With a restructured athletic department and new policies being implemented, Upper School athletics are undergoing some behind the scenes changes. In an email sent out by US Athletic Director Andrea Schmidt, the new policies were outlined.

“We restructured the department so Mr. Brown’s position is now an US AD and what it allows is that everyone knows their position and what they are responsible for. But we really want to streamline things, we want to make it more professional, and increase awareness for athletics,” Director of Athletics Dawn Wickstrum said.

The basis of many of the new polices is to be conscious of the socioeconomic situations of SPA families. “All of our policies are really driven on the socioeconomic piece and us being more sensitive for that,” Wickstrum said.

Many of the policies around money are updated. Fundraising is no longer allowed for sports teams and parents are not allowed to collect money for any given items.

“No fundraising should be happening in athletics, and if you want to give to the school you can talk to the [Institutional Advancement] office. We laid that out for parents,” Wickstrum said.

For transportation to and from athletic events, the process has been simplified. Depending on numbers and necessity, buses will be provided to students.

“Transportation is different this year. We did not provide transportation for all of our teams last year and we do now. Depending on the number we reach with the kids that actually need [a ride] is whether or not we send a bus,” Wickstrum said.

There are also some exceptions that disregard the number of students who need transport:  “If they’re too young like girls swimming, none of the girls have a driver’s license so we bus them no matter what. Teams that are part of a co-op are only dropped off, there is no bus back to not make their days longer.”

Things such as senior day and banquets have been team-specific in past years. Being consistent with their goal to streamline, these are now being handled mostly by the athletic department, aiming to make it easier on parents of student athletes.

“Senior day is different. We are getting big posters of every senior made and we will gift that to them… Parents can send in a picture to us otherwise we are going to use the one taken by LifeTouch,” Wickstrum said.

As for banquets, the athletic department is laying out a system where the banquets are pre scheduled in the cafeteria, but if necessary, teams can change their date. Teams can choose to have the school cater, hold a potluck, or not have any food.

“Banquets are already booked on our campus and they are in the cafeteria. We already booked them but say someone finishes their season early and they want to get their banquet over with, they can move the dates as long as [Executive Chef] Simon [Barrow] can accommodate and then we also put in there that you don’t have to have food for [the banquet]. [Teams] can get together and meet — potlucks are fine as long as it is all peanut-free — but Simon did provide us with four different menus that are very cost effective,” Wickstrum said.

Overall, the goal is to increase transparency and make the experience of playing a sport at SPA more enjoyable for all families.

“I think it is really us providing you with a product that we can really have a good handle on so that the time we spend with coaches, evaluations, and feedback and all these things we do, that coaches know what to expect, the kids do, and so do the parents. You feel you’re invested in the right ways. You’re not panicking because you don’t have snacks or you lost a uniform or you don’t have enough money for a special item, we want to take all of the noise out of the system so athletes can just have fun and parents can just show up to a game and clap,” Wickstrum said.