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By Patrick Loera
Head coach of the basketball team, Percy Carr is hitting the ground running as the new athletic director with the support of the physical education faculty.
“We’d like to get more faculty and students and anybody that works as faculty, classified to come out, watch our games, participate in all of our sports because we have a good sports program here at San Jose City College,” Carr said.
For several years, head coach of the softball team Deborah Huntze-Rooney has been the athletic director at SJCC. Huntze-Rooney has also led the Lady Jags to what could be a 3-peat as conference champions. However, she decided to make a change this semester.
Carr said that he and Huntze-Rooney came to an agreement where he would be the athletic director and she would take over as physical education coordinator, essentially switching positions.
“Being that she was the athletic director last year, she is also giving me some help on how things are done. She was in charge of that program for a couple years and vice-versa,” Carr exclaimed. “If I have any knowledge at all on the P.E. side, I help her. So, basically we’re working together.”
According to his online profile for Jaguar athletics, Carr has been with SJCC for the past 34 years, and has a success record in both basketball and with the Creative Athletic Retention Response program.
Carr now dedicates an equal amount of time to being the head coach for the basketball team, supervisor of the CARR program and the athletic director.
“It’s been interesting. I enjoy it. I’m beginning to love it more and more each day,” said Carr. “It’s challenging, but I like challenges, and I like to see all of our programs do well.”
The athletic director is responsible for “anything that deals with athletics. Game preparations, scheduling, eligibility, being at games; help supervise games, and making sure that transportation is available for the teams to go to away games and events,” said Carr.
Aside from supervising various games and going to league meetings, “talking to various support groups and commissioners that we’re involved within our athletic program” is another key aspect of the position, said Carr.
He admits that he doesn’t have as much time for basketball and CARR, but has complete confidence in his assistant coaches and CARR staff.
Carr also credits his colleague and CARR academic advisor Veronica Harris for doing an excellent job in preparing the students.
“It has nothing to do with fundraising, or even winning basketball games or winning football games, it’s strictly academic,” Carr said.
According to Carr, eligibility is one of the biggest issues in sports at SJCC that is why there’s a strict process in which all student-athletes are given weekly eligibility checks.
“The weekly check affect me in a good way, they keep me on track,” said Vince Karouse who is a 26 year old Engineering major and power forward for the basketball team.
Carr feels that the athletic department should be at another level because everybody is working hard to get the athletes to graduate. He also believes that there are some more changes that can transpire to improve the department such as getting more students and faculty to attend home games for all sports.
