Over the summer, we welcomed a new Athletic Director (AD), Matthew Rawlik, a former BHS alumnus, teacher, and baseball coach. Rawlik is in charge of all the Berkley High School sports teams and has the important job of ensuring that Berkley Athletics is set up for success. To learn more about our school’s new AD, I talked to Mr. Rawlik to understand more about him and his job.

First, I asked Mr. Rawlik why he was interested in switching from being a U.S. History teacher to an athletic director. He says, “I have always been interested in leadership, and I always saw it as a challenge one day to take on. I thought there was a lot of room for growth in athletics, and that I could facilitate a lot of that within the school.” He also mentions how he wants to spotlight other sports that he doesn’t think get the recognition they deserve.

I talked to him about his past here as an athlete. He was on varsity wrestling for all four years and played baseball. Later, he coached varsity baseball for 10 years for the Berkley team. When he was younger, his dad would even bring him to the football games, he was surrounded by Berkley athletics.

Next, Mr. Rawlik shares why Berkley Athletics is unique. “Berkley athletics has been incredibly progressive and forward-thinking,” but he says we still have traditions that make this more intimate than many other schools. Our school is also big enough where we are competitive, but we also have a very good balance of support from our community and parents. Mr. Rawlik also mentioned that “Many people who have gone here have come back or now their kids go here, which represents how strong our community is and the impact it has on people”.

After that, Mr. Rawlik talked about whether the job of an Athletic Director is what he expected it to be. He explained that he gets far more emails than he expected and as someone who likes a clean email inbox, it can be challenging. However, leadership is the hardest thing he can do, especially when trying to get people to pursue goals and succeed. Besides that, it involves a lot of helping, answering questions, and problem-solving. He also mentions that a challenge of his jobs is, “dealing with the new renovations to our school and making sure everything goes according to plan and is on time. It is hard to find places for sports to practice that use the facilities that are getting renovated when the new additions are being added.”

Lastly, he explains his plans to make athletics more organized, “It’s mainly all about planning and making sure everyone who is included in a sports event knows the plan and makes sure to plan things. Many people go to the soccer games, but will they go to the swim meets? Later down the road, I plan to help make those things happen when I get my feet under me a bit more.” Overall, it sounds like Mr. Rawlik will make big improvements to Berkley High School sports this year and is off to a great start.