Jeff Romero at his McCallie office.
photo by John Shearer
Jeff Romero is known for his somewhat soft-spoken and calm demeanor, but one of his goals as the new McCallie School dean of athletics is to have others showing excitement and giving boisterous cheers at Blue Tornado sporting events.
That, of course, would mean that McCallie is enjoying plenty of athletic success.
“Being a part of a staff of great coaches, I see my job as enhancing what they can do with their teams and providing the resources to win championships,” he said.
On Jan.
20 – his birthday – Mr. Romero found out the interim title he had been given back in August when he was thrust into the position after predecessor Bubba Simmons became principal at Gordon Lee High would become permanent.
As part of a McCallie athletic administrative office restructuring under first-year headmaster Lee Burns, he joins a team of two others – wrestling coach Mike Newman and football coach Ralph Potter – handling various new duties.
In addition to their coaching, coach Newman has become director of athlete and coach development, while coach Potter will serve as director of athletic relationships, leadership and development.
Mr. Romero, meanwhile, will oversee such operational aspects as scheduling, facilities, equipment, communication and marketing, TSSAA compliance, the game day/fan experience and the Tornado Club.
Going from the field of communications directly into an athletic director-type position at the high school or college level, as Mr. Romero did, is somewhat unusual.
In fact, one of the few others with a similar career path was former Auburn AD and sports information director David Housel. By chance, that is also the man for whom Mr. Romero first worked when he decided he wanted to be involved in athletic support work.
A son of an Air Force veteran who moved often, Mr. Romero’s road to sports involvement began after he settled in Montgomery, Ala., as a teenager and attended Montgomery Catholic. When the time came to pick a college in 1985, he decided to go to nearby Auburn.
He was planning on majoring in business – or so he thought. However, he found himself as a freshman interested in attending Auburn athletic games or practices. One of the athletes he saw was Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson, who was also a standout baseball player.
But it was another man – Mr. Housel – who caught his attention the most at the various events.
“I would see him at every event,” Mr. Romero recalled recently from his office in the first floor of the McCallie Sports & Activities Center. “So one day I asked him what he did.”
Mr. Romero realized Mr. Housel was the school’s sports information director, a job with which he was not then familiar. He later set up an appointment to talk to Mr. Housel about the work and ended up becoming a volunteer student assistant in Mr. Housel’s office.
He also did some writing for the Auburn student paper, “The Plainsman.”
“I found out I enjoyed writing and enjoyed working with the media,” he said.
While at Auburn, he eventually worked his way up to being the SID for the Auburn baseball team, which reached the NCAA regionals and featured future baseball Hall of Famer Frank Thomas.
He then took a 15-month internship at Tennessee in 1990-91 under SID “Bud” Ford before landing a job under longtime SID Langston Rogers at Ole Miss, where he took on more responsibility.
In 1997, he had an opportunity to become the head SID at UTC, so he moved to Chattanooga. Also important to his future at that time was that his wife, Renee, went to work at Girls Preparatory School’s learning center.
“Just from her I was very familiar with the Baylor, McCallie and GPS situations,” he said. “I thought that if I ever had a chance to switch careers, McCallie would be a great place for me to be a part of.”
In 2008, after he had become assistant athletics director for media relations at UTC, he learned that McCallie had an opening in its communication office as an assistant director and alumni magazine editor. He applied and was able to get the job.
About his last duty with UTC was to go with the team for an early season game against Oklahoma, a contest held during a late summer thunderstorm. That game featured another Heisman Trophy winner – Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford.
As Mr. Romero settled into his McCallie work writing about Blue Tornado alumni who had distinguished themselves as well, he had an opportunity last June to go to Memphis. There he spent a half-day at Presbyterian Day School interviewing Mr. Burns for a magazine story about his coming to McCallie.
As the situation turned out, Mr. Burns was also doing a little interviewing – or at least observing him. He also soon read up on Mr. Romero’s previous background being involved in sports information, so when Mr. Simmons left last August, Mr. Burns felt comfortable enough with Mr. Romero and his experience to make him the interim athletic director.
“Mr. Burns and (associate headmaster) Kenny Sholl called me in and asked me if I would be the interim athletic director,” said Mr. Romero, adding that he thought his time working in athletics was over after leaving UTC.
A highlight of his interim stint was when McCallie had the October football game against rival Baylor at McCallie’s Spears Stadium for the first time since 1998, and the school drew praises for its creative game-day atmosphere. That included a concert and a lavish post-game fireworks display.
Mr. Romero said a number of people were involved in the planning of the Baylor-McCallie week activities.
He also has a number of ideas he hopes to implement after being hired as the permanent dean of athletics following an interview process that began after the first of the year. They include making sure the school website has more comprehensive information on schedules, results and rosters for each team, and enhancing the game-day atmosphere.
As an example of the latter, during a varsity basketball game in January, he staged a 5-minute game between two teams of 9 year olds from the Hamilton Place YMCA.
Although a traditional athletic director might hire a varsity coach when an opening occurs, Mr. Romero said all personnel decisions will be made by Mr. Sholl, but with likely input from him and the administrative team.
But Mr. Romero has found plenty to do so far, from communicating with parents about a Baylor-McCallie event with limited seating, to helping with requests from coaches regarding shoring up the playing facilities for the spring sports.
“I’m much busier now than I was previously,” he said with a smile. “My meeting load has quadrupled.”
However, the fuller schedule does come with an advantage – he has more interactions with students, coaches and others than when he was in the communications office.
“I really like the people aspect of the job,” he said. “You never know who is going to come into the office. I have more dealings with people.”
An athletic administrator at McCallie also has to deal with the rivalry with Baylor and see the coaches win enough to keep everyone wearing blue happy. But Mr. Romero considers that a good aspect of the job, too, and one that should also contribute to making his new position quite rewarding.
“Both McCallie and Baylor are fantastic schools,” he said. “It’s a healthy and clean competition and it’s present every day and it only makes each school better.”
Jcshearer2@comcast.net
Jeff Romero
photo by John Shearer