Pam Sloan, who shaped athletics in CCSD, honored with lifetime achievement award

Many know Pam Sloan as the person who runs high school athletics in the Clark County School District. Her title — CCSD director of student athletics and activities — barely captures what the role means to her.

Sloan has never viewed her career as a job. To her, it’s a calling, a life’s passion rooted in her days as a celebrated high school athlete growing up in Henderson.

After 40 years in local prep sports — first as a coach, then as a school administrator — Sloan is retiring next month. The past two decades in the central office may be her most consequential, marked by the expansion of athletic opportunities for students across high schools and middle schools throughout the valley.

She was the recipient of the Hank Greenspun Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sun Standout Awards, the Sun’s annual high school sports awards show Monday at the South Point Showroom. Named after the Sun’s founder, it is the program’s highest honor.

Sloan didn’t just play sports at Basic High School — she excelled at everything she touched. She was the setter on a state championship volleyball team, played basketball under mentors Mattie Smith and Diane Hernandez, and was a standout every spring in softball.

Her love for high school sports was partially born then. “I couldn’t wait to play in high school,” she recalled.

After playing volleyball and softball at the University of La Verne in the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles, she returned home to start her career in education.

She went on to coach basketball and volleyball, first at Western and then at Valley, where she helped launch the boys' volleyball program when it became a sanctioned sport.

When Silverado opened in 1994, she was recruited to the school in southern Las Vegas. Her volleyball team became regional champions.

It was there she was encouraged by Ray Mathis, a veteran athletic administrator who recognized her organizational skills and commitment to student participation, to consider a move to administration.

"It's her attention to details," Mathis said. "Everyone wants to work with someone who dots all of the i's and cross all of the t's. She is very thorough in everything she did."

When Mathis left to oversee athletics for the Clark County School District, Sloan eventually followed.

The transition initially wasn’t easy. For the first time since childhood, she wasn’t part of a team.

“It was really hard because you lose that identity of being a coach,” she said. “I took a lot of pride in being a coach, and not being that was an adjustment.”

But she was still in the game — spending nearly two decades working behind the scenes to keep athletics running. Her impact didn’t take long to be felt.

In the early 2010s, she was part of the group that pushed to launch girls' flag football as a winter sport. Skeptics said it wouldn’t work. They were wrong.

Schools now field three levels of teams and the Las Vegas model is being replicated by school districts across the country. The sport has grown so popular that colleges are now offering it — and Las Vegas teenagers are earning full scholarships.

Sloan calls that some of the most meaningful work she’s done. Others agree.

“She was always at meetings promoting (flag football),” said Matt Nighswonger, the Shadow Ridge coach and head of the flag football coaches’ association. “She really pushed the NIAA to adopt it. That was the difference in taking it from a CCSD club sport to a full-fledged varsity sport.”

Sloan built her career on participation. She knows firsthand the value of competing in high school sports — it shaped her life, and she has spent decades making sure it can shape others’ lives as well.

Her role also includes determining player eligibility, which is rarely as straightforward as it sounds and comes with some tough decisions.

“You want fairness, things to be equitable and on an equal playing field for all students,” she said.

When Sloan competed for Basic in the 1970s, fewer than 10 high schools existed in the district.

Today, more than 40 schools compete at the varsity level, and 60 middle schools field teams in basketball, flag football and soccer — with more offerings on the way. That growth has Sloan’s fingerprints all over it.

Lacrosse and competitive cheerleading will soon be part of the high school landscape. And cross country is coming to middle schools.

“It’s about providing opportunities for kids. That’s the biggest thing,” she said.

As for what’s next, Sloan said that’s the “million-dollar question.” Her retirement will feature traveling, relaxing and time with family.

And, of course, she’ll continue watching high school events — but solely as a spectator from the stands.