After 30-plus years of volunteer work in coordinating
the Xavier Paint Crew, Mike Bates has hung up his painting clothes for the last time.
Bates, who is the Information Director for the
Wisconsin Athletic Directors Association, donated numerous supplies and countless hours each year
for Xavier Athletics --
painting the football game field and the practice fields, plus helping maintain the athletic facility
and many other tasks at Xavier... starting back in
the early 1970's.
However, he was chosen from 4 candidates in June to
create a new web site portal for the WADA, and the time demands of that additional
work load for him means he no longer will be able to be a part of the Paint Crew.
For each football season, Paint Crew work for Bates often easily totaled 30-40
hours weekly, usually starting in June, to get things ready for when other volunteers arrived.
In previous years, Bates was able to work his "real world
job" around his volunteer involvement at the X. It is expected that
designing the new web site for the WADA will add many hours per week... well into the
XHS football season.
His wife, Kathy, is the athletic director at Xavier.
Their son, Adam, graduated from Xavier in the Class of 2009, and he will attend
the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities -- majoring in Sports Management and
Coaching / Education.
In addition to his work with the Paint Crew, Mike also was an
assistant football coach at Xavier for almost 20 years... in the 70's and
80's. His brother, Peter, has been the Voice of the Hawks for years, and he was
one of the original members of the Paint Crew. Mike,
who maintains most of the content on XavierHawks.com, still plans to volunteer in a
limited basis at Xavier.
|
