On any given fall night, Mike Marsh usually could be found somewhere between the press box and the sideline at Bishop Stadium. Not seeking the spotlight of Friday night lights, rather just making sure everything worked.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t the one calling plays or pacing the sideline. He wasn\u2019t searching for a camera. No matter what sport, more often than not, Marsh was checking on officials, visiting with a coach, greeting parents, making sure a detail hadn\u2019t been missed. It was where he\u2019d been most comfortable for decades.<\/p>\n
After more than 25 years serving USD 383 in various roles and a lifetime tied to Manhattan High School, Marsh will retire as the school\u2019s athletics director following the 2025-26 school year.<\/p>\n
At the board meeting where Marsh announced his decision, MHS principal Michael Dorst adressed Marsh as \u201cMr. MHS.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marsh officially will step away July 1, closing a chapter that spans from student-athlete to administrator, from the quarterback huddle to the center of one of the state\u2019s most consistent high school athletic programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is Manhattan High,\u201d said MHS football coach Joe Schartz, who was coached by Marsh at Dodge City. \u201cHe has been here the majority of his life, and a lot of it\u2019s been devoted to Manhattan High School. Whether as a student, a teacher, a coach or an administrator, he\u2019s given a big portion of his life to this institution. He should leave here very proud of what he\u2019s accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marsh has served as Manhattan High\u2019s athletics director since April 2004. His time overseeing the program has coincided with sustained success across sports, including 22 6A state championships and numerous league titles, but his impact in the community extends far beyond plaques and trophies.<\/p>\n
Marsh\u2019s connection to Manhattan began long before his professional career. His family moved to town in 1971, when his father, Marvin Marsh, became principal at then-Manhattan Junior High. Mike attended Manhattan schools, graduating in 1983 after playing quarterback under legendary coach Lew Lane and leading the Indians to a 16-4 record over two seasons.<\/p>\n
Marvin Marsh would go on to spend 24 years as principal in Manhattan before retiring in 1995, earning statewide recognition for his work in education.<\/p>\n
In an unexpected parallel, both Marvin and Mike ultimately dedicated exactly 37 years of their lives to careers in education. Of their combined 74 years of service, 50 were spent in Manhattan and 22 in Dodge City. The remaining time included a year Marvin spent in Colorado and two semesters Mike taught in Tennessee and Alabama.<\/p>\n
Still, Mike never anticipated that his path would mirror his father\u2019s so closely.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had really no plans to follow him in his footsteps,\u201d Mike Marsh said. \u201cI really had no desire at that time to be in public education \u2014 I just wanted to coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finding his way back<\/p>\n
After graduating from Manhattan High, Marsh began his college career at Tennessee Tech before transferring to Coffeyville Community College. He later graduated from the University of North Alabama and earned his master\u2019s degree from Fort Hays State.<\/p>\n
What followed was a winding path through coaching and education, capped off by a return home that wasn\u2019t necessarily planned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I ended up graduating from the University of North Alabama, I decided to go back to school and get into education, where I had an opportunity to coach,\u201d Marsh said. \u201cI finished up my ed degree and sent out a bunch of resumes \u2014 by paper and pencil, typing on a typewriter back in those days.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of those letters landed in Dodge City, where Marsh worked under J.C. Rickenberg, a KSHSAA Hall of Fame athletics director and longtime friend of his father. Rickenberg would become a big part of Marsh\u2019s mentorship chain that included his father, to Dick Foster at Coffeyville, and to Lane.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving those people be a part of my life has kind of guided me through the process,\u201d Marsh said. \u201cI never planned on it, in retrospect, but actually ending up at the school that my dad taught after I was born in Dodge City, and then making it back to Manhattan \u2014 it\u2019s kind of where it ended up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Call me Mike\u2019<\/p>\n
Marsh returned to Manhattan in 2000 as assistant athletics director and administrative assistant, later becoming athletics director in 2004. From the start, he set a tone rooted in trust and shared responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things I always tell my coaches is, \u2018Don\u2019t call me boss; call me Mike,\u2019\u201d Marsh said. \u201cIt\u2019s not out of disrespect by any means. We\u2019re all part of a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
That philosophy extended to how he led.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a micromanager,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can ask any of my coaches \u2014 I let them go do their job. My office has to make final decisions a lot of times \u2014 not popular decisions sometimes \u2014 but for the better of everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his tenure, Marsh hired nearly every current Manhattan High head coach, with the exceptions of girls\u2019 basketball coach Scott Mall and cross country coach Susan Melgares. The longevity of coaches across programs reflects his ability to identify leaders and then empower them.<\/p>\n
This year, MHS has already taken home three 6A state titles: girls\u2019 golf, girls\u2019 cross country and football.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting for our community. It\u2019s exciting for our kids and our coaches,\u201d Marsh said of the school\u2019s recent athletic success. \u201cOne of the things my father always told me is to surround yourself with smarter people than you, and I think I\u2019ve done that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Building something that lasts<\/p>\n
Beyond hiring, Marsh oversaw major facility projects, including recent improvements at Bishop Stadium and the new CiCo Park complex, while continuing to emphasize that success was collective.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to leave the place in a better spot than it was before,\u201d Marsh said. \u201cFacility-wise, somebody\u2019s going to come in here with a gold mine \u2014 lots of good coaches, a great school and a great community.\u201d<\/p>\n
That \u201cgold mine,\u201d he said, was built by many hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really starts with my secretary, Theresa Wilson,\u201d Marsh said. \u201cThen my head coaches, assistant coaches, the kids, the community, all the parent volunteers and our Booster Club. My office literally could not run the way it does without all the parent volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decision to retire, Marsh said, wasn\u2019t sudden.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just basically time,\u201d he said. \u201cWorking 60 to 80 hours a week for a long time \u2014 that starts to take its toll.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, he\u2019s not going anywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to stay here,\u201d Marsh said. \u201cMy wife and I are going to continue to live here. We\u2019ll be here the rest of our lives. I bleed blue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Away from the spotlight<\/p>\n
When he\u2019s not at school, a game, or practice, Marsh prefers quiet and family.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I have an opportunity, I love to hunt and fish,\u201d he said. \u201cDuring the pandemic, we bought some really cool kayaks, and I try to get out on the lake as often as I can.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving some quietness and fishing gets my mind right before I go back to work,\u201d he continued. \u201cOther than that, I spend as much time as I can with family and outdoors, and I love working in the yard \u2014 it\u2019s just kind of a stress reliever for me. That\u2019s me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He enjoys being just another face in the community \u2014 even if kids sometimes do a double-take when they see him in a T-shirt and shorts in the summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t look at myself as a boss. I don\u2019t like the limelight,\u201d Marsh said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about supporting my coaches and the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marsh and his wife, Tara, raised their son, Carson, in Manhattan after moving back when he was just 1 year old.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a good place to live and bring up kids,\u201d Marsh said. \u201cWhen Tara and I moved here, I wanted Carson to be a part of a lot of the things that I\u2019d been a part of in high school, getting a great understanding of what the Manhattan community is all about. I\u2019m glad he had that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carson, now 26 and soon to be married, earned his master\u2019s degree from Fort Hays State \u2014 the same institution where Marsh completed his own graduate work.<\/p>\n
Carson earned his degree in athletic management before moving to Kansas City, raising the possibility that one day he could follow in his father\u2019s footsteps back to Manhattan, much like Mike once did.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never know \u2014 another one of us running around,\u201d Marsh joked. \u201cI don\u2019t know if the community could stand it.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Marsh, the measure of success has always been simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust leaving this place in a better place than I came to,\u201d he said. \u201cTo love the community and the school, my coaches and my kids \u2014 and to appreciate the people throughout the years who make this school run. It can\u2019t be a one-man show, and it never has been. Everybody\u2019s just part of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On any given fall night, Mike Marsh usually could be found somewhere between the press box and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,18964,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-76462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-high-school","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}