Growing up, Alan Boschma’s favorite sports to play were football, baseball, and track. While to us he’s a new athletic director, Boschma comes from a 27-year education background. Fresh out of college, where he played football and ran track, Boschma taught physical education (PE) while also coaching football and track. The path to becoming an athletic director was not straightforward for Boschma. Teaching PE and being the head coach for football at Yamhill Carlton High School involved leadership aspects that led Boschma to becoming an athletic director. After his time at Yamhill Carlton High School, Boschma moved to Tigard High School, serving there as the athletic director for 13 years. In the change from teacher to athletic director, Boschma says that “what it takes to be a great teacher can lead to being a good administrator.” The role was natural.
Excited to “get to know students and staff and help build a culture that appreciates athletics at Franklin,” Boschma is enthusiastic about building a strong sense of community and cohesiveness in athletics here at Franklin. He believes that athletics and the culture that comes with them are fantastic for teaching life skills: “Nowhere else can you teach work ethic, accountability, communication, how to deal with emotions, win or lose.” These skills follow people through their entire lives; life skills that don’t necessarily have a home in the classroom can be taught in sports. “A lot of people don’t realize until they’re older, and they go ‘I am glad I learned how to deal with that’… A lot of our kids don’t do athletics and by the time they’re in college, they don’t really know how to deal with that anxiety. I think that athletics can… provide that learning opportunity.” Participating in athletics provides an outlet for students to learn and grow.
When describing the job of an athletic director, Boschma explains that the job is “vast and ever-changing. From eligibility [of athletes] to field repair, this job is not difficult but it is also never really done.” From managing students’ eligibility to play, or tracking all of the state mandates, the job has a lot of managerial and organizational aspects. “We’re [athletic directors] a big information booth,” says Boschma.
Outside of Boschma’s work world, sports still have a place. He has a son playing football at Oregon State University, and he enjoys watching college football in his spare time. As to who his favorite team is, Boschma says that he is “a little bit partial to” Oregon State University, where his son is a wide receiver. While Boschma is convinced he is “too old to play many sports,” he still finds time to “hit a little, white, dimpled ball, and chase it around. Some people call it golf.” His main passion for it comes from his love of the outdoors. “I love it, I like to be outside and I kind of embrace nature.” He adds that golf is an opportunity to “appreciate… the great outdoors.”
Part of Boschma’s goal while here at Franklin is to spread cohesiveness throughout all of the teams; this aspect means opening communication and building community with the coaches. Franklin’s Head Swim Coach Erin Morris describes Boschma as “dedicated to creating community within our athletic department among coaches and athletes.” As an example, Morris describes how she finds this “extremely useful. If I know an athlete is injured and can’t compete in their chosen sport, I can offer an opportunity to cross-train in the pool.” Boschma’s commitment to building the athletic community will help coaches, as Morris explains that “more connections to each other can only strengthen the entire athletic department.”
Some life advice interwoven with athletics Boschma has for students is, “Find something that you can be passionate about and work at it.” Sports is a great tool to teach this. “Don’t have excuses, don’t ‘woe is me’ whatever it is…Just find something that you can just put your all in, win or lose. Fail or succeed, just go for it.”
