The Saint Viator staff has gained a new member—Mr. Mike Obsuszt, the athletic director! Prior to his time at Viator, Mr. Obsuszt worked as a history teacher and a coach of football and basketball. “I’ve always had a love for sports,” he said, “as a participant and as a fan.”
In regards to his favorite sport, Mr. Obsuszt stated that “the sport that I’d connect with the most would be basketball. I was a high school varsity coach at two different schools for a number of years.” He also made it known that throughout his childhood, he has played basketball for a number of years. Even as an adult, Mr. Obsuszt has shown his love for athletics in various ways: “I’m here on an interim basis. I retired two years ago after a 38 year career in education. In the last 19 of those years, I was an athletic director at Barrington High School.”
His job will be to organize and schedule all athletic events for the school, just as he has done in the past. Every sports season comes with its fair share of difficulties. “Usually, the spring is the most difficult,” said Mr. Obsuszt. “Usually, there are more spring sports taking place. As an athletic director, you have to deal with spring weather. Is it too wet out or too cold? Weather plays a significant part in how smoothly spring sports seasons are.” Rescheduling events is a part of the job as an athletic director, and Mr. Obsuszt is willing to put in the work to make sure each team gets their playing time.
“I want to continue to create a great culture amongst the Saint Viator athletic program,” said Mr. Obsuszt. “One of the things that will start in a few weeks: I’m forming an athletic leadership council. Basically, I’m having two athletes from every sport that will meet with me at least once a month.” The new leadership council will bring students of all grades together to discuss their individual sports; specifically two students per team level.
Mr. Obsuszt’s goal for the new program is “to gain an appreciation for everybody’s sport.” He hopes coming together with a common love of sports will help strengthen the school as a community.