Sarasota (Fla.) High School boys' basketball coach BJ Ivey hopes to create college-style programs at the school now that he's also serving as its athletic director.
As reported by Your Observer, Ivey's stint as director of basketball operations at Florida Gulf Coast University in 2019-20 taught him a lot about how to run a school's athletic department.
Ivey, who took the school's boys' basketball job in 2022, accepted the athletic director position without hesitation Dec. 8.
"One example of a change Ivey wants to see: He wants the school to hire an experienced sports information director to handle the department's social media accounts — not just creating text posts, but making the content top-notch across the board, whether that means infographics, video clips or other means of communication," Ryan Kohn wrote for Your Observer. "Ivey also wants to raise funds to improve the school's facilities and equipment.
"The goal of it all, Ivey said, is to create the best environment possible for the school's athletes to succeed. College-style programs tend to get the best out of the kids in them."
"For me, it has always been about having a positive impact," Ivey said. "We are trying to build what we call a championship culture (with the basketball team). We're going to extend that into an entire department."
Ivey will continue to coach boys' basketball, a program he has led to a 32-8 overall record since taking the job. Those 32 wins are more than the program had in the previous four seasons combined (31), Kohn reported.
