Gatley begins 10th year overseeing HHS sports

THG/Dan Russoman

Hammonton athletic director Mike Gatley began his tenth year at HHS this summer.

by Dan Russoman

HAMMONTON—A single dollar bill sits in the top drawer of Mike Gatley’s desk.
Hammonton High School’s athletic director, who just began his 10th year at that position, keeps it there as a reminder of how few thought he’d last six months, much less 10 years at the position.
“It’s funny. Around Christmas time my first year, Dave Mauriello, our athletic trainer at the time, gave me a card, and this dollar was inside. It said, ‘Congratulations on making the over/under,’” Gatley said.
Since Jim Donoghue left the position to become Hammonton’s principal in the fall of 1997, HHS had gone through three athletic directors in five years before Gatley took the job in the summer of 2001.
The fact he was even hired came as a surprise to many, including Gatley himself.
“I was a top assistant basketball coach at Albany at the time, and I just happened to be in the area helping run my summer camps. Anyway, I applied for the job, and the day I interviewed, I figured it would just be the standard 10 questions, 10 answers-type thing. I didn’t even have clothes. I borrowed a shirt and pants and told the guys at my camp I’d be back in a hour and a half. Four hours later, I was talking about whether or not I should move back here and take the job,” Gatley said.
He opted to take it, leaving behind a very successful coaching career.
For Gatley, a Linwood native and Mainland Regional High School graduate, the position at Hammonton gave him the opportunity to both return home and settle his family in one place for the first time.
“Being a coach is tough on a family. We moved three times in two years and had two babies. It was tough on my wife and my kids. My daughter went to three schools in two years and had to go through a lot. So, I felt it was the right time to settle in one place,” Gatley said.
That one place turned out to be Hammonton, even if Gatley had a lot to learn about the town and its residents.
“You know, it’s funny. I grew up here, but the only thing I knew about Hammonton was football. Even the day I came for the interview, I drove up Route 40, knowing eventually I could turn and get to Hammonton. But I had to stop and ask for directions because I had no idea where I was going. I really knew nothing about Hammonton. But the interview process was so unique, and I really had the feeling that this was the right place for me,” he said.
Even though he initially had good feelings about the job, at first he questioned the move.
“I remember the first day, I came in and Ron Caputo walked me down to my office. I hadn’t seen it until then, and he opened the door; the lights were out. We turned them on and, man, it was small. I just thought, ‘I came from Albany, where I was the top assistant and had a huge office that looked out over the football field, and now I’m here. Did I make a bad decision?’ Then the tennis coach, Paul Ponter, comes in and tells me he has a problem. There’s bees out in a pipe at the tennis courts, what should he do? So I gave him three dollars and sent him to Wawa for some spray. Later, I called my wife and said, ‘How the mighty have fallen.’ I wondered if I had made a huge mistake. Three weeks ago, I was out recruiting, and now I’m worried about how many hornets are out on the tennis courts,” Gatley said.
But after the rough start, Gatley stayed, and he’s grown into one of the most well-respected athletic directors in the state.
“This was definitely the right move for me. I take this position, and every position I’ve ever had, very seriously. I try to do all I can for the kids. Sometimes the decisions I make aren’t popular, but I can tell you that I’ve never made a decision in 10 years that wasn’t in the best interests of the kids. And I’ll stick by that as long as I’m in this business,” he said.
In his time at Hammonton, Gatley has expanded his role, chairing several coaches’ associations and is currently serving his second team as president of the Cape Atlantic League.
“I’ve really enjoyed some of the opportunities that this job has allowed me, both professionally and personally,” he said.
An athletic director’s job is not an easy one, and Gatley has had little time to reflect on nearly a decade in the position.
“I never thought I’d be here 10 years. I figured six months. The thing is, I’d never been anywhere for 10 years. Coaching, I was always moving to a new job. It’s not like I said, ‘hey, I have to get out of here,’ but in coaching you learn to unpack your bag, but not all of them because you could be moving on soon,” he said.
As athletic director, Gatley oversees all aspects of every Hammonton sports program. His main duties involve scheduling and interacting with the school’s coaching staff.
“It’s hard to think about 10 years, because in this job, you’re always a year ahead, working on the schedules. But that’s the job. You have to be a jack of all trades and sometimes you feel like a master of none. This is a very ‘do whatever you have to do’ type job. People ask me what I do here, and I say, ‘put out fires.’ Basically, whether it’s athletic, academic, a kid calls and said he lost his driver’s ed card. How do I get to Williamstown? It’s just a million things that come through here. And on rain days forget it. On a day it rains, I maybe take 50-60 calls. Rain is the enemy. It affects so many sports. That’s why I hate missing a day. I have to be dead. I always come in. My secretary will tell me, you’re really sick, stay home. But I’ll get more calls at home,” Gatley said.
Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of the job for Gatley has been working with his coaching staff, which he calls, “phenomenal.”
“We have great coaches here. One of my goals when I took this job was for us to be competitive across the board. We have sports that have traditionally been strong, but I wanted us to raise our level in every sport. It isn’t only about winning, it’s about competing. I want us to be known in every sport as a team that can compete. And that’s everywhere, in practice, in the weight room, on the field. And the key to that is coaching. If you put the right coach in, you’ll be competitive. I feel that we’ve gone out and gotten the best people we could in the district to work with our kids. I tell every coach, ‘teach the kids the fundamentals, hold them to high expectations on and off the field, and treat them appropriately.’ I think we do that. There’s no substitute for hard work. If we win, we win. I’m an overseer. I can give them my philosophies, but it comes down to them” Gatley said.
While working in Hammonton has been rewarding for Gatley, the most enjoyable part of the job comes from being close enough to home.
“That’s the only thing I’d change. I’d be closer. Right now, it’s a 40-45 ride here. The one thing I’d love to be able to do is go home for lunch. If I could see my family a little more, it’d be great. That’s the only negative I could ever find here. But that’s a personal thing. But I’m thankful, because this job has allowed me to spend time with my family that I never would have had coaching. I’ve had the chance to coach my own kids and be with my family,” he said.
As for the future, Gatley plans on remaining in Hammonton as long as he can.
“You try to put it in perspective. People say, ‘10 years, that’s great. I’ve been here 25.’ And I’d like to be able to say that. The irony is, as a coach, I was always looking for that next job, to climb that ladder. Now I’m here, in one place, and the best thing I could have done,” he said.