Marysville High School’s new athletic director, Joey Day, may not officially start until August 1, but he has already hit the ground running. He starts his transition with one very important task. . . getting to know the new student athletes and staff he will be working with.
“I have been doing some transition days this month just to get settled in and have been meeting some people,” Day said.
Day comes to Marysville from Kenton High School where he was the athletic director and has had previous athletic director experience at Harvest Preparatory School in Canal Winchester.
Day said one of the things that really drew him into the job at Marysville was the small-town feel the school and the community have.
“I am really excited about coming to Marysville,” Day said. “It is a growing area. It has that feel of being close to Columbus, but still has that small-town feel. I’m a small-town kid that likes to really focus on building relationships and getting to know everybody that is invested in our programs and our kids.”
While acknowledging that there will be a bit of a learning curve coming into a new school, Day feels fully prepared for the jump in school size as Kenton had many of the same athletic as Marysville.
“It (Kenton) had a lot going on with almost every sport that Marysville carries as well,” Day said. “There is always an adjustment period.”
Day said his approach to this new position is going to be one of establishing solid relationship so he can meet the athletics needs of the Monarchs.
“I think the focus at the forefront is diving in and meeting my coaches and student athletes. Finding out about what they enjoy about being a Monarch and some things they want to see improved,” he added.
Day said he would like to come on the job and keep the traditions of Marysville in tact, but also wants to see what he can bring to the table to help improve the existing programs.
“I want to do things that others want to emulate,” Day said. “I am a person that challenges the status quo. First it is going to be evaluating everything we are doing now, but then it is going to come down to looking at ways we can do things differently.”
While Day has some ideas for doing things differently for the Monarchs he is also coming in during a time of major construction to the football stadium. He wants to evaluate the situation so he can understand where he stands when he takes over.
“I think it is important to come in and see what the process is right now,” Day said. “They are on the back end of finishing that (the stadium). I spent time with Ryan (Walker) to be in tune with the construction and what is going on.”
Though Walker is stepping away from the athletic director position, he isn’t leaving the district as he takes a new role as the director of business services. He will be providing coordination for the district’s transportation, food service, grounds and buildings and other logistics for the school district.
Walker said the leap to the new position will not be much different then his responsibilities as an athletic director.
“It is not uncommon for people that work in athletics administration to move into this role,” Walker said. “We already work a lot with maintenance, buildings and grounds, transportation and juggling a lot of different components throughout the district.”
Walker hopes that the unusual situation of having the former athletic director still on staff will help Day transition into the new role.
“I think it is a good situation for Joey because he will do his own thing and be his own person in the job, but I can serve a resource for him,” Walker added. “Especially in the first few months or so to help him transition to Marysville the best I can.”
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