Oxford Superintendent Kim Stasny on school district funding

Melissa Meador’s Podcast

Athletic programs

Having a successful athletic program involves several different aspects for high schools in the Oxford area, including hiring strong coaching staffs, keeping athletic facilities up to date and encouraging students to keep their focus on academics.
Both the Oxford School District and the Lafayette County School District use athletic directors to ensure that the day-to-day operations of their athletic programs run smoothly.
Oxford High School athletic director Johnny Hill, who also serves as the head football coach, said his main goal is to make sure all of the school’s sports are taken care of in the best way possible and that teams are following specific guidelines, especially Mississippi High School Association rules.
“It’s a lot of paperwork, but it’s a fun and rewarding job,” Hill said. “I enjoy what I’m doing, and it makes it even more worth it after our athletic program receiving the All Sports Award seven years in a row.”
Lafayette County High School athletic director Jeff Nelson said one of his main goals upon taking the athletic director position was to bring about the prominence of smaller sports in his school district.
“We’ve always been good at the big sports, football, baseball, basketball, track, and when I got here one of my main goals was to get things like cross country going, tennis, swimming. We’ve even got bowling here,” he said.
Ensuring that all sports receive the same attention and funding is also one of Hill’s top priorities in the Oxford School District. He pointed out that he does not consider any sport “major” or “minor.”
“Every sport is a major sport because to the kids that play it, it’s the most important thing going on at school,” Hill said. “I want to be sure that one sport doesn’t take precedence over the other.”
Athletic directors are also in charge of ensuring that students are academically eligible to participate in sports and follow MHSA rules with grades.
Students typically must have a 75 average overall and keep a passing grade in all courses required for graduation.
Oxford School District Dr. Kim Stasny said grades were checked weekly in her school district.
“We’re really conscientious about grades here because we know if they don’t make the grades here, that they won’t make the grade at the university or college level,” she said. “As a matter of fact, I was talking to Coach Hill the other day, and he said he’d rather do it as a proactive measure as opposed to the school board passing a policy and setting a standard.”
Nelson said it was up to individual coaches to determine where the problems were at with students and their grades and how to boost each student’s academic progress individually.
“What you’ve first got to do is identify if it’s a lack of effort on the child’s part or if they’re not getting what the need help wise,” Nelson said. “In that case, we’ve got tutoring sessions set up for athletes and those children that are having trouble.”