It should be a smooth transition for new Parkville High Athletic Director Jeff Markle.

For one thing, he's in familiar surroundings, considering the Perry Hall resident has been at the school since 1996.

Markle has coached in the Knights' baseball program for 15 years, 12 as the varsity coach. He was also the varsity football coach for two seasons and logged nine years total in the program while working as a physical education teacher.

"It helps tremendously," Markle said about his familiarity with Parkville. "I know the building. I know most of the teachers, so it's a real good fit."

The 39-year-old Markle hopes to model the Parkville athletic programs after his varsity baseball team, which has compiled an impressive 171-80-2 record with him at the helm. The Knights have made two state semifinal appearances -- one in Class 3A and another in 4A -- during Markle's tenure.

He'll focus on maintaining a high level of participation and consistency for all of the Knights' teams, including junior varsity field hockey -- the only county interscholastic sport not currently offered at the school.

"My main goal is to make sure we get all our teams up to a level of competitiveness with everyone else in the county," Markle said. "We have some teams that every year seem to challenge for regional titles and teams every year that aren't doing so well."

Markle is targeting freshmen to help boost the team's numbers.

"We are finding out a lot of kids come out as sophomores that help our programs out," Markle said. "But where were they as freshmen?"

Parkville varsity football coach Jackson Tarr said Markle has some good ideas about increasing participation.

"Our numbers are down in a couple of sports," Tarr said. "He already has talked about steps we can take at freshmen orientation. I think one of the coolest ideas is for (physical education) classes to do sports in the spring (field hockey, soccer) so we can recruit kids for the fall."

Markle is also coming up to speed with the school's long-term ambition to build a stadium.

"We are continuing our ongoing stadium project that we are trying to get off the ground," Markle said.

Overall, Markle said that in succeeding Troy Stevenson, the athletic director for five years, he won't have to make any significant changes. He may just move the furniture around a bit.

"He did a great job," Markle said about his predecessor. "Our coaching staffs will be the first to tell you, they pretty much have everything they need."

Tarr said Markle has been a tremendous help to the rookie head coach.

"I have had a lot of questions," Tarr said. "He is very good at communicating with me. He has pointed me in the right direction and he is willing to do things for you."

When Markle isn't consumed with a mountain of duties at Parkville -- scheduling games and transportation, maintaining budgets and hiring coaches -- he can be found running.

Markle, who holds physical education degrees from Towson University and McDaniel College, respectively, is training for the Baltimore Marathon, which will he held in October. He ran a half marathon in the Frederick Running Festival in May.

Markle's background as a coach and three years as Baltimore County high school baseball representative for the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association draws praise from Ron Belinko, coordinator of Baltimore County athletics.

"He is a quiet type of leader," Belinko said about the association's liaison for implementing new rules. "That's probably the greatest quality he has."

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