Organized Chaos

A couple of weeks ago it was business as usual. The Athletics Academic Support staff was prepping for fall registration, monitoring grades, making sure student-athletes were doing their work by going to class and getting with tutors if appropriate, and something called COVID-19 entered our everyday life. It was a conference call with leadership staff and head coaches where Brad Horton, Senior Associate AD for Student Athlete Development volunteered or better yet was "volun-told" to figure out a plan IF classes moved online how would oversight be handled.

After a long pause, and a few deep breaths (queue the orange haired excuse me MEME guy), Brad and his staff of 12 developed a plan and put it in motion. Brad's staff already knew the at-risk student-athletes they were identified before the COVID-19 curveball, it was identifying the next group of student-athletes that might struggle in the online environment that was most difficult. Once identified, this cohort of student-athletes has two mandatory FaceTime/Zoom sessions with staff, in addition to what the tutoring needs are. In addition every head coach and assistant coach in our department has jumped in to assist the academics staff with the day-to-day contact of student-athletes, to ensure they are focused on the goal of academic success. The first week of online classes ended on April 3, the staff's plan is now in motion, and it's working just fine. Brad chuckled, "Now comes the fun part, kids have one of two places they can login and do the work, iCollege or Keep Learning, and we have access to see if they've logged on, and how long they've logged in for each class or lab." Not that he doesn't believe the student-athletes, but it's nice to have back up in this virtual world.

The virtual world would lead to a lot of unknowns and stresses, but all were eased in the two weeks prior to classes restarting. "The professors really stepped up; their world was rocked more than ours was because we are monitoring the student-athletes work being done in their classrooms. Their classrooms were being moved from in person lectures to online. It was really remarkable, I credit the University leadership: Carol Cohen Assistant VP for University Advisement, Dr. Allison Calhoun-Brown, VP of Student Engagement, and Dr. Tim Renick, Senior VP for Student Success". Their accessibility and knowledge coupled with Charlie Cobb's transparency about this situation has made it for as smooth a transition as possible.

Working in college athletics things are always transitioning, and now Brad has been able to bring his lessons learned to telecommuting for work and home schooling the kids, organized chaos is what it is. Brad and his wife, Monica, have two kids, Blake (1^st grade) and Bailey (pre-k). "We settled into our new normal and both Monica and I working from home and homeschooling the kids. I've been kicked out of the house and my office is in the garage (aka the principal's office). Blake doesn't want to end up out here with Dad, so he's tightened up real nice."

Organized chaos is a term that can apply the current situation, and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight, but the University Community has stepped up and remains #GSUnited.

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

Charlie Cobb: AD; Redshirt

Brad Horton: SrAssocADDev; Redshirt

Players Mentioned

Charlie Cobb
: Redshirt
: AD

Brad Horton
: Redshirt
: SrAssocADDev