Gilroy
– Jack Daley’s faced a challenging year as athletic director at
Gilroy High School.
Gilroy – Jack Daley’s faced a challenging year as athletic director at Gilroy High School.
His son, Jackson, underwent treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Of course, everything else paled in comparison but there was the controversy surrounding three transfer student-athletes as well as the Central Coast Section and school suspension of a coach.
On top of that, the Mustangs have 22 different sports, more than any other school in the Tri-County Athletic League.
Daley’s work has not gone unnoticed by the California State Athletic Directors Association which recently named him the CCS AD of the Year. It was an unexpected but appreciated honor for Daley, in his seventh year as Gilroy High AD.
“I was excited and surprised to be honored by my peers,” Daley, 48, said. “To win something like that you need to look at a whole bunch of people who made it possible. There’s the coaching staff at Gilroy, the athletic directors in our league, the community and the support I’ve got from the administration.”
Until this year, Daley had worn two hats for the past six years – he was also activities director. Julie Berggren took over that role this year.
And yet, that didn’t signify a slowdown for Daley, who started as a substitute teacher at GHS in 1988, the same year he started coaching football. There were still the Mustang Classic in girls basketball, the Bob Hagen Memorial Tournament in boys basketball, the Mid-Cals in wrestling, a girls volleyball tournament and the upcoming Avis Kelley Invitational. And that’s on top of the 22 sports.
“The only CIF-approved sport we don’t offer is lacrosse,” said Daley, who is still junior varsity football coach. “And I guess if there was a demand for that we’d have to consider it. But it would have to be for the boys and girls.”
Boys soccer coach Armando Padilla felt the award for his boss was well earned.
“If there’s anyone on this campus who bleeds blue, white and gold it’s Jack Daley,” Padilla said. “He’s at almost every sporting event. He had to wear two hats for so long. I applaud him for the job he’s done here, not just for the coaches but the athletes. Jack Daley has done an outstanding job in the seven years I’ve been here.”
Daley returns the compliment. It’s been an especially good winter where the wrestling team is having another banner campaign and looking to make it five straight TCAL and CCS titles, the boys soccer team is in first place, and the basketball teams and girls soccer team are each in the top three in the league.
“We’ve done real well and I’m proud of the coaching staff and kids,” Daley said. “The coaches are real professionals who work hard to do their best for the kids. They make my job easier, as does the support from the administrationa and community.”
That doesn’t mean Daley is ready to sit back and keep things status quo. With the sports running smoothly, there are a number of projects that Daley lists as priorities at GHS. Number one is improving the weight room.
“There are a lot of things we can do with our facilities,” Daley said. “I would like to see a fence up in the softball stadium, and the scoreboard is falling apart, Obviously, Armando (Gonzalez) would like a new wrestling room. It’s so small that it can’t accommodate more than one team at a time.
“But the weight room is the next big project that needs to be taken care of. We’ll have to raise money to get that done. It would take some reconstruction in the gym.”
In other words, the challenges never end even for an award-winning athletic director.
