Area schools finding it hard to keep positions filled

"One and done" is a common phrase used for blue-chip basketball players that leave college for the NBA after their freshman campaign. The same phrase can also be used to describe some athletic positions at a couple area high schools recently.

For the second straight year Bloomfield and Eastern Greene High Schools are both in search of a new athletic director. Last summer both schools made the decision to not hire locally and turn to administrators from out of town.

I am sure in both cases the school officials thought they had hired the best candidate to fill the vacancy.

Bloomfield officials were already being criticized as they had an interim athletic director, Rick Hudson, the previous school year before selecting Monica Abernathy -- a 2004 Ball State University graduate. Before accepting the position at BHS, Abernathy was physical education teacher at Elwood Middle School for three years and completed an internship in their athletic department.

With being a sports writer, I am in constant contact with athletic directors almost on a daily basis. This is even more the case during the spring sports seasons. I can honestly say that it was an absolute pleasure working with Hudson for the year he served as the AD at BHS.

As if athletic directors do not have enough on their plate the way it is, dealing with media responsibilities is one obligation some people may tend to forget about -- or at least not high on their priority list. Hudson on the other hand, would go above and beyond his way to make sure myself and B.J. Hargis knew immediately of any changes or cancellations of any athletic events -- often before we even had time to make it into the office.

There is probably a good reason why I am a sports writer and not sitting on a school board or part of any school administration, but just like anyone else I have an opinion -- like it or hate it -- and my opinion was Bloomfield made a mistake by not offering the position to Hudson.

And now that they are once again in search of an AD, maybe they can admit they did not make the best choice.

Don't get me wrong, I think Abernathy did a great job in her time here, but to me someone who walks out after one year can not be considered a great hire. Abernathy cited moving back to her hometown for a love interest as her reasoning for her resignation -- this coming less than three months after the board renewed her contract for the 2009-10 school year.

Eastern Greene on the other hand was searching for an athletic director after Brian Holland decided he was better fit as just an instructor and not instructor and administrator. The Eastern Greene board decided on Jeff Cochren -- who, like Abernathy, had only been involved in the school instruction for the previous three years.

Unlike Abernathy, Cochren decided he was going to commute back and forth to Eastern Greene from his Huntingburg home -- more than 60 miles one way. He turned down the same position at Elmhurst High School, in Fort Wayne, due to being too far away from home. Cochren cited having two older daughters in college at Evansville as his reasoning.

In an interview, Cochren told The Greene County Daily World, he would look to move closer to Eastern Greene "when the time was right." Apparently after one year on the job, making the 120-mile plus drive everyday, the time never was right, as he resigned and took the same position at Heritage Hills High School, which is much closer to his home roots.

Once again no knock on Cochren, but hiring someone who lives more than an hour away and is not going to move closer should have been a red-flag to the board members.

In my opinion, I would much rather groom a local candidate knowing there is more of a chance of them staying on board for more than just one year, than taking a shot in the dark on someone with ties farther away.

Eastern Greene was not as fortunate as what Bloomfield was to having someone already in their system more than capable of exceeding expectations at a high level, but maybe a little more investigating could have prevented the search for yet another athletic director.

Best of luck to both schools in their search for hopefully a long-term athletic director in the near future.

Travis David is a sports writer for the Greene County Daily World and can be reached at 812-847-4487 ext. 20 or tdavid@gcdailyworld.com.