Gann trying to ‘keep things rolling’ as new HCS AD
The Homewood Star recently sat down with Homewood City Schools’ new athletic director, Doug Gann, to discuss his expectations and how he hopes to maintain the athletic department’s vision during his tenure.
Gann has been associated with Homewood for much of his life, including his time as a student-athlete at the high school, from which he graduated in 1987. He has spent the past 18 years as a teacher and coach at Homewood, including the last 13 as the baseball coach.
Q: How has the transition from teacher to administrator been so far?
A: It’s kind of like moving out of the house. I’ve opened up some drawers and pulled out some [football] state championship stuff from 2005 that’s been in there for 10-12 years, and I haven’t even looked at them since then.
Q: How did your name come up in the search for a new athletic director?
A: I’ve always been intrigued by the other side of athletics in a way, but I never really thought I’d have an opportunity here, because Coach [Kevin] Tubbs was entrenched and doing a great job. I loved coaching, I loved teaching, so it was like, ‘Is this something I really want to do?’ But part of me started thinking too, this is my 25th year and this opportunity may not come open again, because I’m not going to be coaching and teaching forever, so I need to throw my name in the hat. I did and it all worked out. No looking back now.
Q: What’s it going to be like not coaching anymore?
A: I don’t know. We’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there. I was talking to somebody the other day about football, not being on the sideline coaching, because I’ve been doing it for 25 years. It’ll definitely be a different experience, no doubt. Right now, [baseball] seems so far off that it’s not a major deal for me. But I imagine come early February, it’ll be kind of a weird experience.
Q: What is your vision for the Homewood athletic programs?
A: Our athletic programs right now are very successful. A lot of good things are going on in our athletic department, so hopefully we can keep everybody going in the right direction. We’ve got a lot of positive things going on right now. The way I look at it, I’m just trying to keep us all going in the right direction and keep all the positive events moving forward. Just keep this thing rolling.
Q: How will your experience on the other side of things, as a coach, help you in this new role?
A: I think it’ll help a lot. I always respected how Coach Tubbs treated me and I assume he did other coaches that way too. He was always very professional and very helpful to me when I had questions or issues. That’s where I can hopefully emulate him in that respect. We have some young coaches and we have some older coaches here. Not that I’ve seen it all, but I’ve seen a lot. Hopefully with my experience and my years and the things that I’ve done, I can be an asset to our coaches.
Q: What does it mean to have this opportunity at Homewood?
A: It means a lot, because I grew up here, played here, been able to coach here, and now do this. This place is very, very special to me. Nobody wants to see this place succeed more than I do. I’ve invested a lot of blood, sweat and tears in my time on this earth at Homewood High School, so it’s very neat to me and I’m very privileged to be in this position. I’ve been able to wear some hats here at Homewood in various forms and now, being the athletic director, it’s the final spot for me. I’m very honored and very grateful to be in this position.
Q: What qualities will you look for when hiring a coach in any sport?
A: One reason why I applied for this job is because I see what kind of people our coaches are. I don’t think I would’ve applied for this job if I didn’t appreciate and like the people I was coaching with, and saw how they did their jobs, how professionally they did their jobs and how they cared for their student-athletes. You’ve got to have somebody that likes to be around their players and develop positive relationships. We all want to win, everybody knows that, but in the grand scheme of things, I’m going to be looking for people that are going to develop young men and women into being positive citizens in our society. That’s what it really amounts to.