Craig Mattick:
Welcome to another edition of In Play. I am Craig Mattick. Today's guest has devoted over 40 years to the youth of South Dakota, a teacher, a coach, an athletic director, a referee, and an administrator from Scotland to Menno to being an assistant executive director at the South Dakota High School Activities Association and now retiring. Our guest today is Jo Auch. Jo, welcome to In Play.
Jo Auch:
Well, thanks. Appreciate you having me.
Craig Mattick:
Congratulations on retirement.
Jo Auch:
Thank you.
Craig Mattick:
You've been on the go for so many years. Are you ready for a little rest and relaxation?
Jo Auch:
Well, I got to say I've never known a pace that's a slow-down pace. I've always been a person on the go, so I'm looking forward to slowing down a little bit and spending some time with my granddaughter that lives in Dickinson, North Dakota. So there'll be a little time spent on the road going back and forth and doing some things as such. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I don't know what it's going to be like yet, but I'm looking forward to finding out.
Craig Mattick:
Now you grew up in the Scotland area, is all of it really where you grew up back in the seventies?
Jo Auch:
Yeah, actually I was in the middle of nowhere. I was 15 miles from Scotland, Parkston and Tripp, and our mailing address was all of it, so anytime we drove the car through all of it, the joke was that was all of it.
Craig Mattick:
So what was family life like at that time right before you were getting into high school at Scotland?
Jo Auch:
Yeah, there was a lot of work to do on the farm, no question about it. I grew up down in the Scotland area and stayed there for 11 years until my grandparents decided to retire and move to Tripp, and then my mom and dad and family moved to their old farmstead, which got us into all of it area with the all of it mailing address. We had chickens, we had cows, we had hogs and pigs and all kinds of stuff to do on the farm and all kinds of chores. There was always a fun side of chores that you tried to make fun. I don't know if there's anything about chores that's fun, but you always tried to find something to make it fun.
Craig Mattick:
So where were you ranked in all the kids when it came to age?
Jo Auch:
I'm the baby.
Craig Mattick:
You're the baby of the family.
Jo Auch:
My brother and sister would tell you that I'm the spoiled one, so I was the one who got everything that I always wanted.
Craig Mattick:
Well, you were a multi-sport athlete, but, of course, in the smaller towns in South Dakota, some of those kids, they had to play more sports just to fill out those rosters. But for you, you didn't need any coaxing to play sports at Scotland. What sports did you play?
Jo Auch:
Yeah, well, I lived in the era where there weren't a lot of opportunities for girls at that point in time, just right around the Title IX time, so track, cross-country were the two that I could participate in right away in junior high and things of that nature. When I got to be a freshman in high school was the year we started basketball in South Dakota and you would find me out on the playground playing with the boys most of the time, whenever it was recess time. I'd be playing football or basketball or whatever the case may be, anything that had a ball involved in it was something that I loved to do. I wasn't the best trackster in the world. I threw the discus and the shot put and they thought because I was such a good basketball player that I should be able to run too, but that's not always the case we found out. We tried everything in track until they finally landed me in the discus ring, and then we found some success there.
Craig Mattick:
You were a three-time all-state basketball player for the Highlanders. Did you have a basketball court out on the farm?
Jo Auch:
Yeah, I had a machine shed, an old school barn building that served as our machine shed where dad stored the equipment and we screwed a basketball hoop up there in a dirt area, a grassy area, and that's where I learned to play basketball. We had about a quarter mile long driveway, so you dribble the ball on those rocks and you get pretty good at being a ball handler.
Craig Mattick:
That's awesome. I have heard a story that when you were a freshman at Scotland that the football coach wanted you to be on the football team. Is that true?
Jo Auch:
That is true, believe it or not. Yeah, he was our government teacher and a football coach that was in Scotland at the time, and like I said, growing up in junior high and elementary and all of that, I was always outside during our free time and playing games and I played football with the guys and I was usually the quarterback. I had a pretty good arm and could get the pass to where it needed to be. Now, he did ask my parents because I told them, "If you convinced my mom and dad, I'm all in." But needless to say, that wasn't going to be the case.
Craig Mattick:
Oh, mom and dad said no, huh?
Jo Auch:
Mom and dad put the kibosh to that one, yeah.
Craig Mattick:
We all know there have been girls who have played high school football in South Dakota, but as far as I know, I've never heard of a girl being the quarterback of the football team.
Jo Auch:
Well, sometimes that talk is cheap. I'm not sure what he saw in me, but back in the day, our class was a pretty good size, but we didn't have a lot of guys that played football at that time. I'm not sure he was too serious about it, but he did talk to my parents about it, so I'm going to give him credit for that one.
Craig Mattick:
You mentioned when you were at Scotland, basketball was just added as a sanctioned sport. Volleyball wasn't sanctioned until 1982, but in basketball it's the mid '70s, who were some of those good teams that you faced when you played for Scotland? Jefferson may have been one.
Jo Auch:
That's the one that comes right to the top of the list, no question about it. They were always the thorn in our side. We generally won districts, but we just could not get past them in regions. We had the opportunity to play them several times and there were just too many Allards and Creviers and Rigs and too many really good players on that team that had a lot more experience than we did. Springfield actually was a very good team back in the day and Tripp wasn't Tripp-Delmont Armor, it was Tripp at that point in time, so there were a lot of good teams. Parkston was another good team as I recall, that always caused us some grief along the way.
Craig Mattick:
Who was your coach?
Jo Auch:
Her name was Deb Schooley. You may know Doug Schooley. Doug was in Watertown, the athletic director. He started in Scotland and Deb and Doug were teachers in Scotland and she wasn't Schooley at the time, she wasn't married yet at that time. But she was my coach for three years and then Dan Grasser took over my senior year.
Craig Mattick:
What kind of a player were you on the basketball court? Tenacious?
Jo Auch:
Well, I like to think I was okay. I didn't consider myself a good defensive player, but I was one of those that everybody likes to shoot. So it was the name of the game. I was a little disappointed we didn't have a three point line because I probably would've done okay. That's where a lot of my shots came from. I was a pretty decent outside shooter, but we liked to run. We liked to run and gun. We had Sheila Gaymeyer. I don't know if you remember Sheila Gaymeyer from a great track hurdler back in the day, and she liked to get up and down the floor as well. We had some pretty good athletes on our squad.
Craig Mattick:
Well, you were good enough where the University of South Dakota wanted you to play basketball for them, right? Was Chad Lavin there yet or was that right before Chad?
Jo Auch:
That was before Chad. Mary Zimmerman was my coach at that point in time. She was the one who recruited me and Kirk Frederickson from Northern tried to recruit me as well, and I ended up landing at USD and never regretted it.
Craig Mattick:
Well, I tried to find some information about your playing days at USD. I was able to find your senior year, you guys played in the North Central Conference tournament. It happened to be in Vermillion that year. It was 1982. You beat Morningside in the opening round of the tourney and then North Dakota State beat you guys. But in that tournament, you scored 34 points, 14 assists, and 11 steals during that tournament.
Jo Auch:
That was a good game. That was probably the best game of my career, no question about it. I'm going to say that when I got recruited USD, I really feel like I was in the right place at the right time. Back in those days, they were just getting started and they recruited a lot of Iowa players where they played three on three and they had a lot of shooters and stuff, so I had a lot to learn when I got to college. There was no question about that. I became more of a defensive player than an offensive player, believe it or not. And we had a lot of people that could shoot the ball, so we needed to get the ball in their hands to be able to do that, but for some reason, I remember that game. I think they thought it was somebody else playing at the time.
Craig Mattick:
You played over 100 college games with USD.
Jo Auch:
Yeah, I can't lie that that was probably one of the best experiences of my life, being able to meet so many people and travel around and get to places that somebody from all of it in Scotland, South Dakota, you didn't see those kinds of places. I remember we went and played in Notre Dame, and it was one of those aha moments when you walked into the facility and it was like, "Wow, this is pretty cool stuff." It was a chance of a lifetime and glad I had the opportunity to do it. I'm not going to lie to you, I wasn't the best player in college. I did okay, and I had a lot of great supporters that did a lot of great things around me that made our team look a little bit better along the way.
Craig Mattick:
Your senior year, you had a couple of freshmen on that team that turned out to be pretty darn good for the coyotes. One, of course, Katie Dailey from Jefferson and the other one, Ann Pancoast, who came from Sioux Falls Washington. They were freshmen. They had that deer in the headlight look, I think, as freshmen having you on that roster. It was a young roster when you were a senior.
Jo Auch:
It was. We lost a lot of people my senior year. We lost a lot of good athletes that graduated the year before me, so it was really a rebuilding year, and they did a great job of recruiting. Obviously, the two that you mentioned, Pancoast and Dailey, they knew how to get things done. And both of them came from very successful programs and it didn't take them very long to see the court and you saw the success. Actually after I graduated, the success really started to blossom with those younger people moving forward. So I just needed to get out of the way and let somebody who knew what they were doing take over.
Craig Mattick:
During your time in Vermillion at USD, you wanted to be a teacher. When was it you decided that you wanted to be in education?
Jo Auch:
Yeah, I think education had always intrigued me, being a teacher, being a coach. I think those were goals that going through the athletic field and doing some of the things that I was fortunate enough to be able to do, I wanted to find a way to be able to give back to kids. I know what an influential means my coaches were in my career and I wanted to try and be that person for other kids and try and help them and guide them along the way. So that was the path that I saw and I took, and you have your role models. I loved my coaches in high school and college, and there are things that you take away from everybody that coaches you along the way. There are good things and there are some things that you say, "Ooh, I don't ever want to do that." But you find yourself being guilty of those sometimes too. So I really appreciate the coaches that I had and the life lessons that they taught me along the way.
Craig Mattick:
Yeah. You graduate from USD back in 1982. Were there a lot of teaching jobs out there at that time, 1982?
Jo Auch:
I got out of college and I had two offers immediately and it was back in the stomping grounds from which I came from. That was one of those where I wasn't 100% sure that do you go back to that area or do you try and move on and things of that nature? And just decided that that was going to be the place where I wanted to land and ended up getting the job in Menno. And actually the interview, I can remember the interview, I was asked one question by the board, and that question was, how do you feel about gymnastics? And now knowing that Menno didn't have gymnastics, but they had some kids that-
Craig Mattick:
They had an idea that maybe you could coach gymnastics.
Jo Auch:
Well, yeah. I took a class in college from Mark Upward who I shoot and taught under in Vermillion as well. Fantastic guy, taught me an awful lot, but was not able to teach me a heck of a lot about gymnastics.
Craig Mattick:
But you taught social studies and you taught FIAD. That's something you started with right away, correct?
Jo Auch:
I did. Yep. I taught middle school social studies and K-8 physical education and then I coached three sports at that point in time. I started out coaching basketball and track were the two that I started with. And then when volleyball came about and Menno finally started volleyball, a friend of mine, Glenda Bowman and I started the program in Menno. I think it was in '90 or '91, somewhere in there. And that really became one of my favorite sports rather quickly.
Craig Mattick:
Well, you didn't play volleyball in high school at Scotland. It wasn't a sanctioned sport yet. And, of course, then volleyball remember was in the winter and girls basketball was in the fall, but how did you adapt to learning volleyball, being a coach and moving on with that program?
Jo Auch:
Yeah, I think the volleyball program, we had some pretty good athletes to get started with and it was a little bit of a grind to get people convinced that volleyball was a sport too. So a lot of parents were a little cautious in allowing their kids to participate in so many activities. They're involved in so much in these small schools. They're in band, they're in chorus, they're in all-state choir, they're in everything. They're in basketball, they're in track, they're in cross-country. And moms and dads need some of those kids at home to take care of the chores, like I was talking about a little bit earlier too. So we had to do a little talking and a little convincing with some parents that being a multi-sport athlete is a good thing. We will try not to take up too much of your time.
And like you said, the seasons were switched then as well. So we shared the court. We only had one court at that time, so basketball practice and volleyball practice, one went early, one went late, and every other week we'd switch and those kinds of things. But there were always a lot of people that were very eager to help, coaches that you could tap into going to clinics and the South Dakota Coaches Association, the Volleyball Coaches Association, and people that just knew volleyball along the way and tapping into them and trying to figure out what it is, trying to figure out what a four two was, what a six two was, what a five one was. And we didn't have a Libro at that time, but we were just trying to figure out places and the old adage of you rotate in those six spots, but then it started to come about specialization and people couldn't figure out why people were running all over the place. They started on one side and then they'd run to the other side and why don't they just stay where they're supposed to be?
So it was a little bit of a learning process in that, and I like to think I'm a learner of the game and you couldn't feed it to me fast enough. I loved the sport. I just loved the fact that kids could stay on one side of the net and showcase their talents right there, and they didn't have to be those star athletes that got winded and ran up and down the court and all of those kinds of things. You had a 30x30 area that you landed a ball in compared to putting it in a hoop. So I thought we could probably be successful somewhere along the way.
Craig Mattick:
Well, Menno has not made it to the state volleyball tournament. How close did you get when you were coaching?
Jo Auch:
Yeah, unfortunately that was back in the day of the Viborg-Hurley, the Hurley, I guess I should say, the Woodwards, if you remember those names, the twins and their hitting power was just way too much for us all the time. So again, you make it to that level and once you hit them, you just hit the brick wall. Parker was another one obviously, and they were all in our region.
So needless to say, I remember coming to the High School Activities Association just like we did with the alignments a little bit ago here a couple of weeks ago. And I remember coming with my athletic director at that time trying to get us out of that region because it was so much of a powerhouse, so stacked with so many good teams and the association told us at that time, and we still follow the same philosophy, that we don't look at power of regions. Where you align is where you align, where you're located in the state is how you align with that. And it just didn't seem fair. But now that I'm sitting on the other side of that, I get it.
Craig Mattick:
Menno girls basketball, you coached the girls basketball. They have made it to the state basketball tournament once. That was in 2000. What was that tournament experience like?
Jo Auch:
Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I wasn't coaching, that was Jackie Weeble that was coaching at that point in time. And I knew that once my daughter got into high school, that that was not going to be anything that I could do. Her and I were not going to be able to go home and play nice after ball games and things of that nature. I just didn't think that was going to be in our best interest. So I gave that up when she became a freshman in high school. There were a lot of good players on that team. And Jackie came in. Jackie was my assistant for several years, and she came in and just took the reins and did a fantastic job. She had a lot of good athletes, Vanessa Schmidt and Brie Wilmoth and the Smiths and all of that, just a lot of talent on the court and they got along well. They just clicked. They loved the game. And it was a great fun, fantastic experience.
Craig Mattick:
I was able to follow Brie at the University of Sioux Falls when I was doing their games on the radio. A great outside shooter, Brie Wilmoth. That was fun. At least we talked about Menno once in a while, which was pretty fun as well. When did you become the athletic director for Menno?
Jo Auch:
Oh, boy. I want to say that was probably about 2000. I believe it was 2001 or 2002. Erv Ptak had been the athletic director there for several years and after he retired, then they had a couple of other people that stepped in in the superintendent principal role and things of that nature. And it just became a lot of work. When I quit coaching, that was something that I was very interested in and obviously I planted a seed and said that, "Hey, if anybody ever wants to give this up, I'd be more than happy to do it." So I shared it with, I believe his name was Clyde Terrence, that was the superintendent of our school at the time. And he and I were the athletic directors and I took care of all the scheduling. I took care of all the lining up of the buses, all of those kinds of things, the ordering of equipment and all of that.
I was also officiating at that time, so when there were ballgames at home, sometimes I wasn't available to do that. So in sharing that role, he'd take care of the supervision of that and I would go off and officiate ball games for the first couple of years. It was a great experience. It was one of those where I wanted to involve our activities as well, whether that was fine arts, whether that was debate, whether that was oral interp, the one-act plays and give those kids some credit where credit was due as well. I had a really good marching band at the time, so just trying to show the school, showcasing those kids, and it wasn't just all about athletics, but it was about all of the activities and the things that they could be a part of.
Craig Mattick:
Jo, becoming the AD set the stage for you for what was to come. It's 2008 and there's an opening at the South Dakota High School Activities Association as long time member Ruth Rehn retired. Ruth had been involved with Title IX in South Dakota. She was awesome in that position. She's a great lady. When you were coaching at Menno, would you at times run into Ruth about various issues?
Jo Auch:
Oh, yeah. Ruth Rehn would give the rules meetings. That was back in the day when you had to go to Yankton or to Sioux Falls. They traveled to all of these different locations, about five or six different locations throughout the course of that, and would put on the basketball rules meeting or the volleyball rules meeting or the track. Bob Lowry would do the track and they traveled the state night after night to try and get coaches and officials, those in-person rules meetings. So I ran into Ruth a lot while I was coaching. She scared me to death because she was one of those when you walked into the rules meeting and sat down if you were... I remember there were people that came in late and she just stopped right there and said, "Don't even bother to come in. You aren't going to get credit for this meeting. You're going to have to find another meeting to go to. You can stay if you want to, but you aren't getting credit." So out the door they went with their heads hung low and she drew that line.
Craig Mattick:
Never late again.
Jo Auch:
Yes, exactly. I was always on time, that's for sure.
Craig Mattick:
So what intrigued you about applying for that job with the association?
Jo Auch:
Yeah, I loved administration. I loved what I was doing as an athletic director and it looked like a lot of fun. She always looked like she had fun at the state events. I was fortunate enough to work quite a few state tournaments in basketball and volleyball as an official and got to know Ruth real well and Wayne and Bob and all of the people as I worked those state tournaments. And it was just fun to see them in action and when the job opened up, I thought, "I'd be really long shot." And Kyle, my son, was going to be a senior in high school and I didn't feel like that was the greatest opportunity, the greatest time in my life to be able to walk away while his senior year would still be back in Menno.
And I was on the phone talking to somebody one night, and there were a lot of people that were encouraging me, that were telling me, "You should apply for that job, you should apply for that job." And I'm going, "Oh yeah, right. Somebody from Menno is going to end up getting that job. That's a pretty important role." And my son overheard me on the phone talking about that, and I hung up and I told the person I was talking to that I can't, Kyle is still here, there's no way. Hung up the phone and Kyle came out in the kitchen and he said, "Mom, you need to apply for that job." He said, "I am not going to be the reason that you don't do what you want to do."
Craig Mattick:
Wow.
Jo Auch:
And I thought, "Wow."
Craig Mattick:
That's awesome.
Jo Auch:
For a senior in high school to have that insight, I thought that was pretty darn cool. So I did. I got my application ready, I wrote it and I rewrote it and rewrote it again. And you know how that goes. You dot your Is and cross you Ts and sent it in. And lo and behold, I got a call for an interview. There were four of us that interviewed for that position. And I worked the state basketball tournament in Huron that year and worked the championship game. And the officials always get together on that evening and reminisce a little bit. And I said, "I need to go home," because I had an interview on Sunday. I headed from Huron right to Pierre here for my interview on Sunday afternoon at 2:00.
And I remember the interview. I walked in the interview. There were nine people sitting in the room with suits and ties and all of that. And then there was a chair in the middle with a glass of water, and that was my spot. And I felt like I was in the middle of a firing squad. So we had the interview and did that on Sunday. I think they've interviewed two on Sunday and two on Monday.
And Tuesday, I got a call from Wayne and I remember our secretary in school, Sheila, came to my room. I was teaching social studies, sixth grade social studies, and came in and she said, "You've got a phone call on line one." And I was in the middle of a lecture and I said, "Just take a message. I'll get back to him." And she said, "No, I think you're going to want to take this one. It's Wayne Carney." So off I went. She watched my class and off I went.
And Wayne said, "We would love to have you be a part of the High School Activities Association and I'd like to offer you the job." And then he went on, he said, "Don't give me an answer now." He said, "I want you to talk it over with your family and let me know in a couple of days." And he went on to tell me what the benefits would be, what the salary would be, and my mouth just started to drop. It's one of those aha moments. And I remember hanging up the phone and just plopping down in the chair and just in complete awe of the situation.
And I walked into the teacher's workroom and I just let out a big scream. I just did my little happy dance, let's say. And everybody was so happy for me. That small community of Menno just couldn't be more grateful and more appreciative of the work that I had done. They were sad to see me go, but they were so happy for me. And I still feel that today. Every time I go back, I still get that, boy, we sure miss you around here and all those good kinds of things. So a dream come true, no question about it. And an absolute dream come true.
Craig Mattick:
I'm assuming those nine people on the interview asked you more than about gymnastics. They asked you a few more questions than that.
Jo Auch:
Yeah, they did. Like I said, it was a true firing squad. I'm not going to lie. That's what it felt like.
Craig Mattick:
I was going to ask those first few years though, what was the job like? There were so many things to take under your wing. What were those first few years like?
Jo Auch:
Yeah. Well, Ruth left things, as you know, in very good standing. Ruth was a shaker and a baker, and she got things done. She was a mover. We all know the things that she accomplished. And I said moving into that position, I said, "I just don't want to mess anything up that she started." So I worked pretty hard. You dig into the files, you look at things. I remember Wayne telling me, "Now, make this job your own. Ruth has had this job for 34 years, and maybe there's some things that need to be done differently," and things of that nature. So I didn't change a lot right away. There was no question about it. You just wanted to survive. I needed to learn cheer and dance, which was just a sport that had just gotten started. She got it started and then she left it to me to try and grow.
And gymnastics was another one. I remember talking to Ruth and saying, Ruth asked me, "What do you know about gymnastics?" And I said, "Not much." And she goes, "If you don't know it, you're never going to understand it." And she's absolutely correct. She said, "You just find people that you can entrust. You find people that can help you learn and help you understand. And it's all about managing." Those two were my biggest challenges along the way.
Tennis was another one that I wasn't real familiar with. And you just find people that have a passion for the sport and you put them on your side and they will help you in any way, shape, form that they possibly can. So those first few years, it was a trial and error. It's one of those where you learn a lot in those first three years, but I can't thank the office staff, Ken Pickering, Wayne Carney, Bob Lowry. Those were the people I started with. They were so eager to help. If you have a question, don't be afraid to ask. There's no such thing as a dumb question. And boy, I had a lot of them. There's no question about it. And Ruth was available by phone too. There were a lot of times where I just picked up the phone and called her and said, "Hey, talk to me about this." And she was happy to help in those means as well.
Craig Mattick:
You oversaw boys and girls tennis, volleyball, competitive cheer, competitive dance, sideline cheer, boys and girls basketball, you mentioned gymnastics and softball. They might as well have added football for you too there, Jo, you did so many. But during your time with the association, the sports of softball, girls wrestling and soccer were added as sanctioned sports, but you played a huge role in getting softball sanctioned. What was that like?
Jo Auch:
Well, we tried for four years to get that up and running and going. Kids were just so busy. I think, which season do you play in? There was so many questions with not enough answers to make it work. And finally, the year before we finally got it sanctioned at the ADs conference, I remember standing up in front of all the athletic directors and saying, "We either got to do this or not. It's one of those things that we are the only state..." It was us in Wyoming and then Wyoming beat us. We were the only state in the nation that did not have softball. And quite honestly, it was embarrassing that you're the last one. Here you have Ruth the shaker and the mover and gets everything going, and I can't even get softball started.
So it's one of those where we had enough interest, we had enough schools that were willing to do it. I think they needed that push. They needed that little means of encouragement. And our AA athletic directors just said, "Yep, we're going to do it." And away we ran. But boy, I tell you what, that was one of the best feelings at the state tournament last year. Seeing those kids out on the field, having the opportunity to play for a state championship was one of those aha moments that I'll never forget. Having those kids raise that championship trophy above their head, I felt like it was me raising that championship trophy above my head because we finally got there.
Craig Mattick:
Well, you got to throw out the first pitch of one of the games.
Jo Auch:
You mean I got to roll out the first pitch. We had people that did it at each of the classes. I threw it out for class B, and we had two other people that did it for class A and class AA, and it was a feel-good feeling.
Craig Mattick:
It went over the plate. It just happened to roll it over-
Jo Auch:
It did. It was right over the plate. It was even a windmill. Come on.
Craig Mattick:
Another issue that you've been a part of here late before you retire is the recruitment and training of officials. And you've gotten the University of South Dakota involved. What has that process been like now?
Jo Auch:
Yeah, RefReps is a nationwide company that is trying to help the nation with our official shortage. And we all know that, especially since COVID it seems like, we're starting to lose more and more officials and nationwide studies are telling us that's because of sportsmanship. One of the big reasons is sportsmanship. The average age of an official is 57 years old, and we've got to start finding some more people. I went to the NASO, which is National Association of Sports Officiating, and heard about this RefReps, and there were a couple of states that were already getting started in it and were seeing some success with it. So got on the phone and talked to the people that were in charge of that, and I said, "Talk to me about what this is, how does it work?" And things of that nature.
So we ended up last year partnering with them and we ended up with, I believe it was 15 schools that started as a pilot program where we gave them seat licenses to put it in the high schools. So not only did we get it at USD, and I'll talk about that in just a second, but we got 15 high school kids started. We've got 40 more schools that I just had a meeting with this last week that are interested in as well. So if we can continue to grow that, I'm ecstatic. So Robin Wiebers from USD, I contacted her and said, "What can we do to try and get this program involved?" The RefReps was giving free seat licenses to the first 20 NCAA division one schools that wanted to jump on board. So I talked to her about that and she said, "Absolutely, we are in and away we go." So started that.
She and Jesse Daw were the two that ran it through their kinesiology program. I went down and spoke to those kids in the class and talked a little bit about officiating and what that means. And I think we ended up having, I want to say 30, 29 kids, 30 kids that actually took the class. And believe it or not, we're actually getting some of those kids to register for us this year as well. So they did it in football and in volleyball. And then starting in the fall, they're going to do basketball as well. So hoping to grow that, hoping that that will continue to grow and hoping that the new person replacing me, Kristina Sage, will continue to run with that and we'll continue to have more officials in the state of South Dakota.
Craig Mattick:
March 2020, the COVID year, everything shut down. That had to be a very stressful time for you and the association.
Jo Auch:
Yeah, I'm not going to lie, that was probably one of the low points of my career. I remember I was in Spearfish at the State B Girls Tournament when we got shut down and we were told that we could no longer play basketball and we got booed. I remember getting booed, and that's not a good feeling to be booed in that scenario, but to live your life and to think that would've... I would've never dreamt that something like that would've happened in my lifetime. And here we are in this pandemic that lasted quite a while. We do our spring sports and very cautiously trying to get things up and running again the next year, just oof. It was a terrifying, horrible feeling. Everybody panicked, everybody was scared. We just didn't know. There were so many unknowns.
And to take those opportunities away, those kids, so seniors, that's their senior year, they did not have the opportunity to finish what they had worked so hard for their entire career. And that was really the sad point for me and for the office as well. It hurt us to have to do that, but we had to do what was best for our membership at that point in time.
Craig Mattick:
16 years with the association. What are you going to miss the most?
Jo Auch:
Craig, there are so many things I'm going to miss, so many. I think the biggest thing I'll miss the people, just the relationships that I've built, that have been built throughout the 16 years and the number of people that you get to know and the support that you have with that, knowing that you work side by side with those people and knowing the respect that I have for them and hopefully the respect that they have for me in doing what's best for not only a specific school, but the entire membership. I think when you sit in this chair, that's the thing you learn the most is that you don't represent class B, you don't represent class A, you don't represent class AA. You represent everyone. You represent the entire membership. And that's a feel-good feeling to know that you are a part of giving all of these kids in these schools an opportunity to learn life lessons and to be a part of athletics and activities within our association.
And I'll miss the kids, I'll miss the staff, I'll miss the people that I work, I'll miss the schools, the administrators that have been so helpful in so many ways along the way. I'll miss my officials. I've worked for 16 years closely with officials as well, and I tell everybody I'm leaving the stage, not the arena, so I'm still going to be around, but just at a different level, at a different pace and be standing in the background hopefully instead of the one out handing out trophies and metals and things like that. And that's just an amazing part of what we do.
Craig Mattick:
You have done an awesome job, Jo. No doubt about it. Thank you. Thank you for what you've done. Two more for Jo. You mentioned Kristina Sage at Freeman takes over for you. What is your biggest advice to Kristina?
Jo Auch:
Yeah, it's funny you asked that question because she came to Pierre and sat down and we talked most of the day about the job and things that needed to get done and where I was leaving off, where she's going to be picking up and so on and so forth. I think the best piece of advice that I can give her is be a good listener. There's a lot of ideas out there that everybody has, and some of them are pretty darn good ideas. And sometimes we hear something and we start to form an opinion right away. But if we just take the time to listen to all of it, there's pieces of things that you can take away from every conversation and you can learn from those things. So just to have open ears. I go with the Judge Judy saying of God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. So being that good listener is probably the best advice I can give her.
Craig Mattick:
And what is the biggest item on your bucket list to complete as retirement arrives?
Jo Auch:
Well, everybody asks me how many days I have left and I tell them I have four state events left. And that's how you gauge it in this business, I guess I just hope that people know that along the way that I've given it my all, that I enjoy my job. I go to work every day and enjoy what I do.
Craig Mattick:
And you've been awesome with what you've done.
Jo Auch:
Thanks. Sorry, I get a little emotional here.
Craig Mattick:
It was awesome.
Jo Auch:
It means a lot. That job has meant the world to me, no question about it. And I wish Kristina the best. I wish the High School Activities Association continued success. And like I said, I'm going to be around and if they need any help along the way, I'm happy to sweep a floor or run a shot clock or keep a scorebook or whatever it's I need to do at that point in time, so happy to help.
Craig Mattick:
In play with Craig Mattick is made possible by Horton in Britton, where smiling at work happens all the time. Apply now at hortonww.com. If you like what you're hearing, please give us a five-star review wherever you get your podcasts. It helps us gain new listeners. This has been In Play with me, Craig Mattick. This is a production of South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
