Jonathan Alder athletic director Tom Vargo, right, presents Pioneers head boys basketball coach Zach Ross with his Division II district runner-up medal. The game against DeSales at Central Crossing High School was the final JA athletic event in which Vargo served. He is retiring in July. (Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
Tom Vargo is concluding his educational career in a very strange way.
The Jonathan Alder High School athletic director is retiring in July without having any athletics to direct this spring.
The school’s final athletic event for the 2019-2020 academic year came early last month.
The Pioneer boys basketball team fell 32-30 to Columbus St. Francis DeSales during the Division II district championship game played at Central Crossing High School.
The next activity on Vargo’s calendar would have been the Division II state wrestling tournament at The Ohio State University’s Schottenstein Center.
JA’s Reece Chapman was scheduled to compete in that tournament.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association at first postponed the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Grapplers were left up in the air over the course of several weeks while schools were closed by Gov. Mike DeWine.
The winter sports tournaments of boys and girls basketball, wrestling and ice hockey were eventually canceled.
The 2020 spring sports season was canceled last week by the OHSAA after DeWine ruled school buildings would remain shuttered through the end of the academic year.
Prior to the OHSAA’s announcement last week, Vargo had remained hopeful spring sports would be played at some point.
“I would like to see us get back to some type of schedule,” he said during a telephone interview with the Journal-Tribune. “I wouldn’t anticipate it would be by May 1, but maybe we can start in the middle of the month and play a couple of weeks before tournaments begin.
“One thing I’ve learned about spring sports is you have to be flexible, because of the weather.”
Vargo’s hope, of course, became a moot point when the schools remained closed and all extra-curricular activities were halted.
Vargo has spent 31 of his 34 years in education at Jonathan Alder. He was a special education teacher for 20 years before beginning his tenure as athletic director.
He also coached football, track and field, girls basketball and wrestling at JA’s junior high over the course of his career.
Vargo said his transition from classroom teacher to athletic director went well.
“Jim Albanese and Chris Piper (who were former co-athletic directors) helped make the transition very smooth,” he said.
Both Albanese and Piper gave up their shared AD duties when they went into administrative positions.
Vargo said the 2019-2020 year had been going very well until the cancelation of spring sports.
The Lady Pioneer volleyball team finished as Division II district champs and regional runners-up, the football team was a Division III regional runner-up, the girls hoop squad captured a D-II district title and the boys roundball squad was district runner-up.
All four teams won Central Buckeye Conference Kenton Trail division titles, as did the boys golf and girls bowling squads.
“Those teams had a lot of success and it’s been a good year,” said Vargo.
He said Jonathan Alder sports have been strong across the board over the years.
The baseball squad has won a number of district championships and a Division II state crown in 2010.
Softball has also been a top sport, winning the D-II state title a year ago.
Vargo said a good deal has changed with Pioneer athletics since he took over the athletic director’s position.
“For one thing, we were still an independent when I started,” he said. “We had been an independent for nine years prior to that and continued for my first two years.”
JA had been a member of the Buckeye Athletic Conference, but found itself without a home when that circuit disbanded.
The school district could not find a suitable conference for the longest time and spent many years as an independent.
Vargo said not being affiliated with a conference made it difficult to schedule games.
“We had to do a lot of traveling,” he said. “Most of my time was spent on trying to schedule activities.”
The situation became much less difficult when Jonathan Alder first joined the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference and later shifted to the Central Buckeye Conference.
“It was so much easier to schedule games and hire officials once we got back into a conference,” said Vargo.
Another change has been more of a reliance upon computers to help with game scheduling and the assignment of referees.
Despite the athletic success Vargo has overseen, he is ready to step away.
“You come to know when it’s time to leave,” he said. “I think 34 years in education is good enough.
“It’s been a good school year for our athletic teams and I want to leave on a high note.”