Welcome to “Making a Difference!” Step into the inspiring world of business owners who are making a tangible difference in their communities. Join us as we spotlight passionate entrepreneurs who go beyond profit, dedicating their time, resources, and innovative ideas to create positive social impact. Today our host, Greg Chapman, spoke with John Sgromolo.
John Sgromolo
Director of Athletics at St. Johns Country Day School
Website Address: www.sjcdsathletics.net
Short company description:
Director of Athletics for St. Johns Country Day School in Orange Park, FL a PreK3-12 Independent Private School that participates in the FHSAA
What is a tip for success that you would provide someone in your same industry?
Never stop learning and building connections to expand your network.
What volunteer experience has impacted you the most?
Field of Dreams Baseball
What’s one cause you’re passionate about?
Youth Development
How do you encourage your team to make a difference?
Each day we have a chance to change a young person’s life and guide their future!
Transcript:
Greg:
Hi. Welcome to Making a Difference. I’m your host, Greg Chapman. Today we have a special guest for you. His name is John Sgromolo. Hello, John. Glad you’re here. Just tell us about yourself. Where are you at? What do you do?
John:
Absolutely. Great. Well, first, thanks for having me. I’m John Scrambler. I’m the director of athletics at Saint John’s Country School.
And, I’ve been there, and this is the end of my third year. Also have the opportunity to serve my community in Clay County. I’m also a Clay County commissioner. So, it’s been a great first year in office doing that. And then also, you know, a great three years, leading the Spartans at Saint John’s country.
Greg:
Yeah. You go from politics in one area to politics, and another feels like maybe, depending on the day.
John:
Yeah, it’s, it’s all about the experience either way you look at it.
Greg:
Yeah. So, John, before. Before you got into politics, you were a coach. Still our coach. I’m an athletic director. Is still coaching your coaching coaches. Tell us about your coaching background.
John:
Yeah, sure. So I’m a baseball player by trade. I, for my third birthday, I got catcher’s gear. Loved love being in the mix on the ball field. And, played in high school at Clay High School in Green Cove. Got one scholarship offer out of high school to go to Flagler College.
Thanks to a guy named Dave Barnett. Played there for four years. And then I got to live out my childhood dream. I got drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers, got to the 37th round, got to play two years of professional baseball, and, my biggest professional mentor as an athletic director, Judd Damon from Flagler College. And he inspired me to become a director of athletics.
I love business, I love athletics, and that got me into coaching. If you, as you said, if you want to be the coach of the coaches, you better be a pretty good coach. So I cut my teeth at Ridgeview High School in Orange Park and coached there for seven years, before becoming the Clay County First, Clay county’s first ever county athletic director, which was awesome.
In 2020. And, did that for three years before I got to Saint John’s. So, it all started on the ball field, and now I get to watch our Spartans play, and then also work with all of our 19 programs at Saint John’s.
Greg:
Yeah. And so with my role as coaches, ministry director of FCA and just a long time coach myself, I firmly believe in the role of the coach for a lot of reasons.
One of them is, as a coach, we’re helping develop the future leaders. And in a lot of cases, it’s not necessarily the future leaders of our community. We’re sending kids out to other communities to potentially lead. And so knowing the influence of a coach you have, kids are a little younger now. You’ll start seeing this come later on down the road.
But my kids, I can remember my kids would come home and say, the coach said to do this and they would do it. Or like my son’s taking out the trash and are you sick? Or you know what? The coach said I should have helped out around the house. You know, the coach said I could actually contribute this way. And so as through your coaching experience and your background in athletics, what are some ways you’ve seen coaches leverage their influence to impact the greater human outside of sports?
John:
Well, it’s a great question. And for us at Saint John’s Country Day it drives home our vision and our mission, which is the best student athlete experience where we build lifelong champions.
And exactly what you said is what our coaches do at Saint John’s is, it’s positive coaching. It’s a real thing. And, it’s very important in leadership to reinforce that positive doesn’t mean soft, right?
It means, it means correct. Right. It means the type of citizens that we want to our, into our communities, people that have integrity, people that are honest, people that work together well with teams, all things that every community needs.
And that’s something at Saint John’s we really harp on is developing the whole child. And, whether, you know, the toughest thing I tell coaches is not you.
You’re never going to coach two kids the same. You’re best player in your worst player. But one thing you do have to do is make sure you’re challenging both of them to reach their greatest potential, whatever that may be.
And, you’re absolutely right. I wouldn’t be doing what I do, both at Saint John’s and in the community if it weren’t for my coaches growing up.
Greg:
Yeah. That’s correct. Billy Graham, there’s a quote that when we talk about coaches, it always comes up, where Billy Graham said a coach will impact more lives in one year than a normal person. Well, their entire lifetime.
And so when you look at, you know, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, our mission is to lead every coach and athlete to growing up with Jesus Christ in his church.
When you look at our mission and what we stand for knowing the influence of a coach, what are some ways you would encourage coaches who say they’re Christians to leverage their title for the gospel?
John:
I think the biggest thing is, you know, my master’s degrees in athletics, leadership and positive coaching through the University of Missouri, the Mizzou Tigers.
And one of the things we learned in the program, which I think is applicable to all industries, is catch people doing things right.
You know, so much as a coach, we’re taught to teach constructive criticism on a technique or a stance or an approach.
You know, in any sport, as coaches, you have the opportunity every day to catch people doing things right.
And, you know, through, through the gospel, you know, we hear all the time about, treat your neighbor as you would want to be treated, right. And those less fortunate than you.
So every day you have an opportunity with your team to spell out those character traits that you’re wanting to impress upon them, whether it is, you know, helping out a teammate or showing unbelievable levels of sportsmanship.
Those are great things that go hand in hand with our man Jesus.
Greg:
Yeah. Something I’ve learned over the years with coaches. A lot of times they struggle with making their title, their identity. Like, and they take coach into every realm of their life.
And so I always tell coaches, hey, what you do is not necessarily who you are.
And so as someone who leads coaches, how do you encourage them to separate sport from, from life just to have some normalcy on some level?
John:
A big part of my job as a director of athletics is to make sure that our coaches have balance, right?
That, that I’m not, you know, calling them at 9:30 at night, asking them an irrelevant question that can be sent in an email.
Right. Great. Leadership understands that you can’t lead from an empty vessel. You got to take care of yourself first and more importantly, your family first.
It’s something I’ve been very career driven my entire life. And with two young ones. My wife’s a saint.
But she. You know, we’re still working on it. I mean, we’re working on when you get in the driveway, your dad now, and you’re, you know.
And that needs to be number one. So really helping coaches navigate the time management of coaching is important.
But they got to know that you’re not going to think any less of them if they’re going home to be with their family.
Right. And you’ll see a big return in your coaches when they have a work life balance.
And, more importantly, they know you have their back.
Greg:
Yeah. John. Sure. Thank you for joining us. Definitely making a difference on campus and in the community, depending on the hat you wear the day, 100%.
But to those of you out there who tune in regularly. Thank you. Please continue to do so. We have some great hosts live, great guests lined up, for making a difference.
This is Greg Chapman.
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