In January, OHS athletic director Becky Czuppon was named St. Louis District Athletic Director of the Year.
Czuppon has been working at OHS for 25 years, with this being her 19th year as the activity director. She was nominated for this award by other activity directors in the St. Louis area in the fall. Knowing some of the previous winners and being nominated by her peers makes this honor very meaningful.
“I mean, I’m proud to be known with some of the people that have gotten this because they are also people that I would respect,” Czuppon said. “I mean, it makes you proud to know that other people respect your efforts and your comments and your your philosophy on how you run because athletic directors are kind of these other people in all buildings and we know each other, but nobody else knows who we are. And for when you go to somebody else’s gym, ultimately you go to their house [and] you see how they clean their kitchen, and it’s nice to be respected for that.”
Every April, there is a conference held for all activity directors in the state at the Lake of the Ozarks that includes training and classes, as well as a banquet that recognizes the Athletic Directors of the Year. Even though she will be celebrated on the big stage, she also got a little personalized celebration of her own inside of the school.
“[We celebrated this honor with] cupcakes and cakes and she has a ton of balloons,” administrative assistant Michelle McCollum said. “We put her name on the marquee. We announced it around the school. She doesn’t know it yet, but we’re going to announce it during the basketball game for the boys and we’re going to get her a little plaque.”
Many people may assume that Czuppon only manages sport and club activities, but that is just the basics of what she does for the school.
“She does a lot of stuff that people probably don’t realize she does — everything from transportation, to scheduling, to referees, to ordering each team certain things that they need,” McCollum said. “She makes sure everyone has them. Not everybody sees that, but everything just somehow gets done and she just facilitates all of that.”
Working for as many years as Czuppon has can have its ups and downs, but there are little moments that make her job feel so special.“I’ve been able to see kids succeed, and to be honest, kids that come back that I am still friends with now years later that I’ve made an impact in their life whether it was coaching or they were on those state champion teams or those state run teams because you get to spend more time in a different setting,” Czuppon said. “Whether it’s on the sideline of the field or whether it’s at the gym getting ready and doing the PR and the stuff that goes along with those journey, I’m friends with a lot of people still, and so I think that’s really kind of the coolest part: the people I’ve met, families I’ve met, families that have multiple kids, you know. They don’t just have two kids, they’ve got five kids or six kids and we do have families like that here, and seeing their first kid through and now seeing their last kid through, I’ve met a lot of really amazing people here.”
