WJ is at the end of an era of athletics: the Sue Amos era. For the past 21 years, athletic director Sue Amos has strolled the halls of the athletic areas in the school and the fields during practices and games. She’s been making sure that athletes’ attendance in school has been acceptable and coaches are receiving all the things they need in order to provide WJ with the necessary resources to build successful and sustaining programs. While Amos was a key player in helping to create a lot of successful WJ seasons as the school athletic director, the athletic program is still lacking in terms of success.

Track coach and Forensics teacher Tom Rogers will replace Amos as athletic director next year. Rogers is well-liked by the staff and student body and is expected to be a driving force in athletics. He has successfully coached track for many years and has a great deal of experience.

Junior and track athlete Patrick Winter believes that the change will be good.

“I think [Rogers] will do a great job as [he] has a great understanding [of all sports] not just track,” said Winter.

Being an athletic director can be a very difficult job because they have to be versatile in many areas in order to help the school. Coaches focus on one job: managing your team so they can succeed and win. A coach has to make sure students succeed at home and at school academically. In simpler terms, coaches have to manage many people and athletes to make sure they are doing their job correctly and getting everything they need.

Year after year, we have seen typical programs such as soccer, track and lacrosse continuing to dominate WJ athletics. There’s still significant room for improvement, and there is plenty that Rogers can do to bring WJ back to the pinnacle of world athletics.

This change in leadership is especially exciting for our football program, which has struggled for a long time in competing around the county. Football might receive the resources necessary to take the program to the next level.  Rogers is somebody whom the football team feels knows the game and understands what it will take to help the coaches and athletes get what they need to build a winning program here at WJ.

Junior lineman Charlie Heim is excited for the change and how it will impact football.

“Yeah, we are all excited for Mr. Rogers as he bring something different and new to WJ athletics and football,” Heim said.

Another difficult challenge for WJ athletics is that some programs have been lost and forgotten. These are programs like ice hockey and rowing, which may not be varsity sports, but they are still athletic programs whose participants are expected to compete at a high level. With this new regime running athletics, many of the athletes involved in these sports are hoping that the director can get more involved and bring attention to their teams.

It can’t be emphasized enough how much Amos has done for WJ athletics in the 21 years she has spent here to help build programs and help sustain them. It will be disappointing to see her go, as it is the end of an era, but also exciting because it is a brand new time, and Rogers will certainly bring something new to the table as athletic director.