Late spring helped ease transitions in Medford’s athletics department

The start of a new school year brings with it a whole new roster in the athletic offices at Medford Area Senior High.

After 14 years with the school district as a business teacher, bouncing between the middle and high school, Ryan Pilgrim is the new athletic/activities director at both the high school and middle school levels. He takes over for Andy Guden, who held the director position for six years and is now the high school’s assistant principal.

Also over the summer, Casey Hartl became the new activities/athletic secretary, taking over for Rebecca Amundson, who held the spot for two school years before leaving in late June for a new employment opportunity outside the school district.

Pilgrim is a Marathon native and a UW-Stout graduate who has been involved in athletics for just about as long as he can remember. He’s a familiar face to many in Medford having spent nine years coaching in the high school football program and serving stints coaching middle school track, middle school softball and JV2 basketball. He’s also active in Medford’s basketball and football booster clubs and Medford Area Little League Association.

“I’ve been around high school athletics for so long,” Pilgrim said. “It’s just one of those things that I feel passionate about. I love high school athletics. When they offered me the position I was definitely ready for a new challenge.”

Pilgrim also has been heavily involved in officiating high school sports in the area and was just coming off his fourth WIAA state basketball assignment when he was offered the position in the spring.

“The opportunity was there,” he said. “The biggest hurdle I had to think about was officiating. Was I going to be able to handle cutting back and really not officiating? I really didn’t answer that question until the interview, to be honest.

Once they contacted me with the interview, then it was like, yeah I think I can handle not reffing.”

While he officially didn’t take over until July 1, Pilgrim was able to use May and June as a key learning period under Guden.

“COVID had a lot of downfalls, but one of the positives about it was that it gave me, with spring sports being pushed back, an opportunity to experience with him running soccer games, baseball, softball games and hosting tournaments and all that type of stuff,” Pilgrim said. “Hosting seed meetings and doing allconference meetings, just going through all of that stuff that you wouldn’t have the opportunity otherwise to do. That was really one of the advantages and maybe a saving grace of this year.”

Hartl had a similar start, being able to learn a little bit from Amundson at the end of the spring sports season in late June.

She is also a familiar face having graduated from Medford Area Senior High in 2005. Back then, she was a solid performer on the basketball court and softball field.

Hartl spent 12 years as a stylist at Reflections in Medford before changing course and working with the school district. She spent the past three years as a paraprofessional/special education assistant at Medford Area Middle School.

“I was ready for something more and different and this opened up,” Hartl said. “I like athletics, so it was a good fit.”

Hartl said she’s kept in touch with Medford athletics by attending occasional games and being involved with her children. Now she’s excited to be back in the action, so to speak.

“There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that you don’t know happens when you’re in high school sports,” Hartl said. “Everything just happens and you just play. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that you just don’t realize.

“With us both being new, we’re trying to double check everything to make sure,” she added. “You don’t know what you don’t know. That’s something we’ve been saying quite a bit.”

“I’ve learned a lot,” Pilgrim said. “Is there more to learn? Absolutely. It’s a you don’t know what you don’t know until you don’t know it type of thing. I feel like I’m getting more and more confident in the way that the conference works. I’m getting more confident in the way the WIAA works. I thought I knew what was going on with that from officiating and coaching. I’m finding out you don’t come in with a plan because you’re not going to get to it. The plan comes to you, so to speak. But more and more every day, I’m feeling better about everything.”

One of the positives during the transition time is there have been no head coaching changes to deal with so far on a staff that Pilgrim feels is as good as it gets. As he sees it, he’s taking over an already well-oiled machine.

“It’s a great staff, top to bottom, fall to spring. It’s a top-notch group of people,” he said. “I’ve got some ideas for some small changes, but there’s not going to be any major overhauls. It’s running pretty smooth. Why would you mess with that?”

Being out of the classroom setting on a daily basis is another change Pilgrim said will take some getting used to.

“That’s one of the things I was kind of worried about, losing that relationship with the students,” he said. “But with last spring I learned that the connections will still be there with the students, it will just be in a different way.”