ROCSD hires Podliska for activities director

The Red Oak Community School District hired a new activities director for the upcoming school year. The job title may be new, but the person accepting the position has been with the Red Oak schools for eight years.
Tiegen Podliska has worn many hats throughout his time with the district and is looking forward to the new challenge.
“The way we have it worked out, Nate [Perrien] will evaluate the winter coaches,” Podliska said. “So that way it won’t affect wrestling season. I will still coach wrestling.
“I will have the day-to-day stuff; making sure the officials are lined up, and the courts are ready, but I will have the school day to get that done.
“I dealt with all the discipline at the middle school last year, and did not teach. This year, I will do activities director and then I will help around the alternative program. For a couple hours a day I will have some of the alternative kids come in and work with them on their curriculum and their needs to get their credits made up.”
Using his experiences from the past years as a coach, Podliska knows that he will need to figure out what works best for the kids and the community, and looks forward to getting the input from the other coaches and sponsors to know what has worked and what they are willing to change to make the Red Oak programs even stronger.
“I don’t want to be a dictator and say this is what we are going to do,” Podliska said. “I want to say here are some things you might want to be willing to try.
“I feel like I have some good ideas, and I’m willing to see when others have good ideas and I will encompass those.”
Leadership is key and Podliska is ready for the challenge.

“I like being busy all the time; it keeps you on the correct path,” Podliska said. “In college I went to wrestling, class, a job. It was a busy schedule, but it was a schedule. It kept me focused. If you are not involved, it’s easier to have an excuse. To me, a busy kid in the middle school/high school age is a good thing.
Podliska himself was in musicals, vocal groups, and sports in high school, and is aware of the benefits of multi-activities at this level.
Building relationships is the most important thing between a coach or sponsor and the kids, and Podliska expects to build those relationships and develop the programs with the same enthusiasm and grit he has used to expand the wrestling program here in Red Oak.
“I’ve never had the same two semesters the time I was here,” Podliska said. “I’m looking forward to this. If you’re not growing, you’re dying, so keep growing.”
Podliska hopes to unify the programs offered at Red Oak, and felt like Nate Perrien and Mark Erickson were great teammates to work with last year in the administrative positions they each held. He expects that team to get stronger this year.
“That’s the thing we preach; you put the time in and you commit to the process and you see the rewards. That’s the feel-good story, and we are excited to keep making those stories and having those stories from the other programs. Everyone loves a feel good story.
“If you have good teammates, then you have a good team and you get things accomplished.”