New School and Old School

We are all well aware of the power of technology and how it changes the way we work and the way we live. The ability to communicate with each other and to get information exchanged faster than ever is a part of our daily lives that continues to influence everything that we do. At the CIF Southern Section Office, we have implemented several technological advances over the years in an effort to help the personnel from our member schools do their jobs more quickly, more efficiently and more cost-effective. I call the progress we have made the New School and I am very proud of what we have been able to accomplish in moving our section forward in this area.

However, with all of the technology that swirls around us each day, what happened on Monday, October 19 reminds us that there is still tremendous value in what I call the Old School way of doing business. What I mean by that is the Athletic Administrator Summit we just held brought people together from all over our section and gave them an incredible opportunity to learn from each other, interact with each other and collaborate with each other in a way that no computer, tablet or other mobile

device can possibly replace.
When we began to plan for this event, we were hoping that we would attract 300 attendees from

throughout our section. When we closed registration, we had 425 people signed up and on October 19 they came from as far away as San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria and Santa Barbara in the north, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano and Mission Viejo in the south, Barstow, Ridgecrest and Palm Desert in the east and all points in between. There were examples of entire leagues and entire school districts that all came to this conference as a group, further illustrating the spirit of cooperation that exists among them. It was so gratifying to see so many of our athletic administrators there and I sincerely thank each and every one of you for making the effort to spend this valuable time with us and with your peers. It is clearly evident that there is still a strong desire by our member schools to gather in one place, at one time, to further promote an exchange of ideas to implement into their programs. We will surely keep that in mind as we will be back next year to do it all again.

I thank our excellent presenters, who unselfishly shared their knowledge, experiences and best practices with those in attendance. I thank our dedicated staff for all of their hard work in taking care of the countless details that were involved in this undertaking and special mention goes to Assistant Commissioner Glenn Martinez and retired Athletic Director Steve Martin for their outstanding leadership throughout this entire process.

In our continuing journey to move our section forward, I believe there is certainly room for the New School and the Old School to coexist and we remain firmly committed to utilizing both of them in the effort to serve our member schools in the best way possible.

I thank you very much for your help and support and wish you good luck always.

 

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Commissioner’s Messages