Esther Short
Park Concert
Acclaimed musician
to conduct Vancouver
Symphony Orchestra
Class and Gender
Oppression
Our Opinionated Judge
reviews ‘The Tenth Muse’at
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
See Arts & Entertainment, page 10
VolumeXLIII
‘City 0/Roses’
Number 34
UÚ
See Metro, page 9
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vwwv.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • September 4. 2013
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Shaking Up Sports
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photo by
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D onovan M. S mith /T he P ortland O bserver
Marshall Haskins is excited about his new post as athletic director for Portland Public Schools. Less than a month into the position, Haskins has already proposed
several ideas to raise the profile for a successful sports program that advances education as well.
Haskins looks to re-energize school programs
by D onovan
M. S mith
T he P ortland O bserver
Portland Public Schools recently named community fix­
ture Marshall Haskins the new athletic director of the district
and he has already come through the door shaking things up.
Less than a month into his post he put forth some radical
proposals that however unofficial and unlikely to be put into
play, create the thing Haskins desires most at the moment;
dialogue.
The proposals that aren’t going to be implemented? No
sports at Benson High School; and Jefferson and Roosevelt
teams merging. Those were just a few of the ideas that put the
new athletic director on the hot seat when they became public
last week.
Haskins, 50, says the ideas were only mentioned to raise
the profile of sports in Portland’s schools while also increas­
ing the educational successes of local students.
Tuesday, he told the Portland Observer that the proposals
were never intended to be pursued.
“Part of my job is to open the conversation about what
we can do to improve,” he said.
Working to raise the visibility of athletics in the city,
Haskins is hoping to create a mutual and positive relation­
ship between sports and education. .
“There are skills that kids learn in athletics that are just as
valuable as what they learn in a classroom if Hot more,”
Haskins says.
Haskins recently succeeded Greg Ross as athletic director
continued
on page 4