April Brooks has turn out to be a well-recognized face within the Jefferson County public faculties, the place she oversees athletics and actions throughout the Louisville, Ky., district. Her visibility is essential to constructing relationships that help her aim of setting excessive, and inclusive, expectations round youth sports activities.
“Once I go into elementary faculties, the youngsters are like, ‘There’s the sports activities girl!’ I adore it. That’s me,” she mentioned.
For elementary college college students to acknowledge any athletic director is uncommon, not to mention one who oversees 52 school-based athletic administrators and a few 10,000 student-athletes. Athletic administrators sometimes work behind the scenes, managing packed competitors schedules, hiring and supporting certified coaches, and making certain video games run easily for student-athletes and spectators alike.
Then once more, Brooks, 43, stands out, even in a sea of athletic administrators wherever. And never only for her tall, athletic presence, honed throughout her days as a celebrated athlete at JCPS within the Nineties, when she captained her highschool observe crew.
Brooks is the primary Black lady to function government director of athletics and actions at JCPS, and she or he works in a career that is still overwhelmingly male. About 80% of the nation’s Ok-12 athletic administrators are male, and 66% are white, in line with current nationwide knowledge.
Brooks’ rent is nice for the career. It’s additionally good for the scholars in her district. “The truth that Dr. Brooks is working in a group she got here up in lets women get to see her not solely as a lady and a pacesetter, which is exclusive and provoking, however in addition they are seeing a lady who got here from the place they got here from. Mechanically, there’s a sure degree of buy-in that comes from having a shared lived expertise that she’s bringing to the desk,” mentioned Daycia McClam, vice chairman of group engagement and advocacy for the Optimistic Teaching Alliance, a nationwide nonprofit that advocates for enhancing youth sports activities.
That visibility is crucial—not incidental—to the targets Brooks has set for the district. These targets embrace protecting the districts’ prime student-athletes in public faculties reasonably than dropping them to better-resourced personal faculties and considerably boosting women’ participation in sports activities.
“I need extra youngsters to have alternatives to do one thing optimistic that offers them a stronger sense of belonging of their college and retains them away from the streets and different damaging issues that might be occurring,” Brooks, a 2026 Chief To Be taught From honoree, mentioned. “So I believe every little thing that I’m making an attempt to do with sports activities coincides with them being higher within the classroom, being leaders within the classroom, and being leaders on the sector.”
Dealing with a post-pandemic sports-participation stoop
Brooks took the helm of Jefferson County’s athletics division throughout the 2021-22 college 12 months, when the district noticed its lowest sports-participation numbers in years. The decline mirrored what was occurring nationally: Highschool sports activities participation dipped 4% between 2018-19 and 2021-22, with a better lower in women’ participation than boys’.
At a December listening to of the Committee on Training and Workforce, U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., a former educator, mentioned 70% of youngsters stop organized sports activities by age 13, calling the development “a lack of some of the efficient instruments we’ve got to fight rising isolation and psychological well being challenges in our youngsters.”
Total participation in highschool sports activities is tough to trace. The numbers fluctuate by state, gender, and particular person sport (as an example, a minimum of 21% fewer women are taking part in highschool basketball now in comparison with 2000, in line with Nationwide Federation of State Excessive College Associations survey knowledge). Over the previous 23 years, highschool sports activities nationwide noticed peak participation in 2011 of 55.1% and a post-pandemic low in 2021 of 49.1%. Restoration has been sluggish and uneven, with the newest knowledge from 2023 displaying 51.9% participation, in line with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
Inequity performed a significant function in post-pandemic declines in highschool sports activities, say consultants. Throughout college closures, student-athletes from higher-income households might proceed coaching by means of personal gyms and golf equipment, Ann Paulls-Neal, the pinnacle coach of ladies’ observe and subject at Highland Excessive College in Albuquerque, N.M., mentioned.
Scholar-athletes from underresourced households didn’t have that very same entry. Many had been additionally accountable for caring for siblings whereas mother and father labored, particularly in districts like JCPS, Brooks mentioned.
In Jefferson County, the place 66% of the district’s greater than 96,000 college students qualify free of charge or reduced-price meals, highschool athletics participation plummeted to six,632 college students in 2021-22, down from 9,607 in 2017-18—a 30% drop. Ladies had been particularly underrepresented, with about 1,500 fewer women than boys taking part in sports activities.
Even after faculties reopened, JCPS continued to confront further obstacles to athletic participation. Personal faculties with turf fields, stadium seating, and trendy amenities drew some prime athletes away. On the similar time, Brooks seen that many ladies who might be taking part merely weren’t.
The decline in women’ sports activities participation isn’t distinctive to JCPS. “We see an enormous drop in sports activities participation amongst women between the ages of 9 and 13,” mentioned McClam.
Many communities lack athletic alternatives for girls-only groups that emphasize improvement. And as women method adolescence, they might turn out to be more and more uncomfortable taking part in on mixed-gender groups, McClam mentioned. Additionally, the rising variety of aggressive journey sports activities groups beginning at ever-younger ages attracts principally prosperous households that may pay for gear and associated charges. The outliers who keep on with sports activities, mentioned McClam, are usually women recognized from a younger age as proficient athletes. And they’re apt to affix groups—and faculties—with the perfect sources.
So Brooks had plenty of work to do to make JCPS a spot the place the perfect student-athletes wished to remain and play for his or her native public college and the place college students underrepresented on the taking part in fields and courts—particularly women—opted to stay with or give highschool sports activities a strive.
Brooks confronted these challenges whereas new to the place and unsure of how receptive her colleagues can be to her. Her background, going again to her childhood, ready her effectively for what lay forward.
Rising up in a sports activities household
Brooks’ method to management is rooted in her upbringing. She comes from an prolonged household of athletes: Her father was a quarterback on the College of Kentucky; an aunt ran observe and subject for a state championship-winning crew in school; and an uncle performed basketball on the College of Louisville earlier than taking part in professionally with the Utah Jazz.
Sports activities had been central to household life. Neighborhood video games of dodgeball and kickball topped Brooks’ fondest childhood reminiscences—and she or he normally held her personal. “My dad would all the time inform all of the neighborhood boys that I used to be the quickest woman and that I might beat all of them,” mentioned Brooks, who admitted to proving him proper. “He taught me and my sister that women might do something that boys might do.”
That confidence carried into highschool, the place Brooks ran observe and cross-country and ultimately captained the observe crew. “Turning into the captain of my highschool observe crew taught me tips on how to get folks to rally round a typical aim,” mentioned Brooks, who went on to run observe on the College of Kentucky.
She realized early to steer by instance—displaying up early, staying late, and doing the work herself. That philosophy nonetheless defines her management type.
“I do each job that I anticipate everyone else to do,” Brooks mentioned. “So you may even see me within the concession stand, you may even see me taking tickets. You may even see me placing numbers on for teenagers and preparing for a relay—wherever I’m wanted.”
Breaking right into a male-dominated subject
Brooks’ profession trajectory ready her for standing out. As a scholar, she was usually one of many solely Black college students in superior educational courses and in cross-country, which stays predominantly white.
“My mother and father all the time taught me that we love everyone, we settle for everyone,” she mentioned.
Brooks’ groundbreaking rent doesn’t appear to have fazed her, nevertheless it resonated throughout the district.
“If you happen to check out the panorama of our athletic administrators within the district, it’s principally white males,” mentioned Robert Moore, the chief of faculties at JCPS. “And now, there’s this sturdy Black feminine stepping in to steer a bunch that hasn’t been led by anybody that appears like her.”
To feminine workers within the district’s athletic division, the rent felt validating. “We thought both the man who was on the center college would simply get promoted or another man, someplace in another division, would get the job,” mentioned Leslie Lintelman, who oversees center college athletics at JCPS.
The district’s choice to rent Brooks got here as considerably of a aid to Lintelman. “It nearly felt like a weight lifted off your shoulders. You felt that empowerment, like, that is any person I can relate to,” she mentioned.
Empowering women by means of sports activities begins early
Certainly one of Brooks’ early priorities was increasing women’ entry to sports activities. Working with Lintelman, she helped launch the district’s first all-girls elementary basketball league, giving women a devoted house to play and construct confidence.
To generate curiosity within the all-girls’ elementary basketball league, Brooks visited many bodily training courses on the district’s elementary faculties. She admits the duty was made simpler by the current reputation of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, Ladies’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation gamers she included in her video shows to elementary college students.
“Now, we’ve got this type of pipeline of little women who’re having fun with the game, after which we’re getting them into their center college groups, after which from their center college groups, they’ll go on to play in highschool,” Brooks mentioned.
Increasing alternatives and listening to college students
Brooks felt good about her efforts to construct a pipeline of feminine athletes from a younger age. However that wouldn’t repair the post-pandemic drop-off of sports activities participation within the district, which had hit women significantly arduous.
“Once I checked out that knowledge, I seen that, after COVID, we actually had a decline in females’ sports activities participation, significantly amongst African American females—we had been hundreds of scholars down,” she mentioned.
Searching for solutions, Brooks requested women within the district: What sport would you wish to play that we’re not providing?
The reply was clear: flag soccer.
Ladies’ flag soccer has surged nationwide previously few years, with 17 states sanctioning it as a highschool sport by the autumn of 2025, in line with NFL FLAG, the official flag soccer league of the NFL, and consultants predict many extra will observe.
With the help of the district’s highschool athletic administrators, Brooks launched a club-level flag soccer program in 2024, with seven women’ groups districtwide. This 12 months, it’s as much as 13 groups of between 20 to 25 athletes per crew, she mentioned, and curiosity continues to develop within the new sport. Among the many 174 feminine college students taking part in within the districtwide flag soccer program, 122 are Black, 26 are white; 26 establish as “different.”
Competing with better-resourced faculties
Brooks additionally confronted facility disparities head-on. Athletic ambassadors—center college college students—surveyed friends who weren’t taking part. Many cited better-funded membership groups exterior the varsity setting as why they selected them over school-based sports activities.
“I used to be trustworthy with our superintendent. I mentioned, ‘I need you to go on the market and take a look at a few of these [private] college amenities,’” Brooks mentioned. “They’ve bought college-like stadiums, new locker rooms, turf fields, bleachers, concession stands.”
The superintendent responded in 2022 with a long-term plan so as to add about 5 turf fields to the district per 12 months. To date, 10 of the fields have been put in. The district additionally invested in two college-level gymnasium flooring that enable it to host tournaments. New indoor and out of doors bleachers are additionally a part of the plan.
Neighborhood help within the type of tax cash has facilitated a few of these modifications, Brooks mentioned. However to generate further funding, Brooks launched an annual Celebration of Champions gala, which acknowledges the district’s athletes. Regardless of early skepticism, Lintelman mentioned, the occasion has raised greater than $100,000 in two years, funding gear, scholarships, uniforms, and facility upgrades.
In one other effort to help districtwide athletics, Brooks has partnered with the College of Louisville to safe sports-administration interns. They achieve beneficial expertise to pad their resumes for future work alternatives, and JCPS will get further help at athletic occasions and for associated behind-the-scenes duties.
‘At all times on name’
Athletics management is a round the clock job, mentioned Brooks, and delegating a minimum of some duties is important..
“We’re continuously on name,” she mentioned—responding to accidents, facility points, or last-minute staffing wants.
“It’s not simply throwing the balls out. It’s ensuring that the refs are there. It’s ensuring that you’ve got an announcer. It’s ensuring that you’ve got ticket takers. It’s ensuring that the youngsters have water,” she mentioned. “I don’t suppose folks understand the time dedication away from their very own households it takes to help student-athletes: the nights, the weekends, when most lecturers and directors are gone, the athletic director continues to be there.”
As of late, attending sporting occasions typically means she’s working. However Brooks brings the identical enthusiasm to athletics that she has since she was somewhat woman, which makes the job enjoyable.
“I’ve realized a lot extra about so many alternative sports activities. I’m at bowling championships, swim championships. How cool is that? I by no means thought I’d be at a bowling championship,” Brooks mentioned. “And I actually suppose what these cheerleaders do is fairly incredible. I’m type of wowed by cheer and dance.”
