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Athletic Director At Home On The Job

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By CLIFF GILL

Tribune correspondent

Published: July 10, 2008

SPRING HILL - It's Thursday morning, July 3. Eddie Kenny, Bishop McLaughlin High's new athletic director, has been on the job only two days.

You might expect to see him unpacking boxes, looking stressed out and frantically calling opposing coaches and athletic directors to schedule games for the fall sports program. Instead, the phone is quiet. While sipping coffee, he reads and replies to an e-mail as an Irish plaque, meaning "100,000 Welcomes," rests on the window sill behind him.

With school starting in a little more than a month, Kenny appears to have his immediate issues under control.

"Scheduling for the sports teams is complete and all the contracts are signed," he said. "That just makes things so much easier. I can hit the ground running because of the work that Mike Zelenka has done."

Zelenka, Bishop McLaughlin's only athletic director in the school's first five years, accepted an assistant principal position at Christ the King School in Tampa.

"It is difficult to replace someone who was so popular," Kenny said. "Mike has helped me tremendously by spending time to walk me through things and showing me how things work. As a result, I know where we're at and where we need to be."

Kenny said two of Bishop McLaughlin's needs are to increase enrollment and have a successful athletic program.

"Athletics is the face of the institution," he said. "It's important to have successful athletics to help grow the enrollment. The baseball and soccer programs are currently successful. We plan on communicating their success and bringing the other programs to that level."

Communicating may be Kenny's greatest asset. At Florida International University he majored in communications, later earning a master's degree in sports management at Nova Southeastern.

While still in his teens, he was the newspaper correspondent and, later, the media relations coordinator for the Fusion, the former Major League Soccer team in Miami. In November 2005, Kenny was the play-by-play commentator for the NAIA men's soccer tournament. He then worked as the sports information coordinator for Nova Southeastern as the school transitioned to Division II.

His most recent employment was as the sports information director and assistant athletic director at Saint Leo University from 2006-08. There, he handled all sports information for the school.

One of his projects was to focus on updating the Saint Leo Web site, making it easier to navigate and more pleasing to the eye. As part of his sports information director duties, he kept the site current daily.

One of the first people Kenny will need to communicate with are the parents of Bishop McLaughlin students.

"Mike gave me a list of parents who volunteered last year," Kenny said. "The parents here not only get things done, they build the program through the booster club, fundraising efforts and word of mouth."

The likely message Kenny will deliver to parents, and their students, has a lot to do with what students must do to step foot onto the field of play.

"They're called student-athletes, and note which word comes first," Kenny said. "Student performance is a higher priority. Athletics allows students to become part of a team and to deal with wins and losses, just like in life."

Kenny will have more than one new addition in his life. He and wife Wendy are expecting their first child in August.

As Kenny contemplates the new life soon to arrive, he finally shows his first signs of stress.

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