Al Unger was named UP Athletic Director of the Year in 2010. After 15 years as Kingsford High School athletic director, Unger will move to assistant principal.

KINGSFORD — Al Unger is moving next door at Kingsford High School.

Breitung Township Schools athletic director since 2004, Unger has been cleaning out his office and preparing for the new role of high school assistant principal.

The retirement of principal Lyle Smithson and assistant principal Doug Roberts has brought about Dave Holmes and Unger to those positions, respectively.

“From a transition standpoint, with both positions opening up, it made a lot of sense,” said Unger, who has the fall sports coaching staffs and schedules set. “It should be a seamless transition. Dave Holmes has a wealth of knowledge as a principal.”

After working at Harvey Pattern and Dickinson-Iron Intermediate School District, Unger became athletic director when Don Edens stepped down.

“It’s been one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever done,” Unger said recently. “It’s so busy. When you see athletic directors, a lot of people don’t understand their jobs, and I was one of them.

“The bar was set high for me when I got the job, it really was. Don Edens was very well respected and left this place in pretty good shape when I took over. That was always my goal to keep that bar as high as it was or even try to get a little bit better, if possible.”

Unger was faced with a BTS budget crunch to begin his tenure as athletic director.

“The budget was really getting squeezed,” said Unger noting cuts for funds and coaches.

Since that time, Kingsford has added five sports with softball, baseball, boys and girls soccer, and bowling. None of the programs are self-funded, with baseball now fully funded going into next spring.

“That’s been a really big challenge in trying to run a quality athletic program with the mentality we really don’t like self-funding,” Unger said. “The self-funding model doesn’t seem to work when you have other sports that are fully funded. It kind of creates the haves and have nots. We really try to avoid the self-funding model.”

The demanding but rewarding job of athletic director involves much more than the obvious of compiling team schedules and overseeing games. There’s also hiring coaches and officials, assembling a budget, monitoring student eligibility, dealing with athletic code violations, busing, evaluating, mentoring and certification. Also attached to the position is Community Schools recreation director with Winter Games and summer program.

Kingsford’s athletic director deals with 42 different teams and 30 coaches on the varsity, junior varsity, freshmen and middle school levels.

“I really believe it takes two years to really get your bearings on how things work,” Unger said.

Finding game officials — Unger reports ranks of officials on the state level have diminished from 15,000 to 11,000 — is a problem felt at home, too.

“There’s so many dynamics of why,” said Unger, citing lack of sportsmanship from players, parents and coaches as one reason. “You really try to be that advocate for officials in the gyms or on the fields when you hear that parent getting a little too excited screaming at officials.”

Younger officials have not been moving in fast enough to replace the senior officials.

“You look at the age of our officials,” Unger said. “The vacuum is not being filled when older guys retire.”

There’s also burnout with officials working boys and girls basketball games at least four nights a week. The four Dickinson County athletic directors need officials for 80 home basketball games in one season.

Unger schedules games for Flivver Field and the school gyms. He also sets up schedules for games and practices at off-site facilities like Commemorative Field, Northern Lights YMCA and Mountain View Ice Arena.

The constant shuffling of Michigan and Wisconsin conferences has impacted the football schedule. Unger recently filled the 2019 varsity schedule with Red Wing, Minn.

“It’s a ton of work,” Unger said. “There’s times when I come in at 7:30 in the morning and I won’t be walking out of here until 8:30 at night. That can be three, four nights a week. Throw an occasional Saturday on top and you’re easily approaching 65 to 70 hour weeks when it’s really busy.

“The job doesn’t ever seem to ever shut off. It’s just a mindset you get into and you become accustomed to it, just like anything you do in life.”

Unger is also quick to acknowledge the help from school staff members and community members.

“You can’t pull these events off without help, and I’ve always had a lot of help here,” Unger said. “It’s made my job easier. That’s what will really burn out an AD is when nobody from within that district wants to help.”

A great example is the annual UP Track and Field Finals in Kingsford. The event normally draws competitors from each school in the UP along with their fans.

“We host the biggest athletic event around,” Unger said. “When I call people, it’s ‘I’m in.’ They are just so good about volunteering. I feel we have a great reputation with our community members.

“It’s a humbling but rewarding job. I certainly want to recognize how well I’ve been treated here by people helping me with my job.”

Unger will remain committed to being a part of the UP track meet operation.

“If it’s good for the school, I’m going to be there,” Unger said. “I’ll be more than happy to help with the UP Track Finals. I know how important that event is and how important it is to the school and community.”

With the move to assistant principal, Unger “lightened his backpack” by dropping his positions after 10 years with the Michigan High School Athletic Association. He will be done with the UP Athletic Committee in September and the MHSAA Representative Council in December.

Unger encouraged Marquette Athletic Director Alex Tiseo to take the MHSAA assignments.

“Dan Flynn told me it would be a highlight of my career, and it really was,” Unger said of the longtime MHSAA representative from Escanaba.

Unger is a staunch supporter of multi-sport participation — he was a Flivver football player, wrestler and pole vaulter for four years — and the importance of coaches.

“Anybody that has played sports or has been around sports knows what an impact or influence coaches have on young kids,” Unger said. “You have memories from high school sports that you never forget.”

As for the next Flivver athletic director, Unger has a couple suggestions.

“What’s really important is you don’t want to make decisions with emotions attached,” Unger said. “With emotional-charged decisions rarely is the end result good.

“Decompress, go home and what a big difference that makes to sleep on stuff.”

There’s also the “80-20 rule,” where you listen for 80 percent and talk 20 percent when dealing with problems.

“If you want to create a positive atmosphere wherever you’re working, you have to be sincere and listen to people,” Unger said. “Being a good listener is a developed skill. Be a good listener and don’t make decisions on emotion.

“You can think think things through a lot better. Be committed and be willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.”