Leger to lead county athletics

By Tara Kaprowy
Staff Writer

July 24, 2008 02:51 pm

— Johnson Elementary Principal Randy Leger has been named the new district athletic director and has big plans for Laurel County students.
“Our goal is to promote our kids,” he said. “We’ve got really good student athletes. We want to market our kids both academically and athletically as far as scholarships. That is my major goal as district athletic director.”
Leger, 45, added it’s time Laurel County has more of a statewide presence when it comes to sports.
“We’re the 12th largest school district in the state,” he said. “We want Laurel County on the map athletically.”
Leger explained he particularly wants to focus on kids getting scholarships in secondary sports like golf, volleyball, track, tennis and soccer.
“In golf for girls in particular there are thousands and thousands of scholarship money that is unused every year because they don’t have enough (players) out there,” he said.
Leger said things tend to take care of themselves for basketball, football and baseball players.
“If you’re a division one player, you don’t have to look for them, they’ll find you,” he said.
Leger said he already has tabs on some athletes in the district.
“I know North (Laurel High School) has a really great athlete in track,” he said. “The overall picture is to market all the different sports.”
Leger’s other director duties include overseeing North Laurel Athletic Director Jimmy Durham and newly named South Laurel Athletic Director Keith Gilbert. He will also coordinate out-of-town events, manage ticket sales, employ game officials, administer athletic budgets and manage purchases.
The new position has prompted some criticism as to its necessity. To that end, Leger said time will tell.
“I don’t know that you can change that perception just by talking,” he said. “There’s going to have to be data. Talking about it isn’t going to get it done. The data is going to show this is a needed position.”
In terms of what data Leger will be analyzing, he said he will look at the number of athletic scholarships students receive, how much money is saved in streamlining the system, and how well the teams are performing.
Leger has a 13-year coaching history in the district, starting with London Elementary back in 1988. There he taught sixth-grade boys and girls about the ins and outs of basketball. A year later, he also started coaching football at Laurel County High School.
When LCHS split into South Laurel and North Laurel, Leger continued coaching football at SLHS. He was promoted to head coach in 1998, a position he kept for the next four years.
In 2002, Leger was again promoted when he became assistant principal at South Laurel Middle School, where he’d been a teacher. In turn, he quit his coaching position.
“I became an administrator and you cannot coach and be an administrator,” Leger explained.
He stayed at SLMS until 2007, when he moved to occupy the principal spot at Johnson Elementary.
But Leger is excited to get back into athletics.
“I had coached for 13 years and decided I wanted to be an administrator,” he said . “This gives me a chance to do both. It’s a perfect fit for me.”
Leger added he looks forward to fulfilling duties while maintaining a neutral stance in terms of the North-South rivalry. Despite his years spent as a South Laurel coach, his daughter attended North Laurel middle and high schools.
“The year I resigned from football, my daughter was a senior,” he said. “I traveled with her wherever she went. It allowed me to see it from North’s perspective.”
Leger acknowledged the rivalry between the schools is fierce.
“I know it’s a very touchy issue, but it doesn’t have to be,” he said. “In time, the public is going to see that it doesn’t have to be. It’s for kids. It doesn’t have to be North-South.”

Staff writer Tara Kaprowy can be reached by e-mail at tkaprowy@sentinel-echo.com.

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