Connecting South Bend athletics drives Milt Lee's 1st year as community athletic director

SOUTH BEND — The surface of the white board hanging on the wall inside Milt Lee's office is covered in scribbles and notes, some legible, others not so much.

The one in the top right corner is clear as day and something that catches the eye. Lee, the South Bend Community School Corporation Director of Community Activities and K-12 athletics has designed a future plan for a summer workout competition between South Bend high schools.

Interesting. Fun. A way to build competition and progress within each school. More so than anything, it speaks to Lee's bigger picture of his vision for South Bend school athletics.

Lee's been on the job now going on 16 months, beginning in April 2021, hitting the ground running in the midst of ongoing pandemic with the goal of building better connection throughout the district.

Not just within each program, or school. But across school boarders, and into different levels, from middle school to high school. That, Lee says, is his pathway to get South Bend schools on the road of consistent success.

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"I spend so much of my time building things that will be sustainable," Lee told The Tribune. "We are intentional about building things our students can count on, so kids can see a clear path from one level to the next."

In Lee's eyes that hasn't always been the case in this area. Lee is, though fresh in his new role, is a veteran in South Bend athletics, having coached at La Salle middle school for various sports over 14 years. He witnessed the disconnect firsthand between the middle schools and the district, as well as the middle schools with the high school programs.

"It felt like you might see a coach and the district athletic director at a championship game," Lee said. "That is it."

It was something Lee looked to change right away, and knew it could be changed based off an early interaction with Superintendent Todd Cummings.

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While making his presence felt throughout the area, Lee said he ran into Cummings at a local basketball event. When they began talking about various topics, Lee realized their visions were already aligned, and how pushing his message of district connectivity would be a lot easier.

"I was pleasantly surprised by all of the people at the district office at how committed they were to creating a winning environment around athletics,"  Lee said. "That's when I felt like we could have some cool success right away."

In his first full athletic calendar Lee oversaw a year of unprecedented success, headlined by South Bend Washington girls basketball's 3A state championship. But there was also South Bend Riley boys hockey's state championship appearance, South Bend Adams baseball's second consecutive sectional title and Clay boys basketball's first playoff win in almost a decade, amongst other achievements.

At the high school level, Lee simply being more present has made a difference.

"The fact he is paying attention, that is so underrated," South Bend Washington girls basketball coach Steve Reynolds said.  "This impacts my entire family. To know that someone is trying to move this thing in the right direction. It is going to take a ton of work and I can feel he is going to dig in, push in the right direction and see this thing through. I don't underestimate simply just knowing that someone is paying attention."

Beyond that, Lee has challenged high school coaches to think just outside of their program, or their school and do more things aligned with his goal of connecting the community. How does that look?

"We desperately needed a winning culture and a level of expectation that we would work hard for the kids," Lee said. "It was just a matter that we would keep hammering at that message."

Lee has put a lot of emphasis on South Bend's middle schools, knowing they are the key to sustained success in participation and in results.

After spending all of last year auditing practices himself, Lee has transferred that power to the students, allowing incoming high school freshman, as well as high school coaches, to evaluate middle school coaches.

The goal was to make sure every kid was fully engaged ever minute with a plan in practice intended to build a winning a culture for the kids. And the result, Lee said, has seen an explosion in certain sports, like volleyball, basketball and wrestling.

"Milt came in and wants to grow the opportunities for middle school students because they are the future of our high schools," said Jefferson Athletic Director Jessica Dooley. "He is very intent on growing middle school interest in athletics so we have a future in high school athletics."

Initiatives like a middle school girls basketball league, with an all-league team this past offseason has not only benefited the middle school programs, but also connected those student-athletes with high school players and coaches.

Dooley said there has also been talks of a future boys volleyball league, more all-league games and even playing other programs outside of South Bend schools to take advantage of every opportunity on the table.

"South bend has a huge opportunity to be great in athletics," Dooley said. "Milt has taken the steps of growing the middle schools so we have a future of high school athletics at South bend schools."

That's the type of enthusiasm many coaches in the area felt the South Bend School Corporation was missing.

Now, heading into his second full academic calendar, Lee believes he, and South Bend schools are on the right path, with the right mindset pertaining to athletic success.

Still, a new year brings new challenges.

One objective Lee is targeting is to keep more South Bend student-athletes at South Bend schools. Lee said by eliminating the gray area of who can get to what schools, more relationships are being built between student-athletes and high school coaches.

”Now coaches know which schools are your athletic feeders, when you can have conversations and what conversations you can have," Lee said.

There is also the looming question of Clay High School's future, and Lee has been following that with an athletic lens. For the record, Lee said he doesn't see Clay not being a part of South Bend schools.

"We plan on their being a Clay in some form and having athletics at that school," Lee said. "Whether that is a focus on Olympic-type sports, or who knows. But I am obviously keeping an eye on it. We've got to grow our participation there and we're really working hard to make sure our coaches are communicating across sports and encouraging multi-sport athletes, which will hopefully increase numbers."

Lee knows these new challenges will be a process and not something solved overnight. The same with every aspect of South Bend school athletics he has had a hand in changing.

So, Lee will go back to the white board — planning, creating and embracing every aspect of his role.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend high school sports changing after Milt Lee's 1st year