Ben Kirk didn’t dedicate his life to the artwork of sports for recognition or reward. He did it as a result of he is aware of how a lot sports can form a younger child, and the way a lot impression a great coach, or a nasty one, can have on the best way student-athletes carry themselves later in life.
Kirk, the Coal Ridge High School Titans athletic director, was named the 3A Athletic Director of the Year by his colleagues in the Colorado Athletics Director Association after a year of particular person, crew, and school-wide accomplishments.
The 2024-25 faculty year was one to recollect for Coal Ridge High School.
The Titans varsity baseball crew hung its first state championship banner in program historical past after a historic playoff run. The Titans co-ed cheer crew claimed its eighth straight state title. The Titans women monitor crew completed second in the course of the state meet. And the varsity boys basketball crew reached the Class 4A Final Four for the primary time in program historical past.
“It just goes to show that all of our programs have been successful across the board,” Kirk stated. “I’m being recognized because of what the Cheer team does every year, the baseball and basketball teams last year, our soccer and track teams every year. There’s a lot of great kids, coaches, and a whole community that this award represents.”
Kirk has beloved sports since he can keep in mind. The ex-college baseball participant realized at a younger age simply how a lot an inspiring coach can do for younger student-athletes — and, conversely, how a lot injury an uninspired coach can do to an impressed student-athlete.
“When I was little, I absolutely loved sports. It felt like that’s what I was born for,” he stated. “From a young age, I had some really great coaches who taught me that sports are about more than sports. I still remember my first coach, Mr. Yantzer, who taught us that there is much more to sports than how to field and hit the ball.”
After being promoted from head coach of the Titans’ monitor crew to Coal Ridge Athletic Director in 2022, Kirk instantly got down to construct a tradition of confidence, respect, and accountability. He defined that the purpose of an athletic director must be to foster optimistic facets of each aspect of an athlete’s development — not simply bodily, but in addition mentally and emotionally.
“We focus on building each individual kid both athletically and character-wise,” Kirk stated. “I think a lot of places do one or the other, but doing both takes a lot of time and energy. We’re not perfect at it, but we’re always trying to get better. I think our community, our kids, and our coaches have all bought into that, and it feels like we have some traction.”
Kirk stated he loves virtually each facet of his job as a result of there’s no set recreation plan for fulfillment, and the seen enhancements he has seen as his “top-down” tradition has turn into ingrained. He stated that his group of leaders problem one another, which oozes into his student-athletes.
“I love my job,” Kirk stated whereas blasting a smile. “We have an superior group of coaches that we meet as soon as a month, and all of us have excessive expectations of one another. It’s not simply me, it’s a gaggle effort. Seeing them succeed is superior, and that trickles all the way down to seeing the person youngsters succeed as nicely.
“You never really know if you’re doing the right thing,” he continued. “In sports, there’s always a bajilion ways to do everything, so we just try to stick to our mission, which is to build a student-athlete’s character. Sometimes it feels like maybe we’re not doing things the right way, but with recognitions like this, that really reflects on the entire community, things seem to be going in the right direction.”
The recognition was awarded by a vote of members of the Colorado Athletic Directors Association all through the state and is meant to focus on those that make optimistic contributions to Colorado Athletics.
“When left uncontrolled, athletics can actually teach the opposite of character,” Kirk stated. “If you place a bunch of hormonal teenagers in a health club or no matter and simply say ‘Get after it,’ you’re not going to get something optimistic out of that; it’s going to get tremendous aggressive and soiled and nasty.
“Doing the opposite is why sports are important to me,” he continued. “The kids aren’t just learning sports. They’re learning how to become good young men and women. That’s what we’re trying to do. That’s what we’re consistently talking about and working on.”
Kirk might be offered with the popularity in the course of the annual Colorado Athletic Directors Association awards banquet on April 27 in Breckenridge, an occasion that he stated he was glad to be included in, however joked his acceptance speech received’t be too intensive.
“I don’t really know what to expect besides a nice dinner with my wife,” Kirk laughed. “Rather a lot of the ADs that might be acknowledged are individuals who have been round a very long time and have achieved lots of good, so I’m simply excited to be a fly on the wall and be capable to decide their minds.
“It doesn’t feel like these recognitions for our athletes or coaches or ADs or whoever come to the Western Slope as often as they’re seen on the Front Range,” he continued. “It’s cool that the Western Slope programs are getting their names out there, so to be recognized like this is awesome.”
From enjoying Little League and faculty baseball to teaching monitor and in the end turning into the Coal Ridge Athletic Director, Kirk’s mentality round sports has all the time remained the identical. Sports with out respect aren’t sports. He has devoted his life to mentoring the subsequent technology to turn into not solely good athletes but in addition respectful members of society.
“When I was playing baseball in college, it didn’t seem fair to me that guys who kept making super bad decisions all the time had all that talent,” he stated. “When I began teaching right here, I attempted to vogue the monitor crew across the mentality that we’re going to be tremendous aggressive, however we’re additionally going to be respectful, and we’re going to do issues the proper means.
“Hopefully, when these kids are out in the world, doing whatever their life takes them, they’re just good people. They’re people you want to know, and they’re people you want to hire,” Kirk stated.