Earlier this year Marquis Ross of the Eagle Idaho Stake was inducted into the National Association for Sport and Physical Education's (NASPE) Hall of Fame for secondary school athletic directors.
Brother Ross, a high priest in the Star 3rd Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is an ordinance worker in the Boise Idaho Temple. He was honored by the NASPE at a dinner in Tampa, Fla., on April 1.
"That was quite a surprise to me," he said in a telephone interview with the Church News. "It was a great honor, because it has to with me being a physical education instructor, too. There's only one person in the United States who receives that every year, so I was excited. I was the second person from Idaho who's ever gotten it. I feel pretty humbled to be selected from such a great group of people."
Brother Ross worked for 25 years in the Meridian School District, including 13 years as the athletic director of Centennial High School. He retired five years ago from his full-time job as Centennial's athletic director but still serves as the executive director of the Idaho Athletic Administrators Association. Previously, he also worked on the board of directors for the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.
After graduating from the University of Idaho with a bachelor's and two master's degrees, Brother Ross spent the first eight years of his career working in Oregon. He had no immediate plans to either return to Idaho or become an athletic administrator, but fate suddenly and decisively intervened.
"My junior high principal called me up after I'd been coaching and teaching in Oregon about eight years and wanted to know if I'd come back to Idaho and work for him," Brother Ross said. "I decided that was a good move and I came back.
"The second year I was there, he approached me about being a junior high athletic administrator and I took him up on it. About eight years later, the school district built another high school and I became the athletic director of the high school."
Over the course of a career wherein he interacted with a multitude of coaches and fellow administrators, Brother Ross acquired a treasure trove of life lessons.
"One of the main lessons I learned was to always try and hire good people," he said. "Always try to do the right thing, every time, all the time.
"Also, I found out really early on I didn't like coaches who were yellers and screamers. I wanted people who dealt with kids. If the coach needed to get after them, then you get them over to the side but you don't embarrass them in front of a crowd of people."
Brother Ross and his wife, Marvene, have four grown children and 13 grandchildren.
