There’s nothing easy about starting a new job during the pandemic but Pioneer athletic director Kerry Baird was up to the task.
Pioneer went into the fall without having its athletic director position filled, with principal Kevin Burke assuming the role in the interim.
Baird took over the athletic director position following the fall season, one in which she coached the Panthers field hockey team and was right into the thick of things after accepting the job.
“I came in at a weird time,” Baird said. “Usually you start the job at the beginning of the school year. I was coaching field hockey and I came across this opportunity. They asked me for a start date and I had to keep delaying it because we kept moving on in the tournament. I went straight from coaching into this position and a week or two later we were starting basketball practices so it was a fast transition.”
The winter season was difficult for any athletic director, never mind for someone doing it for the first time. With COVID cases rising around schools and games all around Western Mass. being postponed, the schedule that was set at the beginning of the season didn’t end up going to plan.
Instead games were shuffled around, leading Baird to find new buses, referees and find a way to make sure every game got played before the deadline for the state tournament.
“The scheduling was already done for the winter when I took the job,” Baird said, “but the whole thing changed with COVID. One day you have a full schedule with buses booked and the next day a team gets COVID and you’re pushing that game back. Then the next team has COVID and you’re changing it all over again. Plus you had to deal with the normal winter postponements with snow. We were playing four games a week by the end of the season so the job was busy rescheduling all the games.”
Baird gives Burke a ton of credit for helping with the transition and keeping things up to date during the fall season, but when a position isn’t filled for a period of time, there’s still plenty she’s catching up on.
“I had a lot of stuff to catch up on,” Baird said. “That’s not anyone’s fault but when the position wasn’t filled, stuff started to pile up. Little by little we’re getting through it. It’s been crazy but I’ve handled it as well as I can. I’ve had so much help from so many people, from administration, coaches, the community. I’ve been able to pick up a little bit from each of them and try to put all those pieces together.”
There wasn’t much time between the transition from the winter to the spring season. Baird started by hiring Kevin Luippold to serve as the varsity baseball coach, a hire she’s thrilled about.
Luippold served as the Greenfield Post 81 Senior Division coach last summer, giving him familiarity with the baseball players in the area.
“I am over the moon with Kevin,” Baird said. “We are so lucky to have him. He has the consistency and the professionalism the kids need. They need to be on a schedule and need to know what’s expected of them and Kevin will do that.”
Not only is Baird making the schedules, but is learning all the little things that go into being the athletic director.
“It sounds so easy but there’s so much to it,” Baird said. “You’re doing so many little things that most people don’t realize. This spring I’m doing stuff like learning how to get the irrigation system turned on, how to get the lights turned on for our fields, it’s all the little things like that I’m learning as I go.”
Baird also made the decision to only have a JV and middle school softball teams, giving the young group a chance to grow before moving up to the varsity level.
25 students signed up for spring track and overall, 83 students signed up for spring sports which is nearly half the student population. She hopes to continue growing those numbers and continue to grow all the sports at Pioneer by giving them all the tools needed to be successful.
“My goal when I started the job was to bring the greatness back to Pioneer athletics,” Baird said. “Our kids deserve it. They deserve to have great field, great equipment and great coaches. We want coaches who are going to teach them life lessons, how to be good citizens and of course the basics of the sport. We want our coaches to be able to have great relationships with the athletes and be resources for them on and off the field.”