Conversations with
ATHLETICS EDUCATORS AND COACHES Todd Schuler
Director of Athletics
With our athletic facilities, we are always looking for ways to grow participation opportunities and to provide the safest, highestperforming playing surfaces. With the opening of our new multipurpose synthetic turf upper field and tennis courts, we almost doubled the size of the playing surface and transformed a small, worn-out grass field into a state-of-the-art competition field for field hockey, lacrosse, and soccer. This allows us to practice more teams at the same time and in all different types of weather. With our ongoing stadium renovations, we’ve installed a turf system that will be cooler, faster, and safer for all our students and coaches. This summer, we will complete an overhaul of our stadium track. In addition to a high-quality rubberized surface, we are adding a Fully Automated Timing (FAT) system, and we’ve re-configured our field events to allow all our student-athletes to compete inside the stadium. There will also be a full LED video board that will allow our digital media students and Gibbons Gameday to provide students with an immersive digital gameday experience. Jim Liebler
Head Varsity Baseball Coach & Social Studies Department Chair
When the new spacious and covered hitting facility was finally open for use last spring, we barely realized the full potential.
16 GIBBONS MAGAZINE
It consists of two 110’ tunnels and one 90’ tunnel side by side. The area is covered and wired for lighting. Turf was added in the fall of 2020 to put the finishing touches on what is one of the finest high school hitting facilities in the state. During the fall, we were able to have up to 40 student-athletes hitting simultaneously in the cages. We can train day or night, rain or shine. There is enough room for softball and baseball to be simultaneously training, now a common sight year-round. Chris Morland
Director of Strength and Conditioning
The Cardinal Gibbons Strength and Conditioning Program, in coordination with physical education, live out our school’s mission by challenging students physically through science-based programming that addresses their general fitness and sport-specific needs. Last year we worked with 68 percent of all students or a total of 892 students. This year, we trained two additional teams, which pushed our total participation even higher! In the future, we plan to expand our reach. We also strive to increase the use of training technology like Teambuildr, which logs training workouts and wellness indicators. We also will grow a new application called PUSH, which we will use to measure power outputs. These two growth areas will enable us to help students develop performance and needed life skills to advance their health and durability for both life and athletics.
