After 15 years, Sedona Red Rock High School will be looking for a new athletic director.

Although he plans to continue in the position until a replacement has been hired and trained, John Parks plans to transition out as SRRHS athletic director before the end of the upcoming athletic year, he said Tuesday, July 12.

“Could be next week, could be two months,” he said. “I just want to make sure the transition is smooth.”

Parks, founder of the Scorpions volleyball program, intends to continue as head volleyball coach and school registrar, with on-campus duties two days a week, he added.

But with Parks’ acceptance of a part-time information technology position with the Sedona-Oak Creek School District, there was no longer the time available to be full-time athletic director as well as pursue other professional development opportunities, he said.

“There’s a lot of 60-hour weeks,” said Parks, who estimated that home athletic events alone took up an extra 300 hours per year. “I have my regular school duties from 7:30 [a.m.] to 3:30 [p.m.] every day that I do. Then the AD job kind of takes over: Some days I’m here until 5; some days I’m here until 11.”

SRRHS had five athletic directors in six years before Parks assumed the role in 2001, with the extra hours being the primary reason for that lack of continuity, he said.

“It’s a $7,000 a year extra-duty contract, before taxes,” he said. “You’re coordinating officials, scorekeepers, clock operators, ticket takers, concession stand people, medical supplies [and] personnel, if needed — all these little things people don’t realize.”

Parks resigned in December of 2013 but returned to the position in May 2014 after interim AD A. Jay Bronson chose not to pursue the position full time.

“If you go to AD meetings, every couple years, 50 percent of the ADs are brand new,” he said. “When I started, it wasn’t as difficult as it is now.

“There’s a lot more regulations. Some of those things I don’t agree with.”

Like the Domicile Rule, among other Arizona Interscholastic Association bylaws concerning student transfers from one school to another.

“I understand why they have them, and they need to be in place,” he said. “But they put these rules in place to try to legislate integrity. I don’t think you can legislate integrity.”

Without a change of domicile, or primary residence, current transfer rules state players cannot resume play in their previous sports for a full year following the date of their transfer — although the AIA is looking at cutting the time to six months, he added.

Although Parks stressed that SRRHS has been mostly immune to such people, coaches who want to recruit high school players, or players who want to go to a particular school, figure out ways to get around those regulations, he said.

“They hire lawyers,” he said. “It unfortunately has caught some kids that weren’t doing that type of stuff, that weren’t moving for athletic reasons. That’s always bothered me.”

Parks also cited Arizona Interscholastic Association rules regarding travel and scheduling as onerous.

“Before I got on the regulatory committee in 2008, our teams were getting home at 2, 3, 4 o’clock in the morning,” he said. “I don’t get much sleep with a bus coming in — I wake up and text [coaches] to see how they’re doing.”

The nature of the job is one that forces an athletic director to make unpopular budget and staffing decisions, Parks said. After 15 years, it became like another child to him.

“I’m going to miss the Friday nights,” he said. “I’ve been a gym junkie for a long time now.

“You try to provide everything you can to everybody you can. Sometimes, everyone doesn’t get everything that want, but most of the time everyone gets what they need.”