McFarland athletic director Paul Ackley feels a sense of satisfaction when the numerous steps in a high school coaching search come together and a quality candidate who connects with the students, staff and community is vetted and finally hired.
“We always feel blessed if we can get a person who’s in the classroom and in the hallways (of the school), and then on the courts, the fields or the rinks,” Ackley said. “We feel blessed if they can make that connection right away. Then it bodes well, for the most part.”
Getting to that point is a process, from posting the opening on the Wisconsin Education Career Access Network (WECAN) or other internal and external sites, to receiving initial applications to doing interviews and vetting finalists — including checking their coaching and academic credentials and backgrounds.