A diverse professional career that has included leadership positions in the Navy, law enforcement, government, business and sports has led to a new challenge for David Baylor.
As new executive director of the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association, Baylor will have to tackle a myriad of tasks impacting student-athletes, coaches, teams, schools and administrators while under the discerning watch of the state government.
The hiring of Baylor, 63, was approved in a unanimous vote Tuesday by the DIAA board of directors. He’ll take over July 17.
“One of the things I learned in the military, in the state police, and then in the other jobs that I’ve had is that leadership is the catalyst to success,” Baylor said Friday. “If you have good leaders who trust their people, who allow their people to make decisions and not micromanage, you’re going to be successful.
“That’s one of the things I bring to the table here. The other thing is that in this state, particularly because of the size, it’s relationships that count.”
Baylor replaces Donna Polk, dismissed as DIAA executive director March 22 after three years in that role. The Delaware Department of Education, which oversees the DIAA, did not provide a reason for the change.
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The DIAA governs middle school and high school sports in Delaware and conducts its state high school championship events.
Baylor is presently chairman of the DIAA sportsmanship committee, created in 2017 to investigate and adjudicate sportsmanship issues such as the January episode in which a Howard High basketball player punched a referee. That role gave him an inside look at the DIAA’s inner workings and piqued his interest in pursuing the executive director opening.
“It’s very important for someone in this position, now me, to have diverse relationships with the athletic directors, the coaches, the superintendents and their principals, that I can pick up the phone and call them and they can pick up the phone and call me and things aren’t simmering out there,” Baylor said.
“It’s about results. People are looking for results. They’re looking for action. And I think that’s the biggest thing right now from what I’ve heard is that people felt that things became a little stagnant, and things weren’t being done in a timely fashion, and there were communication breakdowns.”
A leader from outside high school education
Baylor does represent somewhat of a course change for the DIAA.
Previous executive directors Polk, Tom Neubauer, Kevin Charles and Jack Holloway had extensive careers in secondary education and high school sports. The exception was Gary Cimaglia, who had coached at Newark Charter but was senior director of sports for Special Olympics Delaware when hired as DIAA executive director in the summer of 2019. He resigned that fall.
“I respect and admire all educators because, quite frankly, that’s how I got where I am,” said Baylor, who earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Wilmington University in 1997 and a master’s degree from the University of Phoenix in 2002. “I also think that when you get to positions like executive directors of anything, it comes down to leadership, organization and communication.”
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Neubauer, who has known Baylor since the mid-1980s, said he’ll have “a learning curve” when it comes to becoming more knowledgeable about DIAA and National Federation of State High School Associations regulations. But Neubauer, who was among those who suggested Baylor apply for the job, felt he was the perfect choice.
“The overall skills, the leadership, the dealing with people, more and more now the dealing with politics . . .,” Neubauer said. “He just has an outstanding record and resume of athletics in the state of Delaware and in service to the people of Delaware and he does bring a unique skill set to the position.”
Baylor is a 1978 Saint Mark’s High graduate who enlisted and served in the U.S. Navy, where he was a Naval Command investigator and Narcotics Detection K-9 handler. He joined the Delaware State Police in 1982 and served 23 years, including stints on the protection detail for governors, director of public information and Troop 9 commander. He then worked as Director of Human Resources and Training at NKS Distributors before becoming Delaware City police chief in 2014. He presently functions as Delaware City’s town manager.
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In addition to his DIAA sportsmanship oversight, Baylor has also served other functions involving school sports. He was player development coach for the University of Delaware football team for 11 years through 2016 and ended up working with other Blue Hen squads. He had frequent associations with DIAA personnel because of events conducted at UD facilities and sought to become more involved in athletic administration.
“That really opened my world to athletics from a different perspective,” Baylor said. “You’re able to have that direct involvement, both from how athletic administration runs to dealing with the coaches and dealing with athletes. It really helps frame your interest in athletics.”
During that time, Baylor also was an investigator for former FBI director Louis Freeh in his deep and eventually scathing report on Penn State’s handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal. Baylor was also an adjunct faculty member at Delaware Tech and Wilmington University.
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The DIAA staff’s former No. 2 person, Jed Bell, had resigned in January to become athletic director and football coach at Milford. That position, termed coordinator of athletic events, was filled in late March by Angel Prinos.
Before settling in Lewes, Prinos had starred on Temple field hockey and softball teams, coached college field hockey, served a long stint as CEO of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association and been University of Pennsylvania senior associate athletic director.
Mike Rodriguez, the Department of Education’s Associate Secretary of Student Support, had been involved in overseeing DIAA operations since Polk’s departure. Neubauer was also contracted on a part-time basis to assist with DIAA postseason championship planning and implementation.
School sports issues to address
The state senate created a task force in March to “study and make findings and recommendations to best address the needs of student athletes and ensure the effective and efficient functioning of DIAA.” It was sponsored by Sen. Nicole Poore (D-New Castle/Bear) and is expected to file a report no later than March 1, 2024.
Among the many issues facing school sports that Baylor says he expects to face include:
- Safety at athletic events, which became a hot topic after several incidents in 2022-23; behavior of athletes, coaches and fans that he saw in his sportsmanship duties
- The diverse pool of eligibility waiver requests the executive director must examine
- The attention devoted to transgender students and how it relates to athletics
- The competitive imbalance that has affected some schools and led to changes in how leagues and state tournaments are constructed
- Better promoting school sports as an appealing activity for students; and the need for more referees and officials.“It’s gonna take everybody working together to try to find out what’s the best way to approach some of these challenges,” Baylor said. “I’m not saying that, as the executive director, I have the answers. But I would like to create the dialogue to hopefully come up with solutions. That goes back to improving communication and developing relationships.”
Have an idea for a compelling local sports story or is there an issue that needs public scrutiny? Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com.
