FAYETTEVILLE — Barry Gebhart couldn’t avoid the occasional joke, especially in his first few days as Fayetteville’s new athletic director. Apparently, it comes with the job.
As Gebhart tried Saturday night to get the scoreboard inside Fayetteville’s gymnasium to quit going out during a basketball game against Harrison, a spectator remarked that the coach should use his new salary to purchase a better scoreboard.
Gebhart smiled, then offered a good-natured comeback.
It’s best if Fayetteville’s longtime boys basketball coach and newly appointed athletic director has a sense of humor about the situation. After all, Gebhart will attempt over the next few months to win a second consecutive Class 7A state championship and get adjusted to his new duties at the same time.
As hectic as the transition might be, his predecessor believes Fayetteville made the right hire last week.
“An athletic director has got to be a communicator, a fundraiser and a problem-solver, and Barry has shown an ability to do all those things,” said Dick Johnson, who officially resigned as Fayetteville’s longtime athletic director on Sept. 30. “And I think he’s a tremendous choice.”
Even before he stepped down, Johnson said there were discussions of Gebhart someday taking over as Fayetteville’s athletic director. Gebhart was viewed, according to Johnson, as an outgoing, personable coach who knew how to deal with people and look beyond his own basketball program.
“There’s a lot of people that come out of the coaching ranks (that) have a narrow perspective about their sports. Barry has never been like that at all,” Johnson said. “He’s always had a deep interest in all the sports, and I’m sure he’ll maintain that evenness about it. And that’s a huge quality in the selection process.”
Johnson now works as a vice president at Five Star Calendar Company, a producer of sports calendars and schedules for high school teams. But he still keeps in touch with Gebhart and the other Fayetteville coaches he oversaw for so long.
Rather than going ahead and naming Gebhart as Johnson’s replacement in late September, Fayetteville went with the unconventional approach of having each of its coaches serve as an assistant athletic director. That resulted in seven assistant athletic directors and no unified voice for the Bulldogs’ sports department.
For the past three months, each coach/assistant A.D. had been responsible for handling the daily responsibilities associated with his or her respective program. But the arrangement took a toll on the coaches. They didn’t have the time to juggle everything, and they finally met last week with Fayetteville Superintendent Vicki Thomas to express their concerns.
“Working under those circumstances, the best you’re ever going to do is status quo,” Gebhart said last week. “And we didn’t have time to look at and see problems coming down the road because we just didn’t have time to look down the road.”
Gebhart said he had considered the possibility of someday becoming an athletic director. He observed Johnson and saw the model that he had put in place during his long and decorated tenure at Fayetteville. And now that the job is Gebhart’s, he said he has no plans to make any drastic changes.
“I think we’re going to go with what’s in place. We’ve got great people leading our programs. We’ve got great student-athletes, and there’s absolutely nothing that I can see that needs to be addressed immediately,” Gebhart said. “... The ship is not sinking here.”
And the man who was once at the helm of Fayetteville’s athletic department said he agreed with the decision to go with Gebhart instead having seven different assistant athletic directors. One voice is needed, and according to Johnson, the right one was chosen.
ALEX ABRAMS IS A NORTHWEST ARKANSAS NEWSPAPERS SPORTS WRITER. HIS COLUMN APPEARS EACH TUESDAY.