ALLEN PARK — When I asked Tim Kluka for an appointment to talk about his retirement as athletic director at Allen Park Cabrini, he said, “You can say everything about me in one sentence.” Well, challenge accepted: condensing our 45-minute conversation into one sentence. Here goes:

Now, at the age of 65 and on the verge of retiring from his 15 years as athletic director at Allen Park Cabrini High, Tim Kluka pinpoints when his life’s career of dealing with kids began: when he left St. John’s Seminary after one year (and that followed four years at Sacred Heart College Seminary and four years at Harper Woods Notre Dame Prep) and wanted to do something in the area of helping people, and so … He enrolled at Wayne State for a degree in social work, but it was an interrupted process because “I needed a job to pay for college,” and that led him to Allen Park and the start of a 40-plus-year relationship with the Cabrini parish community, accepting an opening as a grade school counselor and coach of the CYO basketball teams, doing this for a couple of years until he finished his requirements for a master’s degree, upon which achievement …

He worked for the next 15 years with kids in foster care and adoption with the Lutheran Child and Family Services and, then, as a supervisor and interim director of the Catholic Social Services — finally, succumbing to the urge, the calling, the vocation, to return to Cabrini in 1992, “which I never thought would happen,” as the dean of discipline and, seven years later, as the athletic director, where …

He manages a high school program that has grown to encompass 17 sports, but not without some major obstacles to overcome — one of them, a Supreme Court ruling in the mid-2000s that switched around the playing seasons for girls basketball and volleyball, and boys and girls tennis and golf, a decision that still riles Kluka because, in his mind, it has resulted in less participation by girls and, for Cabrini, the additional expense of renting practice facilities for some of the teams, creating confusion “because you couldn’t make everyone happy,” while …

The other major challenge confronting Kluka and Cabrini was its small enrollment, about 200 seven or eight years ago, “causing a lot of concern for us,” whether the school would survive, but, providentially, Fr. Joseph Mallia, a native son of Cabrini, was appointed pastor in 2003 and through his efforts, Kluka says, “he generated enthusiasm” that has re-built the enrollment to about 500 at present, so much so that “we don’t have to twist arms of kids to play sports,” although …

In today’s “culture of scholarships,” Kluka says, where more and more kids play one sport rather than two or three, he points out that 80 percent of the students are involved in athletics, and that Cabrini has enjoyed considerable success both on the state level (winning eight state championships in girls basketball, softball, baseball and ice hockey) and in the Catholic League with 18 boys championships and 21 girls titles, a tribute …

Kluka says, to “excellent coaches and dedicated teachers all working together for the same purpose ... helping the kids to become better people, effective adults, helping them to do the right thing,” sentiments share by …

Kluka’s successor, Debbie Norman, whom I met as he was shepherding me to the front door after our interview, a member of the staff since 1999 and who coached the Monarchs to 2006 and 2007 state softball championships with a 74-0 record, but who says “she hopes to continue what he has built.”

Period. End of sentence.

The Catholic League will honor Kluka (“Person of the Year”) and Norman (inductee to the Hall of Fame) at its annual Hall of Fame banquet Monday, June 9. For information, call (313) 237-5960 or log on to chsl.com.

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Don Horkey is a freelance writer. He may be reached at [email protected].