The Athletic Director at Sutton High School is Matthew Friedman.
Planning out game days and who plays when takes a lot more people know. While Sutton is given a league schedule, it’s up to the athletic directors to fill out the rest.
So, if the Sutton soccer teams need four more games, Mr. Friedman has to contact other athletic directors that are not in the Dual Valley Conference and see if they would play Sutton. If they say no, he moves on, but if they say yes, then he has to figure out where the best spot on the schedule is for Sutton to play. If the other team asks for the third Thursday in October, but Sutton has a really tough game on the Wednesday before or Friday after, then having back to back games is not a good idea. So, he either has to convince them to take another date or he has to find someone else.
And that is just getting the game on the schedule (transportation, officials, scorekeepers and more come later).
It’s important to consider if the opponent is a good matchup. Thanks to the strength of schedule determining one’s seeding in the playoffs, have a team that is too strong might help even if they beat Sutton, but having a team that is too weak and an easy win hurts Sutton.
Athletic directors have to communicate for availability for both teams. It has to fit both the teams schedules for it to work out successfully. Mr. Friedman also has to determine if there are too many home games on the same date or if there is enough transportation for several away games.
Most games are scheduled to be done on weekdays after school. If that doesn’t work for the other team, occasionally games occur on Saturdays if necessary.
The biggest challenge of creating a schedule for athletic directors is dealing with shared facilities. Teams may have to go to different fields for practice and create problems for the essential practicing.
Rescheduling for weather can be annoying (thanks to rain, the field hockey games this past Thursday, September 25, were postponed). Athletic directors have to be able to make an accurate prediction so the game can either happen or not. This can be a big issue to the officials, coaches and bus drivers so decisions have to be made as early as possible.
Coaches don’t have much choice when it comes to game scheduling. They are allowed to suggest teams play against for extra games and in that case they have as much choice as they want or as little.
For away games, teams usually have their own buses. If it is a busy day or if they have a game at the same school or nearby, buses will carpool up to three teams at once.
There are many other small details, but overall making a schedule is difficult and Mr. Friedman does an excellent job of making our schedule a top notch one.
