This is the first year for Building Activity Director John Sedler, but his 37th year in the education field.

Before he moved into administration in 1990, Sedler taught social studies and was a basketball and baseball coach.

Sedler has been in three schools previous to De Soto High School. After college, he taught at Maryville High School, then Park Hill High School.

In 1998, Sedler helped open Park Hill South High School, where he was before DHS. When Sedler taught at Park Hill, there were 2,400 kids, which is the equiliavant of a class 6A in Kansas. In Missouri, the highest class 5A, which both Park Hill schools are at.

After a quarter of being at DHS, The Green Pride staff wanted to know Sedler’s views on DHS and what he wants to see happen.

Green Pride: What is the typical day for an Associate Principal/ Building Activity Director?

John Sedler: The first part of the school day we try to catch up on tardies and truancies from the day before. Then we move right into athletic stuff then, making sure we have officials and they are secured, the facility is ready, buses, check for lights and sound, and the scoreboards. Most people go to the game and think ‘oh, we have a game.’ We have to make sure the cheerleaders know the time, have water, we have to get the things ready for the football team, and work with the trainer. We meet with the other team and make sure the locker rooms are ready. We secure ticket takers. There is a lot of stuff that goes on at events. A lot of people think you just show up and cheer but there is a lot of pregame activities.

GP: What types of things do you handle?

JS: I handle officials, transportation, facility usage, and we also deal with plays and musicals, band, so we deal with the whole gamet. Everyone gets treated the same, it’s very fair.

GP: How is DHS different than the other schools you have been at?

JS: It’s all the same, you’ll see the silly drama that exists. Dealing with a smaller student body, for me, I get to know more kids quicker. One of the things I am focusing on and would like to help change is that usually at a school our size, we have better fan support, because it’s kind of the only show in town. I’ve been very pleased with the people that are in the crowd at the games, but I would like to see more of our students and faculty attend musicals, football games, soccer games. It seems like everyone is into their own little thing, and we need to be able to focus on getting our green out there.

GP: What are the advantages or disadvantages to a smaller school?

JS: I like the smaller school setting. The obvious advantage is that if you want to, there are a lot more opportunities to participate. And I think that participating in activities or sports only helps you learn how to be responsible, it helps you with deadlines, so that when you get ready to go out in the real world, it makes you ready to go into those post-high school activities. In a big school, sometimes if you’re just average, you don’t get a chance to do all that. In a bigger school you have more people involved in band and in a smaller school everyone gets to participate if they want to.

GP: If you could do it all over again, would you stay in administration or go back to the classroom?

JS: I like both of them. I think the difference is when you get to a point in your career. I went from students to now teaching teachers or teaching coaches. So you’re still teaching. I’m not one of those guys that hides out in here. I’m out in the halls, the lunchroom. I still get to be in contact with students, but not as direct.

GP: What do you do with the coaches? When you say “teaching coaches” what does that mean?

JS: We help set up guidelines for what we expect and how we expect them to behave with coaches. We help set up plans for practice, helping them solve problems, I’d like to think what we do and Miss. Flannagin(SP?) helps also. Is that we help facilitate  for coaches so that their jobs become easier.  We are here when they need some assistance, or some advice.

GP: What is the biggest difference between the Missouri school system and the Kansas school system?

JS:The biggest difference I’ve noticed is their playoff series is different than what Missouri does. Their version of Sub-State, and how you’re ranked and seeded is a big difference.

GP: Why did you come into the Kansas school system after you retired in the Missouri system?

JS: I asked my wife if I could just golf, and she said no [laughs]. So I looked for a job, and I looked at a couple places and felt very fortunate to land here. I met Mr. Meyer and Mr. Sumner and felt like this was a great place to be. I love the building, I think our facility for a school this size is phenomenal. For the most part I think we are untapped energy here that we are going to try to get out. I see the band… and their spirit for De Soto is uninhibited. They’re not too cool for school… We have a ton of cheerleaders. We have more cheerleaders and band people than we do fans that come to events. We need to try to get it to where more kids want to come to the game and support all of our teams, not just teams that are winning, but everybody that is participating.

GP: If you were to try and get more students to come to the games and other activities, how would you do it?

JS: I think you have to create it to where it’s an event they want to go to. So the first thing is that you have to put out a good product. So that our kids, whether it’s a boys’ sport or a girls’ sport are well coached, entertaining and are very competitive. The second one is at the games we need to have more contests so that the kids get to go out on the floor and participate, so they feel like they’re part of the game. I think when this type of lack of support happens it’s because they just feel like they’re fans. Well they’re not just fans, they’re an extension of the program. Their spirit is what gives them that energy and that fan support and fan love that carries them through rough times. I think our spirit is good, don’t get me wrong. We have a huge group of kids in band and cheerleading and those are a lot of our role models in the building, we just need to create an environment where everybody wants to come. All the freshmen, all the sophomores want to come watch the games because hey it’s Friday night we have a game, let’s go.