Liz Arsnow: Tracking Arrowhead‰’s Extracurricular Activities

Liz Arsnow jokingly defines her job as the equivalent of a full-time party planner.

With Arrowhead High School having more than 100 school activities, the activities assistant is involved in keeping all of them operating efficiently and effectively.

“With 2,300 students, more than 75 percent are involved in clubs and activities,” she says. “I keep track of more than 100 financial accounts for various clubs and activities that are audited every year.

“In addition, I handle the sports calendar, schedule transportation, coordinate the intramural programs, verify eligibility, work directly with the coaches and advisor’s needs, coordinates 40 summer sports camps and still find the time to handle many other tasks.”

Arsnow says organization is the key—and keeping stacks of sticky notes handy on your desk. She credits great working relationships with making her work much easier.

“Teaching core values that will be important for a student’s entire life is a great formula here at Arrowhead, and we’ve made it work,” she says. “Nobody gets upset when we don’t win everything, and we don’t worry about how we do in various sports and other activities. In fact, the Special Olympics events we hold are just as important to students and staff as our regular sports and activities.”

Intramural Participation

The school’s intramural program includes more than 400. That includes 90 volleyball players during the fall, 380 to 480 students across five divisions in the winter basketball program and 60 to 90 players in the spring badminton program.

Over the years, the school offered other intramural sports, such as miniature golf, ultimate Frisbee, ping pong and bowling where there was student interest.

“We want to provide activities for our students that are both fun and competitive,” she says. “Students get to make new friends and are involved with programs that have limited time commitments. We want to get as many students involved in these activities as we can.”

Arsnow says the intramural offerings often change to meet the needs of students.

“We love getting student ideas in regard to new activities to try,” she says. “Students can pick and choose which activities they want to participate in. We check grades for intramural eligibility and a few students must bring their grades up before they are allowed to participate in the intramural program.”

Special Olympics Program

Hard work by many people goes into the success of each sport, club and activity. One example is the dedication among staff and students in working with special needs students. Arsnow says John Hough teaches in this area, serves as the head coach for the school’s Special Olympics activities and was involved with this program as a coach at the national level.

This athletic program includes opportunities for full school-year participation:

You Might Also Like

The telltale signs of heat-related illness in student-athletes

Study: How sideline sports behavior affects young athletes

UConn partners with Accelerate Sports Ventures for NIL resources