Year one in the books for WHS AD Mark Mortimer

WORLAND - It was an eventful first year for Worland High School activities director Mark Mortimer. The 2016-2017 school year brought plenty of successes from the various WHS activities and athletic programs, but there were plenty of challenges along the way.

"Coming into it, knowing I had to be super organized and not only that but having the support of [former WHS AD] Bruce Miller helped getting through this year," said Mark Mortimer.

Before taking over as AD, Mortimer was the WHS girls basketball coach for 13 seasons and had been a coach for most of his time in the school district. Going from the sidelines to the man sitting behind the desk, Mortimer had help from his predecessor Bruce Miller and his activities assistant Penny King.

"As a coach, I've coached football, track and basketball, and it's funny, because you show up to those things and everything just happens. As soon as you're behind-the-scenes you're looking for six officials for a football game, four guys to do the chain-gang then another six or seven to do stats or announce. Just things I never even thought of until visiting with Bruce," said Mortimer.

Also helping Mortimer were the volunteers who helped in various ways during each athletic and activity events.

"The tournaments I went into those blind not having a clue how to run a one. Bruce and Penny King helped a lot, plus all the help we had from people in and out of the district. They were the keystones to running these tournaments when you're trying to find 40 to 50 people to help.

"Luckily, there a lot of great people, a lot of contacts, anytime I needed somebody it was pretty easy to get a hold of one person, and if they couldn't help they'd find somebody. We have great community support and that was the main thing getting through this year was having the support of the administration as well as the community as a whole," said Mortimer.

Along with making sure all events are ran smoothly, this year Mortimer had to deal with the district's budget shortfall. While schools like Green River High School had to cut multiple programs as a result, Worland was able to avoid doing so.

"That credit goes to superintendent David Nicholas. He doesn't want programs to go away because he sees the benefits they bring for the kids. Whether that's at the middle school or the high school, activities or athletics there's so many benefits that they outweigh the negatives. Moneywise we'll try to push through and not drop any programs and it's nice having that administrative support to keep these programs," said Mortimer.

The budget cuts weren't the only challenges during the 2016-17 school year. A bomb threat canceled a wrestling triangular and the weather spoiled tournaments or games from winter to the end of the school year.

"Bruce and I have a great relationship and have known each other since we started teaching here 20-plus years ago. I don't think there wasn't a weekend I was asking him how on earth he got through this situation or did this ever happen to you," said Mortimer.

Mortimer added, "It was a crazy year. The weather by itself was a big challenge, the canyon closing, the mountain being closed, sending teams to Sheridan through Billings. Things I never thought about, but having guys like Brad Feather at the bus barn, he's seen this stuff happen and those are the go-to guys. It was definitely helpful that there were people around me who have been through this stuff."

This school year Mortimer had to fill two coaching positions. The first was the girls basketball coach, which was open due to him accepting the AD position. The second, the football coach that was open due to Todd Weber's resignation.

Mortimer promoted assistant coach Ryan Utterback to take over the Warrior football program. As for the Lady Warriors basketball coach, Mortimer tapped Ben Hofmann to lead the program. This was the hardest part of the job for Mortimer, having to watch the girls basketball games as a spectator.

"The transition especially from the girls basketball coach and having that program for 13 years to watching from the sidelines was probably the hardest thing I've ever done. Just because I wanted to continue to be a part of it, it was a very hard thing to do.

"The only saving grace was that my son [Luke Mortimer] was a freshman this year and the game times were the same and I got to stick my head in the back gym. I felt by doing that I wasn't stepping on any toes, allowing for Ben to run the program as he saw fit. Ben did a great job and they thrived this year in that program. It wasn't easy for me to sit back and watch the game just because of being part of that for so long. You want to be a part of that and jumping around with those kids and having that excitement," said Mortimer.

There were plenty of highlights from this season as Worland athletics as a whole had another strong outing.

"It's nice walking into a program that has a lot of positives. I didn't have to fix anything when I stepped into the position. My role was to keep things rolling. We have a great staff and lots of outstanding coaches who know what they're doing. Letting them do their jobs while I'm the guy behind-the-scenes there to help when needed. It was fun and I love this job for that aspect. I love the activities and there were things I've never participated in and it was fun to see everything that goes into that and watching the kids do their thing," said Mortimer.

Just off the top of his head some of the highlights that stood out were the boys basketball team making it to their third-straight championship game, the boys soccer team 3A State qualifier match against Newcastle and girls soccer making it to their second-straight championship.

"This will come as no surprise from where our team finished last year and everyone in the state writing them off, to see where they finished this year was one of the highlights. Seeing that through coach [Aaron] Abel's program and what he did there was great," said Mortimer. "The exciting finish during the boys soccer state play-in soccer game and their semifinal game at state. The girls making it to the championship soccer game, along with all of the individual performances from our activities and athletics kids."

The one event in particular that stood out to Mortimer was the Wyoming State Cross-Country Meet in Sheridan.

"Cross-country was probably my favorite thing this year. I just think about my own high school career and I can't imagine these kids running as much as they do. It's fun seeing the athletic abilities of these kid let alone the activities we have," he said.

With a year under his belt Mortimer knows next year will be a little easier and looks to help the Worland programs continue in their successful ways.

"My job was pretty easy this year, I just stepped in to something that was going well to begin with and I want to keep that going," said Mortimer.