MIDDLETOWN — Nobody promised Geri Giovannetti a rose garden back in 1984 when she made her first tour of Middletown High School”s athletic facilities directed by then-principal Jerry Hart. But you couldn”t fault her for expecting something a little more substantial.
“This,” Hart told Giovannetti, gesturing toward four walls with no roof and a few stray girders, “is going to be the gym.
“And this,” he added, as he led Giovannetti through an expanse of mud and dirt, “is our football field.”
The size of the student body was not too impressive either, numbering only 260 students in middle school and high school.
Twenty-six years later — the last 16 as Middletown High”s athletic eirector — Giovannetti will retire from the sports program she shepherded to a respectable — indeed admirable — level. She will be replaced — if she truly can be replaced — by Thad Owens, who previously was head football coach at Kelseyville.
“I do not go out in a blaze of glory,” said Giovannetti, who is stepping down at the end of the school year. “I just wanted to make it a better place for athletics, for kids and coaches and to have representation (at league level) and not miss out on things because we weren”t doing things in the right way.”
But Giovannetti”s departure will not be as inauspicious as she might think — or hope — it will be. She will be missed. Not just at Middletown, but in the entire spectrum of Northern California high school athletics … perhaps by no one more than Mustang football coach Bill Foltmer, who down through the years has been a soulmate of this energetic, efficient and lovable administrator. Foltmer calls her “one of the best athletic directors in the state.” Her 2003 award as the state”s Athletic Director of the Year supports Foltmer”s assessment.
“I personally feel all she does won”t be realized until after she is gone,” Foltmer wrote in a statement regarding Giovannetti”s retirement. “I will truly miss her and am thankful for what she has done for me and the entire athletic program here at MHS.”
Foltmer”s assessment is only one of the numerous accolades generated by Giovannetti”s imminent departure. Certainly there are many more than print space will allow.
“To be honest, I don”t know how we”re going to replace her,” said North Coast Section Commissioner Gil Lemmon. “She serves on our biggest committees and in addition she has been very involved in discussing issues with other athletic directors and is a very respected individual.”
Also weighing in on Giovannetti”s departure are …
? Former MHS principal Chris Heller: “She”s done things by the book. She is efficient and has done great things for Middletown athletics and the North Coast Section, especially when looking at it from a small school perspective. She”s also made sure that girls got a fair shake in sports.”
? Hart, now-retired principal who departed MHS in 1988: “She”s a good girl — honest, hard working, fantastic — and she loves kids.”
? Kim Hicks, in her second year as president of the MHS booster club: “When Geri leaves she”ll be incredibly missed. No one person will ever replace her because she gave life to the kids. She did everything she possibly could to help us and those kids.”
Perhaps Giovannetti”s superb oversight of athletics stems from the fact that she never forgot what it”s like to be a kid. Out of loyalty, she wears purple fingernail polish. Some say that her Italian-American blood is Mustang purple. Although she will join her brother in Cloverdale — where she grew up — in retirement, she said she”ll be on the sidelines rooting for Middletown.
In the beginning, she was reluctant to become the Middletown athletic director, applying for it only after a discussion with Foltmer regarding the need for representation in the labyrinth of schools in the North Coast Section.
“I don”t know that anyone else wanted it,” she said. “I think I got it by attrition. The guy who was doing the job just got it thrown in his lap. He handed me a box of outdated materials.”
But once she accepted the position, she worked arduously at learning how to do it right.
“My goal? I just wanted to make Middletown a better place for kids and coaches and to have representation.”
She knew from experience as a volleyball coach that coaches weren”t getting the support they needed.
“When I was a coach I never had the backing of the AD. I had to set up my own volleyball court. I had to worry about whether we had everything we needed and all that,” Giovannetti said. “I swore if I ever became AD I wouldn”t let that happen to my coaches.”
And it hasn”t. Under her administration, concerns over setting up venues for competition have been readied down to the last detail, such as having paramedics present.
“She has worked hard to make the Middletown athletic program one that our student body and community can be proud of,” Foltmer said. “She fights to keep sports funded and to make everyone aware how important extra-curricular activities are to a good school. She has dedicated herself to the idea that our athletes are not only champions on the field but in the classroom as well.”
Above all this, Giovannetti has run a tight ship. There has never been a question about who”s in charge.
“I know I”ve had coaches complain about me because I get on their case for one reason or another,” she said. “Bottom line is if you run your program well I don”t have to get on you and we don”t have an issue.”
She has wearied of parents “who complain about piddly things.”
“Parents need to realize their son or daughter is alive and well and be happy for them.”
Said Foltmer: “Her rough demeanor keeps everyone on their toes. She demands that our athletes and our coaches represent our school and community well or they will hear from her and in some cases won”t be around long.
“But those of us who know her well also know that there”s a caring, emotional side of her that a lot of people don”t see.”
The part of Giovannetti that outsiders may not see is how she has leveled the playing field for small schools such as Middletown by successfully campaigning for parity league-wise by dividing schools according to the size of enrollment.
“I feel that I”m an advocate for small schools,” she says. “We”ve had to stand together to keep them from forgetting about us. Not Middletown specifically, but sometimes they tended to overlook the small schools up here in the north.”
She affected change by questioning the fairness of not having championships at smaller division levels, forcing the smaller schools to compete against schools three or four times as large.
“So we”ve seen a lot of those kind of changes,” she said.
To comprehend the effects of Giovanetti”s advocacy, one needs to step outside Middletown or even Lake County for a moment.
“She has been on our sports advisory committee for as many years as I”ve been commissioner,” Lemmon said. “She has also been a member of our board of managers, which is the highest-ranking body in our section. These two committees probably deal with 90 percent of our business making all sports rulings. She has been in just about every aspect of governance for the past 15 years.
“In addition to that, just last year she was asked to be on the executive committee which is a very small group of 12 individuals. The executive committee is my boss and oversees the responsibility of the divisions.”
Giovannetti will depart without rancor.
“I”ll be 60 in December and I”m retiring,” she said. “The plan has always been to retire and go back home. I”m going to have my own place and I”m going to travel. I want to see the U.S. in my brother”s six-wheel trailer. Somebody said what are you going to do in retirement? I said, ?Are you kidding? I”m gonna have a life.”
“But I”ll miss the kids.”
