A sitdown with the new A.D.

Tommy Long was recently named the new Director of Athletics, Student Activities and Facilities at Ephrata High School. The Lebanon County native is a former star baseball and football player at Lebanon Catholic High School, before moving on to an outstanding collegiate career. He later coached football at both Lebanon and Palmyra High Schools, and baseball at his alma mater.

The entire transcript of this conversation is available after the jump. 

Todd Ruth: What was it that drew you to Ephrata?

Tommy Long: It was the athletic director opening. I wanted to be an athletic director. I interviewed at every place. I put my name in every place I could, but at the end of the day, Ephrata was the job I wanted most because I have family in the area, I played twilight baseball here so I kind of had a familiarity with the background of Ephrata a little bit. It definitely was the number one choice for me.

TR: You've been on the job since July. Has it been everything you expected it would be?

TL: I love the job. I love everything about it. As I said to a lot of people, I'm coming from Lebanon which is structured and run a little different than things down here, and that's been the adjustment for me. Understanding who is doing what role and making sure everybody is doing what needs to get done. At Lebanon, some of those things were taken for granted. Mr. Giovino, Mr. Jordan, Mr. Elias, all had set that precedent, and that's what we're working on right here to keep things running smooth.

TR: You mean just putting your own spin on it?

TL: Exactly. just adding my little twists which I'm bringing down from Lebanon. That's one thing Mr. Giovino told me. Being an athletic director is all about stealing good ideas from everybody else. So being at Lebanon and seeing those examples, I'm just trying to bring those down here because I saw how well they worked at Lebanon.

TR: When you talk to the administration here at Ephrata, what kind of expectations have they spelled out for you?

TL: I think their big focus was sort of organizational. Making a bigger push in the communication between the school and the community and working those situations out. That's been a big focus, and sort of providing some sort of a vision for the future, Not saying there wasn't one here in the past but just really being specific of where we want to go and how we're going to get there.

TR: You talk about the communication with the community, when someone from the community comes in, what kind of person will they be dealing with?

TL: They are going to deal with someone who is looking to do things the best way possible. Not necessarily someone who has all of the answers because I don't, or even has all the suggestions but I don't. I'm looking for what's best for everybody involved, and in a lot of cases that means bringing in people from the outside and hearing their suggestions or their input to how things should work, or even within the school. I'm constantly asking people, how has that run in the past? How can we make it better? That's sort of what we are trying to focus on as an entire department.

TR: What have been your biggest challenges thus far?

TL: Just getting adapted to how things work down here. Like I said, coming from Lebanon things were already set in place and things were taken for granted, I've caught myself a couple times taking for granted some things I assumed were going to be done and that haven't been done because I didn't specifically spell it out. That's been a big adjustment for me, making sure I'm specifically explaining to anybody I'm working with, when I expect something to get done, how it needs to be done and everything that goes along with that.

TR: You seem like a very organized person. Is that something you really try to strive to do?

TL: I've worked very hard at trying to be a very organized person. Personally that's just how I have to operate. I need to know where things are. That's just my personality. I'd worry if I don't know where something is. And if I can't find something I'll stop what I'm doing and try to find it. Being organized and knowing where things are and having a plan of how the day should go and what I want to get done in the week, that's just how I work. Now if you'd ask my wife if I'm organized, she'd say no. I'm the kind of person who leaves my clothes laying around and she picks them up and stuff. In terms of the job, I'm very organized.

TR: What are your expectations of your athletic program and extra-curricular activities?

TL: One of my goals, as I said in my interview, is I want to create the atmosphere that Lebanon had. That's where it's sort of like a family atmosphere, where within the school the secretaries, coaches, just everybody working to make the department better, and make the experience better for the student-athletes. From what I've seen so far, that's already sort of established here. The foundation is there but I do think we can grow it a little bigger. I think we need to get more people involved. We need to get more activities from the outside, helping out with what goes on in the school. We more individuals from the community to sort of volunteer their time or be involved with what's going on in the school, and at Lebanon, that's what has been built there. A lot of people from the outside of the school work hard in making the school experience good for the students, and that's what we want to do here and that's what we're striving for.

TR: What do you think the biggest needs are right now for athletics at Ephrata High School as a whole?

TL: Some of the things right now we are looking at are some of the facilities. we need some upgrades in those areas. A number of individuals from inside the school and outside the school have discussed how we need some upgrades in some areas. We are sort of putting that plan in place to hopefully get rolling on improving some facilities. I think some of the uniform issues need to be updated but I think that all applies to some of the money issues. I think we need to come up with a way to sort of increase the funding for athletics and activities. Over the year it's been pretty steady. There hasn't been an increase or a decrease in the money but comparing it to where I'm coming from, it's not even close. I'm coming from a financially strapped district (Lebanon) that dedicated a lot more money to athletics and activities. Being new, and without a full understanding on where the money goes and how it's broken down, I'm trying to get a better grasp on that and see how we can maybe increase that for athletics and activities to sort of provide more opportunities to the athletes and students. I'm starting to coordinate through the booster clubs and find out what their roles are and how they can maybe expand their roles in different areas.

TR: Do you have anything immediate that you are working on?

TL: Well, one of the plans that I'm going to sit down with Dr. Porter and Dr. Rosati and school board members, if needed, anyone I need to get the approval for sort of a fundraising campaign, a capital campaign. Coming from Lebanon, they are in the middle of a 3.1 million dollar capital campaign to add facilities, to turf their stadium and things like that and that's sort of the plan I'm putting in place, that I have drawn out. I'd like to form a committee of individuals who would be interested in the direction of improving our facilities through a fundraising campaign where we would generate all of the money outside of the school by private donations and those kind of activities. My idea is to improve the middle school stadium. Maybe put some turf on there, maybe a field house with locker room areas and things like that. Sort of alleviate the use of our fields. They are used hard by our schools, the Rec and other outside organizations. If we could do that it would ease up some of our field use and maintenance on our fields. That's a plan I sort of have jotted down on paper, and want to go forward with getting the approvals and getting everybody else on board. Hopefully we can move forward with something like that.

TR: As you sit here, what are your goals both short term and long term?

TL: Short term is just sort of the restructuring of how some of the things work in here and getting more things up on the computer. Nancy Balmer has been a huge help on the financial end of it to free up some time for me to get everything coordinated in a little more user-friendly way to understand where the money is and that kind of stuff. With coaches sort of just promote them and encourage them to continue attending clinics and things like that to improve their skills so that they can pass that along to their athletes. I think that's very important. Those are some of the short-term goals I have in the near future. Long-term would be to focus on the facilities. Working with the coaches, and trying to build a coaching community where they stay here for a long period of time. That's nice because you can build a tradition within their programs. If you constantly are having turnover, it's hard to build anything, so that's some of the areas I'll be focusing on.

TR: Have you thought about relocating to the Ephrata area?

TL: Yes, we are going to see how this year goes. My son is in Kindergarten at Lebanon Catholic. This will be his last year at Lebanon Catholic and then it will either be Cedar Crest where we are right now or move here to Ephrata.