Friday, Jul. 18, 2008

New AD Takes on a Heapin’ Helpin’ of Responsibility

The Lonnquist Notes

The first thing you notice about Susan Elza is her dry sense of humor. The other thing you notice is her deep Texas accent.

Combine the two, and you get this:

"This accent is not a sign of my intelligence," she quips.

Elza, 38, will need a sense of humor to keep her sanity through the breakneck pace she has been on since becoming the district’s new athletic director in late May. This is Elza’s first chance to run an athletic department. She groomed herself to be in this position at Allen, when she was hired as the school’s softball coach and girls athletic coordinator.

Eventually, she moved up into an associate athletic director’s role in 1999 before she applied for the Northwest position.

And she is busy. Elza is in the midst of putting out a last-minute fire in finding a new boys basketball coach and completing other coaching staff arrangements. But the great challenge she is facing this coming school year is preparing to make a seamless athletic transition into the new high school, Byron Nelson.

There, it’s not only a case of building a coaching staff from the top positions to the assistants. It’s also a case of making sure the equipment and facility needs are on par with other schools in the area when Nelson opens in the fall of 2009.

"I’m living something different every day, but we’re also setting everything up for the success of the athletic programs," Elza said. "What’s great is that I envision a complete program where we are giving kids a chance to succeed in every sport. And we have the support from administration to get there."

Elza envisioned herself in an administrative role when she was in college and in coaching. In fact, that’s probably why former Allen athletic director Todd Graham, who is now the head football coach at Tulsa, hired her.

The Elza hire is more evidence of the evolving state of high school athletics in Texas. The old-school approach was that the football coach doubled as the athletic director. He would let some of the other coaches or administrative assistants handle some of the administrative duties.

But that’s changed. With so many students, so many coaches, so many schools and so many other responsibilities, the multiple-school districts need someone to handle all of the needs for all of the schools without stepping on the field.

Elza understands what coaches need to succeed. It isn’t so much equipment or budget, but the fact that she will allow them to run their programs in the way they see fit.

"I’ve been in the trenches with these coaches, so I know how to handle the ups and the downs," Elza said. "I want them to know they can communicate with me as easily as they want. They need to feel like they can come to me."

But just as much as she is an athletic director, she also has to be an ambassador. When she took the job, friends asked her where Northwest was. Well, that was understandable, because it is out in the northwest part of Tarrant County and covers well over 200 square miles. She wants to make this place a destination center. To use the Carroll example, she would like the district sports to excel. When solid programs feed off each other, success soon follows.

"I saw it at Allen, and it can be done," Elza said. "We are a little behind with the things we have to do procedurally. But getting the parents on board and giving the kids the opportunity is the best thing we can do."