Kelly O’Neil Athletic Director Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child Summit, NJ Athletic Director looks to balance fun, fitness and competition By James McEvoy In March, Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child announced the hiring of Kelly O’Neil as athletic director. O’Neil, who previously served as assistant commissioner with the Big East Conference, assistant athletic director at Seton Hall University and a student-athlete at the College of the Holy Cross, shares her vision for athletics at Oak Knoll and student-athlete success. Q: How do you plan to approach athletics at the elementary, middle and high school levels? A: At the core, we will approach athletics for elementary, middle and high school in a similar way, by balancing fun, fitness and competition. I’ve worked in collegiate athletics for most of my professional career and am a former college student-athlete. Even at that level, fun, fitness and competition are the three core variables. The weight given to each variable changes depending on the level, but those three should always be present to some extent. Sports are really a gateway to personal development. We want to make sure every student-athlete isn’t just learning how to shoot a lacrosse ball or run a basketball play, but that they are really developing life skills like leadership, character and sportsmanship. Q: What is your philosophy on balancing a student’s athletic and academic commitments? A: As a former student-athlete, I know that balancing academics and athletics can be difficult at times. Most importantly, academics come first - that's why “student” comes before "athlete." Being able to balance academics and athletics is really an important skill for our students to develop because we all know that life requires tremendous balance due to multiple commitments. We are teaching our students at a young age how important it is to be disciplined, focused and organized – skills that are transferable. I think it's really easy as an athlete to see your successes and shortcomings. When you have a bad game, you know that you need to put in work to get better. You have to commit yourself to practicing and learning, and when you see the benefits of that extra practice on the athletic side, you realize that academics are the same way - you need to put in the practice to be successful. Q: You previously served as an assistant athletic director at the collegiate level. How do you anticipate this will guide your tenure at Oak Knoll? A: Working in collegiate athletics prior to Oak Knoll provides a great mixture of technical skills like scheduling, the player/coach relationships and interpersonal skills like leadership and communication. I’ve always been a part of a team, and I’m really excited to start contributing to my new team at Oak Knoll. Coming from collegiate athletics and not really having much experience of high school athletic department operations will provide us with an interesting advantage. I can address challenges from a different viewpoint because we don’t necessarily have to do things how they've always been done or how other schools are doing them. We are focused on doing what is best for our students, so there might be some innovative ways we start to operate. Q: In addition to experience as an assistant athletic director, your background includes extensive involvement with marketing and branding. How do you hope to leverage this knowledge for the betterment of the Oak Knoll athletics program? A: Our students, staff and families enjoy having the Oak Knoll name across the front of their shirts. Being able to market a brand that everyone is proud of is a significant advantage and a great starting point. From a marketing and branding perspective, this is an exciting time to be at Oak Knoll. We have new navy and gold colors. We also have the new school logo. So, although the brand itself is really powerful already, we have a great opportunity to strengthen it and re-imagine it in some ways through these new initiatives. We want to focus on capturing a consistent brand message, and athletics are one of the best avenues to do that. Q: What is your No. 1 priority at Oak Knoll? What are some of your other goals for the program? A: My No. 1 long-term priority is to continue to enhance the athletic opportunities for all of our Oak Knoll students through a fair and safe environment. My No. 1 short-term priority is to spend time with all of our stakeholders – students, families, coaches, faculty, staff and the greater Oak Knoll community - as it is important to me to assess our programs from every viewpoint to ensure we are providing our students with the tools they need to succeed both on and off their playing surfaces. Q: What do you hope to accomplish in your first year? A: In my first year, I hope to continue to build on the tremendous foundation that Jerry Butler, my predecessor, and everyone else at Oak Knoll have created. I want to observe and listen as much as possible to all our stakeholders. Together, we can spot areas for improvement and attack those moving forward. It's important to establish a good rapport with all of our stakeholders, but the main focus for me is our students. My door is always open if a student wants to talk. I want to get to know them and help them in any way I can. I want to be a sounding board for our students - if you have an idea or opinion, let’s sit down and talk about it.