Bill Faflick: Safe and courteous driver
Following City League athletic director Bill Faflick around four gyms Friday night brought dozens of “Who’s this guy with Bill?” looks.
Faflick doesn’t necessarily have rock-star status when he enters a high school, but everyone sure knows him. And he knows almost all of them by name.
Shadowing the league’s AD for five hours, I thought it could be extremely fascinating or extremely boring — it was somewhere in the middle. If all is running smoothly at the gyms, Faflick doesn’t have to do much more than check in with the officiating crew, talk with building administrators, and observe. (In fact, the only out of the ordinary thing he did Friday night was help move something blocking a fire exit.)
But the rides between gyms are where I found out what his challenges are (and no, not his driving skills).
We all know the Wichita Public Schools are having to think seriously about major cuts to the budget because of revenue shortfalls from Topeka. Faflick’s no different. The district’s athletics budget is almost $2.5 million — let’s remember that’s less than 1 percent of USD 259’s budget — and he’s having to weigh possible cuts. He doesn’t have a figure he’ll have to cut, but it could be big.
That could mean fewer coaches (more accurately fewer assistants) around the district. Sounds easy, but when a high school has 60 kids out for cross country, can one coach handle all that?
The last thing Faflick wants to do is trim sports, or trim levels of sports such as JV or C-level teams. He rightly points out that athletics isn’t only about competition, it’s about giving kids opportunities to grow as part of the total school curriculum. You take away C-team baseball, you’re taking away a chance for a dozen or more kids to take pride in representing their school.
Other random thoughts from following Faflick Friday:
– Referees stretch a lot in their locker rooms. Pregame, halftime, between games, whenever.
– I think the taped National Anthem at Northwest goes on for at least 13 minutes.
– Faflick’s wife, Diane, is a counselor at South and is participating in the Titan faculty’s “Biggest Loser” competition. She decided to have some fun with her colleagues Friday by having a pizza delivered to South administrators at the East High gym before Friday’s games. When Bill Faflick arrived for the last of his four stops, the first thing he did was ask the South folks, “Any pizza left?”
– Epic anthem by the Heights madrigals.
– We stepped into the officials’ locker room at East after the boys game and found them sitting in a triangle, shoes off, all eating concession-stand hot dogs. Ah, the glamour of being a referee.
Thanks to Bill and the 12 officials working varsity games Friday for letting me into their world for a night.