Atlanta Public Schools (APS) recognizes the vital contributions women have made to advancing our great nation. During Women’s History Month, we are honored to celebrate those women— the trailblazers of the past, the heroines of the present, and the torchbearers of the future. Did you know that APS has nine women serving as athletic directors and leading athletics programs across the district? Help us celebrate these women in leadership roles who are bringing excellence to athletics for APS!
Meet Patricia Barksdale, the athletic director at Midtown High School.
Q: What is your background in athletics, and how did that prepare you to become a leader/ athletic director?
A: I started in education in 2007. At that time, I coached football sideline cheer and competition cheerleading. I continued coaching cheer at Heritage High School in Conyers, Ga, through the 2017 football season. I started coaching girls’ soccer in the spring of 2013 as an assistant, and I took over as head coach in the spring of 2017. I had an amazing mentor, Chad Suddeth, during my time as an assistant soccer coach. He took a job as the athletic director at Rockdale County High School in 2016, and then I took over the soccer program. Leading a top 10 program really taught me how to work with all stakeholders: student-athletes, parents, staff, and community partners. In 2020, I was hired as a special education teacher and the girls’ soccer coach at Midtown. When I arrived at Midtown, there were 21 girls in the soccer program. I was able to grow the program, and we had over 50 girls try out for the program this year. Leading two different programs taught me that there are different challenges everywhere you go, but if you keep the students first, you can excel as a leader.
Q: What advice do you share with young women interested in pursuing leadership roles/ sports industry careers?
A: The most important advice I can give young women is to be true to yourself. Your individual hard work, dedication, and drive for success are what got you to the leadership level. I would also be transparent that it is hard at times, and you will feel like you need to do more work. But if you stay true to yourself and put the students or the mission of the organization first, then you are setting yourself up for total success.
Q: Do you consider yourself a role model? And why is female mentorship so important in a male-dominated field?
A: I definitely consider myself a role model. I was first a role model/ mentor for all the young ladies I coached in cheerleading and soccer. I have always tried to hire women as assistants because I feel that we need to mentor and prepare young women to be in athletics, which is male-dominated. We also need to lift them up to be leaders as well. I’ve had wonderful mentors, male and female, but when I started to gain women mentors through athletics, I realized that they understand as a woman first, then as a leader. I was elected to the City Council in Conyers, Ga, in 2017, and that’s when I really realized how important women mentors are. No one but other women knows the challenges we face as women.
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