Athletic Director Mr. Hughes Appreciates Leadership

Because of these very real concerns and the impact of the leaders’ workshop, the 3 leaders and Ms. Blumhardt met with the administration on multiple occasions to voice their concerns and propose a potential solution. Over the past two weeks, the club leaders have had 2 discussions with the administration in which Mr. Hogan, Mr. Maxie, Ms. Hagelgans, Mr. Fennah, Mr. Hughes, Ms. Strear, Ms. Montez and Ms. Blumhardt all attended. 

I spoke with our athletic director, Mike Hughes, to discuss the events of the meeting and on whether a solution has been implemented. Of the multiple topics discussed, Hughes first stressed the admiration he had for the leaders who had addressed this issue. 

“We thanked them for their leadership,” Hughes said. “Part of athletics isn’t just teaching how to dribble a basketball or how to defend in lacrosse. Part of athletics is teaching values and one of those is leadership training. So the people who led the presentation are awesome. This is exactly what we want from our athletes: to show courage, to show leadership, and to advocate for their teammates. So that is number 1; we are very pleased with them.”

Hughes then demonstrated the bigger picture, outlining how Jesuit is blessed to offer such special facilities for women’s sports. 

“One of the lines they used in their presentation is ‘we feel that we’re an afterthought’, and so what I tried to demonstrate is that as a whole our facilities for women at this school are remarkable,” Hughes said.

Hughes then offered how almost all Jesuit facilities used by men and women are identical besides the main men’s and women’s locker room, citing the women’s and men’s tennis clubhouse, the soccer locker rooms for men and women, the golf facilities spread by men and women, the baseball and softball facilities, etc.

“What really this came down to was the football locker room, team room A, versus the team room A on the women’s side,” Hughes said. 

Hughes noted how the leaders were correct to point out some aspects of the locker room to be remodeled. 

“They pointed out some changes they’d like in the locker room and they were right on,” Hughes said. “I feel horrible that we didn’t notice that the floor needs to be redone. They wanted two colors of paint in the locker room and I immediately went to our maintenance department and they are willing to do that this summer.”