuild them.”

 

“Rebuild them?” I asked.

 

“You have to lay out the out-of-bounds lines,” Athey replied. “If it’s soccer, you have to put all the boxes and circles in it. Build it from scratch. It’s a plain field, just grass, when you look at it. When kids come back, they have a lined field.”

 

“How did you end up in the athletic department?” I asked.

 

“During COVID, we lost two employees from the athletic department,” Athey said. “At the start of the [2021] spring season, they needed somebody in a position that didn’t need much training, so Karen Doxey (then the athletic director) brought me over. I fit in right away. I love [supporting the athletic program]. I’ve figured out a way to make it easy for me. When it came to [distributing] uniforms. I didn’t know what teams wore, so I went back to the 2019 yearbook and picked out what people were wearing.”

 

“You have a deep well of institutional memory,” I observed.

 

“Yeah, I remember coming in in ’82,” he said. “I remember when the football field was grass, and we’d line it and cut it with a mower. There was no Robins Campus. We have more teams now, and we needed more space. As the years have gone on, we’ve made a lot of improvements, so it’s a big change from ’82 to 2024. There’re a lot of memories going back.”

 

“What does it feel like to sit here and know you’re part of the School’s evolution?” I asked.

 

“It feels great,” Athey said. “Once you look back and see what the kids are doing out there and how they’re performing, it all starts with the things we all do behind the scenes, whether it’s us building fields or the coaches preparing in the summer for the kids to come out ready to play and have a good experience.”

~Weldon Bradshaw