Archive: Around Town

Steve ColtWhen you pass the Lansing Ball Fields in the summer months they are filled with active children and parents playing baseball, T-ball, football, and soccer, among other sports.  But this is just the tip of the iceberg.  The Lansing Recreation Department also offers art and drama, enormously successful karate and skiing programs, as well as programs for adults like swimming, yoga and cardio step class.

With offerings as diverse as this you would think that Recreation Director Steve Colt has an enormous staff and unlimited budget.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Like a magician pulling doves and rabbits out of his hat, Colt works with parents and others in the community to come up with these diverse programs that cater to just about any interest Lansing residents might have.  Funded partly by the Town, partly by United Way money provided by the Lansing Community Council, and partly by program fees, Lansing's recreation program is something any large community would be proud to have.

Colt is always tweaking the program and experimenting.  He expected a modest turnout for karate, but the program is about double the predicted size, and is currently offering its fifth session.  Other programs don't work as well.  But Colt says he listens to what the community wants, then gives it a try.  In part 2 of our exclusive interview, we talked about the recreation program and how he makes it work.

Lansing Star: In the sports the Recreation Department offers there is a real connection to what the athletic department in the schools are doing.  Was your going to that school something that made you do that or would it have been just something you do?

Steve Colt: It would have been just something you would do.  I mean, when you think of recreation you naturally think of basic and individual team sports first.  That's what normal people think of.  But it's so much more than that, or it's grown to be so much more than that.

Even though it started out as that, and those are still the staples of your program,  I think what we strive to do is keep diversified and try different things from our theater programsto the music program, day camps, art.  This past year we went with summer science and math programs and foreign languages.  Each of those has been received very well.


Also we try to mix in lifetime activities such as the ski program that is so big here.  That's a great thing because not all of the kids or the adults in the community are interested in the basic sports.  And that's fine because there is so much more to do.

When it is all said and done, it is probably all of the other different diversified activities that are going to entertain people for the predominant part of their lives, moreso than team sports.

There is a small window of time that you can play those and enjoy and be competitive but after a very short amount of time you turn into a spectator and that's how it is.

Spectating is okay, but it is still a lot better when you can get out there and do something.  And something may be anything from photography to bird watching to skiing to adult pickup basketball or softball.  Whatever you like to do but it's still staying active and fun things you're interested in.

LS: Is that kind of diversity typical of other rec departments?

SC: Well, I'm sure it is in bigger places than we are.  You go to Cortland or Ithaca or places much bigger, and it certainly is.  Places that are our size -- I think we are very, very fortunate.  I feel thankful every day I come to work that in this town, the town boards that I have worked for, the supervisors, and all of the people in the community have felt that this is important enough to basically buy into and make it everything that it is today.

I can't say enough how much the community has made us what we are.  It's not me.  I like to think I play just a small part in it.  I think it is all of the supporting people and the other people in this office Maureen Muggeo, Patrick Tyrrell, and other people who have worked for me.  My longtime assistant who recently passed away, Beverly French.  They were huge parts that they all played.

LS:  Do you think living here all of your life kind of helped to get the response from the community?

SC:  Yeah, in a small town to get the response from the community, I think there is no substitute for being connected to the fabric of the town so that you know how all the pieces fit together, you know who all the players are, hopefully you have established some decent relationships over the years, and I can't stress how important that it.  

I can't imagine doing this job coming into a town where I didn't know anybody, and then trying to infuse a lot of these things into the town or into the program and being an unknown entity.

It could be done, but boy, it would take so much longer.  I find that over the years I have a lot of patience but I like to see things happen now.  If we get an idea or a program that we want to do, let's try it right now, let's not wait too long to try it.  

That's the fun part, trying things.  And they may not always work, luckily most of ours have but that's the fun part getting new things and giving them a go.


LS:  There is a kind of hit or miss quality to some of it.  I know that karate was a surprise hit.

SC: You and your family were there from the get-go, and even though it was something I kicked around for three to five years prior to finding the right people to do it, trying to find the right place and the right participants to take it, when it finally came together, it just exploded.

What I've found over the last say four to six years on the job is that we're starting to compete against ourselves.  Even though the census in town, I guess, has gone up some, the enrollment in school has not really gone up.  The current (school population) is actually going in the other direction.

The problem now is we don't want to give up anything we started.  In the old days, or years ago, we had half of the offerings and when we offered something we were buried with people because there was so much less to do.

Now, we are competing against ourselves.  We have probably over 50 offerings during our calendar year.  There are other players on the scene now that are also in town, The RINK and The FIELD now.

There are certain segments of some of the team sports -- specifically soccer and hockey -- that have created their own item even though it's a little bit more of a specific privatized thing.

There is a heck of a lot more choices out there now so consequently, one of our concerns now is when we do try to establish a new program is that we get not only interest but do they really have time in their schedules to pull this off.

LS: Isn't that part of it though?  I have thought that this department is remarkably flexible in the terms that it offers, but isn't letting programs go also a part of that flexibility? You know, to match whatever the now community wants?

SC: Obviously we don't have everything we have always had.  We have had some things that would be neat to offer again, but you offer it when it's hot and when you've got the people to teach it or instruct it, and, obviously, the participants.  

But stuff comes and goes.  The longer you're in anything you see that cycle.  You are going to have a lot of choices and new ideas and you go through periods where there is not.  You also go through periods where you have some unbelievable quality help and lots of it.  There may be years when you want to try to do the same thing and you look around and sometimes there isn't the quantity of help that you had hoped to have.  You're always trying to make adjustments to make everything work as best you can.

LS: What would you say the current top programs are?

SC: Things get hot as the seasons change.  Some of our biggest team sports have been popular and remain very well attended and are always of interest.  The only way the participation numbers get whittled down is again if there is a concurrent program that is going on that they want to do a little more.

For example, our youth basketball program.  One, it's very difficult here because the town is so active and the school system is so active, and our gym space is so limited it's hard to get quality and quantity of gym time to run the things we like to do indoors.  Those are good problems, I guess, because there is so much activity.

But at the same time, you are also balancing again karate, the ski program, indoor soccer, swimming... there are a lot of things not to mention drama, plays.  There is just a lot going on.

All in all, the big picture is that's great.  Whether kids do our program or the school musical chorus thing the bottom line is they are doing something.  That's the main thing.  Whatever they choose to do they are going to do it because they choose to do it.  That's a great reason and if it is one of our particular programs that's great, if not, that's great too because they are active.  In the big picture, they are all of our kids in the community or younger adults or adults.  As long as you are doing something in town in our community how are we not getting better?

LS: That brings up an issue.  Lansing is a growing community but it's not really high crime community.  Do you see the department as having a role in that?  You know they say 'busy hands...'

SC: Well, I guess that's an old adage, and I guess it wouldn't be a saying if there wasn't some truth to it.  I like to think so.  I like to think how much crime are you going to get into at a really young level.  However at the young level a student may decide if they really like something and are passionate about a certain sport or activity, and later on in life when there might be some negative choices to make that doesn't come into play because this activity or this sport they got turned on to when they were younger now all of a sudden takes up a lot of their time because they are trying to become the best at it that they can be.  There isn't time for other negative things, so if that played a part we are certainly glad for that.

LS: I wanted to go back to something I asked and then got side tracked.  There is a kind of philosophy of playing and strategy that's used on the varsity level but that it starts at the Rec department.  There are two separate programs but you are also able to get people like Adam Heck, who is a varsity coach in three different sports, but also comes here.

SC: Yes, we are extremely lucky for the relationship we have with the schools in general.  We're also very lucky for the relationships we have with the athletic department, and we are also very lucky that the coaches in Lansing at the varsity and JV level are top-notch coaches and usually are coaches of stand-out teams in the region.

Now with that all said, they understand and are willing to put the time in at the youth level.  Not that we are trying to create a machine, and not that we are just in business to create winning teams for school later.  

Our function and our real goal is to get kids out and participate in different things and enjoy it and have fun doing it.  You know that if they enjoy doing something and it is fun then as a byproduct they are going to do it more often and that will equal a greater skill and success down the road.

But also, for Lansing varsity coaches to play a part in the way they do at our youth level is really saying something because they are in a lot of places where people are still willing to do that.  Just about every one of our varsity coaches in one way or another reaches back down and either helps add to our system, actually plays a key role in running our program, volunteers to run a camp to help the kids in a little more detail, or helps in a parent-coach meeting to help our coaches become more comfortable with a system that is very easy for our kids to learn.

It just happens to be part of the big system they used on the road so there is a familiarity as the kids roll forward and get up there.  This is not the first time they see it when they get to the JV or varsity level.  

That pays off and they know it.  Even though those coaches are great and they absolutely deserve all of the credit for getting the kids to the high levels they are, they are also quick to say outwardly that this does play a part.


LS: It is almost a theme in this department getting the older kids involved with the younger kids.  The younger kids really seem to respond to that.

SC: Yes, we run several clinics throughout the year in different activities whereby at this point just about all of the varsity players or even jv players all started right here when they were K, pre-K, first grade and second grade.  

The really neat thing is they've gone through our entire system, they have gone through the whole scholastic system, and currently a junior or senior and they come back and help run clinics, camps, activities for the kids that are now kindergarten, first, second, third grade and so on.

It's a loop that cycles around that that is really neat when that happens.  Even some now that were in the upper end when we first started here are now actually parents that have kids that are just now entering things, so it has really gone around the loop.

LS: On that's all on your watch?

SC: It really is now because I'm getting old and I've been here awhile.  That is starting to happen a little bit.

LS: So that brings up the obvious thought that this is the kind of job that consume a person and the kind of thing that makes your wife mad and say, 'I never see you.'  So how do you balance that?

SC: What makes it doable comes right back to what I said before: having great people who work in this office and also having the great parent volunteers and just volunteers in general who help out with this kind of thing.  And good employees when the summer programs come, the part-timers.  It's all part of the package.  It is by no means a one, two, or three person show.  Absolutely the farthest thing from that.

It is a whole package where everything has to work.  We found you can do just about anything you want here, or try just about anything here and be successful if you can get all of those pieces together and form the whole package.

LS: What is your favorite part of the rec side?

SC: I think, again, networking with the people that are doing these things and seeing the programs come together.  In other words working with the people who actually do the programs and the logistics of things in getting the enjoyment of seeing those people that volunteer or those people who are your part-time employees to see in them get the enjoyment or get the success out of working with the kids.  That's the part I really like.

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In Part 3 Colt talks about the Lansing parks and programs and improvements in them.

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