GOOD SPORT
WAGGENER ATHLETIC DIRECTOR BRINGS ENERGY, ENTHUSIASM TO HIS ROLE Writer / Angela Boggs Photography / Provided
Jamie Dumstorf ’s enthusiasm for his work as Waggener High School’s athletic director is obvious when you speak with him. “Setting up the semi-state event was a little tricky,” because of the pandemic he says of hosting the regional event. “Unfortunately, none of Waggener’s students qualified for state finals.” Now in his ninth year as Waggener’s athletic director, he explains how he got to his part two, as he calls it. He taught history and psychology and coached soccer, basketball, and track at the school from 2001 to 2005, then spent four years at Oldham County High School teaching history and coaching. He also spent three years at Fern Creek High School teaching history and psychology and coaching soccer and served as assistant athletic director. “I also taught for the Archdiocese, middle school social studies, and coached for three years at Sacred Heart School, and three years at Bullitt East High School,” Dumstorf says. He returned to Waggener in 2012, and his focus is now on athletics, but he adds that he still substitute teaches occasionally as needed, although he is rarely in the 6 / ST. MATTHEWS MAGAZINE / JULY 2021 / TownePost.com
classroom now — only a few times each year, as the school system has a “good core group of subs.” “Being an athletic director at Jefferson County Public Schools, there are no longer teaching responsibilities, but the workload increases the days in the teacher contract, the athletic director has 220 days, you’re still a contracted teacher but with an extra 33 days,” Dumstorf says. “Part of that is simply the main job that you become facilities director for all the fields, the same field in the stadium for football and soccer, and the main field for baseball and soccer. “ “It’s a lot of mowing, but it’s a great escape, to put on the headphones (on the riding lawn mower), It’s also striping and painting, and weed control. When preparing a football field, it’s about a 12-hour job, all the lines and numbers, so there’s not much time in that (the upkeep) for a teaching schedule,” he says. “My hourly workload increased significantly.” He also says that “if everything goes right no one notices, if something goes wrong, the whole community notices, if there’s no toilet paper in restrooms, or the concession stand is out of nachos. It’s management director and event planner for practices, and equipment and game uniforms, managing officials and coordinating buses for road
