Nick Young- “There’s Something Here for Everyone”

Nick Young is starting his third year as the Athletic Director at Galesburg High School. Nick oversees both high school and junior high athletics, as well as activities that participate in competitions, such as band, scholastic bowl, and speech.  

With an enrollment of about 1,140 students, Galesburg High School generated 723 total student participants in sport/activities across its various offerings last year. (This number reflects the total if you add up the rosters of all the sports/activities, so a student who is out for 3 sports adds 3 to the total.) 

On the high school level, GHS has 21 sports and 53 coaches. Last year athletics had over 350 student participants in all sports. 

Fall- (Boys-Cross Country, Football, Golf, Soccer), (Girls-Cross Country, Golf, Swimming, Tennis, Volleyball)

Winter- (Boys-Basketball, Swimming, Wrestling), (Girls-Basketball, Bowling)

Spring- (Boys-Baseball, Tennis, Track), (Girls-Softball, Track, Soccer)

Some might be quick to react to a school offering 11 girls sports and only 10 boys sports. For years, people misunderstood Title IX and thought it meant that there needed to be an equal number of sports for each gender. Title IX does not mean equal number of sports but providing similar opportunities. On the high school and college level, football distorts the number of opportunities for males vs females, thus most schools offer more sports for females. Today, the University of Illinois offers 11 sports for females and 10 sports for males.)

There are lots of opportunities for students to become involved in sports and activities at GHS. It would seem that there is something for everyone if they look. 

Nick Young is a busy man, overseeing these programs. I sat down to talk to him, and before we even got started, he got a message from Dunlap with details about the upcoming football game. 

Here is my conversation with Mr. Young…

“This Fall I'm really happy with our numbers.”

Massey- Obviously you have a lot going on, and something new all the time. 

Young- There's a good variety for students with 21 sports to choose from. At most schools, participation is down. We have had talks about it as WB6 AD’s, specialization is really a big thing right now with a fair number of kids.  

Certain sports are hurt, but it just kind of depends on the year. This Fall I'm really happy with our numbers. We had over 50 soccer players out. 
Football numbers are up, our tennis numbers are at 20. It's been a good fall turnout so far. 

Massey- I know there are people who are making a living trying to get kids to specialize- personal trainers, club/travel coaches. Historically, Galesburg has been somewhat isolated from that, with Peoria and the QC’s having more of these “outside” forces pulling on kids. 

Young- It's not huge here yet, but we're seeing some of that. From a conference standpoint, I think the schools that are up north probably deal with that more so. Us being kind of in a pocket, it’s not as bad. We're fortunate here that a lot of our feeder programs are good too.

There are some outside groups, but I'd say we're pretty lucky and fortunate here that we've kind of avoided that for the most part. 

“We have to share athletes.”

Massey- How have you tried to increase participation?

Young- What has helped us is having the coaches getting together and having athletic department meetings. We have tried to develop an understanding that we're more of a smaller fish in a big pond. We have to share athletes. And if we can all get on the same page with our workouts and things like Noonan’s weight program and the development of the speed school, that's helped. When kids and coaches are all talking the same language, it helps get the involvement up. 

“It always seems like you never have enough space.”

Massey- The additions to Wicall Gym with the wrestling room, the all-purpose room and the weight room are all so impressive. This has to have been a huge boost for athletes and coaches, and also students in PE. 

Young- It always seems like you never have enough space. So it's definitely a nice to have the athletic complex on Wicall. It's gave us more space. 

It's given wrestling, definitely a home and identity there, which was sorely needed. 
And there's some benefits to that too. You know, as a former basketball coach, it was probably not great having wrestling up in the balcony. It was a noise thing.

From a student aspect, it is a positive. I just met with Mr. Noonan this morning and we talked about our PE program and what that could look like going forward. We can  cater to the individual students. Maybe it's an individual fitness class, kid who just wants to do general PE, maybe it's an athlete or a serious weightlifter- now we have the spaces to accommodate all of them and do it in a comfortable manner that's safe and accessible to all of them. So we're very fortunate in that regard, from both an educational standpoint and from an athletic standpoint. 

The footprint increasing in the weight room is huge to accommodate multiple teams. The past 3 weight rooms that we've had have been tiny, in my opinion, and that makes it hard from a scheduling standpoint and a coaching standpoint to get in there and have time that's beneficial. 

A lot of our kids anymore don't have the means to get home and then come back for a later practice, so being able to accommodate a lot of practices after school is is a big thing too. And being able to accomodate the junior high too. 

“It’s amazing.”

Massey- I sensed last spring when I went and watched the kids in the weight room that there was greater energy and work ethic. My observation was that there is more a culture that believes in strength training. 

Young- I think there's a lot of buy into what Coach Noonan is doing in the weight room. The proof is in the pudding, the numbers connected with weights lifted and participation are impressive. 

We have new software that we've been able to produce or attract numbers that all the coaches can tap into and Jim Noonan can tap into and we can tailor workouts to certain groups of athletes. That's just been huge and beneficial in having that space and that technology. He's over there testing, he can he can be in 3 different spots at one time. 
It's amazing. He can do the weight room, he can be in the turf room, or he can be in the hallway wrestling room.

“Wow, you can really see a kid take off and do really well.”

Massey- An important part of athletics is competing. So much can be learned from the experiences of winning and losing. Sometimes as coaches and as parents, we get too tied up in the winning and losing and forget about some of the really valuable lessons that can be learned in athletics. What message would you have for athletes and parents?

Young- There's something here for everyone. There are so many opportunities to get involved. We can find something for you, whether through an activity or an athletic event. There's probably something for everybody. And that's important, obviously we want to win and we want to be successful. 


Some of that is really, really important, but there's other things important, you know- camaraderie, being a good teammate, learning how to handle stressful situations. A lot of these are things sports can provide an opportunity to learn from, including learning how to handle adversity. 

It's it's bigger than just the wins and losses at times. 
It's a place where kids can feel like they belong, feel loved ,and and a place where they can come and flourish in something that they feel like they're really good at and they're really passionate about. 

And that's the biggest thing in building a relationship with a kid is if you can find something that they're passionate about and that they want to be really involved with, the sky's limit for that kid. 

And then it makes your job easier as a coach or an AD when you can just nudge them along and give them the guidance. 
And if they have that intrinsic motivation to get better at that- wow, you can really see a kid take off and do really well. 

And that's what I want parents to know, the opportunities there, and the people are here that want your kids to succeed. Just sometimes they need a little nudge.