When the executive director position at the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association came open, however, Dove couldn’t help thinking about it. Monday, he was named as the successor to Rick Diggs, the only executive director the MIAA has had since its founding in 1995.
Dove, who is in his 26th year at Spalding, will return to the school as a business teacher but that might not have been enough after all those demanding years as an AD.
“To get out of it cold turkey would probably have driven me crazy,” he said.
Dove laughed as he said his wife Chris told him he needed a hobby so he wouldn’t be hanging around the house all the time after school.
“This is my hobby,” he said.
Dove will spend the next school year working with Diggs to transition into the position, which he will officially assume on June 20, 2013. He hopes to pick up where Diggs leaves off in leading the MIAA, which is comprised of 27 private high schools located in and around Baltimore.
“Rick Diggs has led this organization since the onset and I think he’s done a fabulous job,” Dove said. “I think he’s been respected by his peers and out of respect for him, I certainly want this organization to keep going in a forward direction so as it reflects back on his years of leadership, it’s all very positive.”
The time commitment fits in perfectly as a complement to his teaching job.
“It varies with the seasons,” Dove said. “I expect it’s going to be a demanding position, but it’s certainly not going to be the daily demands that I had as an AD where I was spending hours working on fields and going to meetings and managing games.”
Under his watch, many of Spalding’s teams were perennial contenders in the A Conference, especially girls and boys basketball, wrestling, softball and girls soccer. Dove has been a member of the Maryland State Athletic Directors Association for 16 years. He’s a former president of the organization and is currently its historian.
While Dove hasn’t sorted out his vision for the MIAA moving forward, he said he hopes to maitain its fine local reputation as well as a national reputation in sports such as lacrosse.
“Just at the onset, the vision is to not take steps backward, to keep pressing forward. We’re one of the few states that still is not in tandem with the public schools, so we certainly want to continue to build on that relationship with the MPSSAA (Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association) and just do the positive things that need to be done to keep this league in the forefront.”
