Sitting at his desk in an office filled with memorabilia of his past, wearing a royal blue Parker pullover, talking across the office to Assistant Athletic Director Laura Gill, Athletic Director Bobby Starks is all about interaction. Whether he’s letting middle schoolers into his office or encouraging upper schools to reach into a candy filled bowl on top of the mini fridge, or getting out in the hallways and talking to coaches and athletes, he wants to make himself visible.

This is Gill’s fourth year as the Assistant Athletic Director, but she worked her way through the ranks at Parker. She started as a gym teacher sub, then became a member of the softball coaching staff, before becoming Assistant AD. Starks, on the other hand, came in the same year Gill got her new job, filling previous AD Dawn Wickstrum’s job. “I was fortunate to get this job,” Starks said. “And I wanted to be immersed into the Parker community, not just to be the Athletic Director, and that’s it.”

Starks believes in coaches teaching the sport as best as possible, but he also wants to teach the players how to become better young men and women. Starks said, “Our mission of the school, my personal mission, is to educate our students to become responsible citizens,” Starks said. “And part of that is being a model of that.”

Starks’s office is a small room with a brown leather couch with the FWP logo on it right by the door. Students and coaches frequently sit on the couch and talk with him, and when that’s not going on, he’s talking to Gill through the wall that separates their offices. Gill received a call, talked through the wall to Bobby, and the “face” of the Athletic Department picked up the phone to talk to another athletic director about the girls 3 point basketball competition that was held at Parker.

At other points of the day, coaches knocked on Starks’s door to chat with him about how the season was going. At the end of the middle school boys basketball season, he spoke with 7th grade coaches about how practices went. Starks was intent on making changes, as he wasn’t entirely pleased with the season. He spoke with them about keeping practices orderly, and teaching the kids the vitals to win games.

After the school day, Starks and Gill are faced with practices and games. Starks makes sure practices are up to standard by observing them, which follows his proactive view of not being “cooped up” in the office all day. During the school day, Starks walks around and sees captains of teams asking, “How’s practice going? Do you like this coach?”

Athletic Trainer Valentina Garcia thinks Starks works very well with students because he knows how to interact with them. “He’s very involved with the students” She said. “And they can come to him with anything if they ever need it.”

At around 3:15 every day, Starks’s chair is empty. He’s out in the hallways building relationships with students, or he’s in the cafeteria talking with sports teams. Whatever it is, he’s always being who he is. Walking up with a smile and a handshake, Starks interacts with students of all ages. Starks said, “My hope is that all the students see me as a resource and a community member.”

For new students who might not be in close contact with many faculty members, Starks is a great person to talk to. “As this is my first year at Parker, I did not think I would have such a good relationship as I do with Mr. Starks,” Freshman and member of Scholastic Bowl, which Starks takes part in, Alex Schapiro said. “But since he’s always out of his office and coming in to talk to me and other kids I’ve really bonded with him.”

Valentine “Val” Garcia also was new this year, and she believes Starks was a big help in how she got accustomed to Parker. “He helped me adjust by offering his help whenever I needed it, whether it was through a call, text, email or face to face,” Garcia said.  “He basically always reiterated to me that he had my back in any situation I was faced with whether it was with coaches, athletes or parents and that was very comforting to know.”

In terms of the actual administrative work being done in the office, Gill keeps the trains running while Starks is the “face” of the department. Gill does scheduling and handles transportation, uniforms, and equipment while Starks works on the athletics program section of the handbook, which includes the no-cut policy and the athletics department policies and procedures. He also meets with parents, deals with student athlete issues, and makes sure coaches are doing what they’re supposed to. “Mr. Starks is the face of the athletic department,” Gill said. “He deals with stuff that I don’t I think a lot of people realize what goes into it.”

At the end of a sports season, Starks holds feedback sessions for student athletes to talk about their coaches. Starks sends out a survey for the players to fill out, but he believes face to face interactions are better. “Students should have a voice,” Starks said. “We have feedback sessions with no coaches, where the student athletes can talk directly to the athletic director. Most things we get out of the conversations are not mentioned in the survey.”

During a girls basketball end of the season feedback session, Starks came prepared to ask a question, sit back, and encourage discussion among the team while he took sips from his coffee. He listened when one of the students said a certain coach was too laid back, and afterward Starks said he’d go up to that coach and tell them directly. One of the students said not to rehire a certain coach because of behavior, and from the way Starks responded he does not intend to rehire that coach. Such was the “face” of the athletic department stepping away from reading survey responses at his desk to hear the truth, face to face.

As the spring sports season, and the entire year of sports, comes to an end, Starks and Gill don’t have much left to do except check in on teams and collect uniforms once the season’s over. After writing Parker’s athletic schedule for the next day, Starks has time to roam the halls and say hi to familiar faces. Once the school year ends, Starks will leave his office, seeing a “2017 IHSA Boys Soccer Class 1A Sectional Champs” plaque on the way out and hope for a prosperous upcoming year of sports.