After 16 years serving as the Associate Vice President of Athletics at Alvernia University, Bill Stiles brings his experience and vision for whole-student development to Hill as the new Director of Athletics and Co-Curricular Activities.
From the time that Stiles first stepped on campus, he felt Hill’s energy and knew that this was the place where he needed to be.
“One of the days I was here for my interview there was track going on, squash going on, basketball, and hockey,” Stiles said. “It was raining, but there was still a ton of energy. There were people everywhere.”
Only a couple weeks into the athletics seasons for many student-athletes, Stiles has already begun to soak up the energy given off by the entire Hill community. Despite the tough losses during EA Day for most of Hill’s athletics teams, Stiles was impressed by the school spirit that was displayed during that evening.
“I was blown away by all the students that were up at the far fields,” Stiles expressed. “Not only that, but that they stayed. The student section did not empty out of the football game at halftime and that says a lot about students supporting one another.”
In future years, Stiles hopes to focus on the rational and strategic components of EA Day, including the timing of the games within each teams’ season schedule. For many non-varsity teams, their first game of the season took place on EA Day with only a week of practice beforehand. On the other hand, Episcopal Academy’s teams probably had two to three more weeks of practice than our teams did, which made playing EA for a first game not an optimal situation.
Stiles, in conjunction with the athletics leadership, hopes to consider an essential question: “How could we better, more strategically, and purposely, choose the schedule or plan the schedule so that we’d be in a better position to be more prepared to compete?” Stiles said.
As part of creating successful athletes, Stiles also plans to address sport specialization and will continue to stress the development of multi-sport athletes. With the pressure for specialization seemingly coming largely from clubs and travels as compared to schools, Stiles realizes it will be important for Hill to continue to stand by the policy that has been in place for 175 years, while also working with the families of students who want to participate in a club sport during the middle of a Hill athletics season.
“I think that we will only see the number of students who want to take advantage of that grow and considering what some of the ways that we can support that are, but also stand by our principles of believing in involvement in as many activities you can be involved in is really important.”
With many more months ahead of planning and sporting events, in all of his endeavors, Stiles’ primary concern will be supporting student athletes and coaches in the best possible way.
“My goal has always been to ensure that our student athletes and our coaches have the support and resources to be as successful as they can be,” Stiles concluded.
