By Chris Rossetti, D9Sports.com
Special to MaxPreps.com
CLARION, Pa. – A major change in the landscape of District 9 sports was put into motion April 8 when the Clarion-Limestone and Clarion Area school boards took the initial steps to combine the two traditionally strong sports programs into one.
The move was made after C-L realized it was facing a major budgetary crisis that could force it to do away with all of its sports programs as soon as this coming fall.
Committees from both school boards met over the last couple of weeks to iron out some of the details and then held public meetings Tuesday to adopt resolutions authorizing school administrators to submit paper work to create a cooperative sports agreement between the two districts.
Tuesday’s meetings weren’t without controversy, as C-L elected to vote on the measure before taking public comments. Clarion, on the other hand, took public comment, most of it against the proposed merger, before approving the resolution as well.
But the process hit a sudden snag Wednesday, when the District 9 committee tabled any vote on the proposed cooperative until May 6 when it will hold a previously unscheduled meeting at 7 p.m. at Brockway High School. The main agenda item will be the C-L-Clarion cooperative, although other issues could also be discussed at the meeting.
“The District 9 committee is seeking more information, which hopefully will be presented at the May 6 meeting,” District 9 secretary Bob Tonkin said.
C-L and Clarion could be facing an up-hill battle in getting the cooperative agreement approved prior to the 2008-2009 school year.
The biggest obstacle might be the PIAA By-laws.
Those By-Laws state that any “Cooperative Sponsorship of a Sports Agreement which would affect the classification size of a team must be submitted on or before October 1 of any odd-numbered year to the applicable PIAA District Committee for its recommendation to the PIAA Board of Directors for that proposed agreement to be considered for the immediately following two-year reclassification cycle.”
In the case of most of the sports that will be combined including football, volleyball, boys’ and girls’ basketball, baseball and softball, teams that are currently Class A teams at both Clarion and C-L will become Class AA teams at Clarion, which would be the lead school in the cooperative. That means the schools would appear to be six months too late to propose a cooperative agreement for the 2008-2009 two-year reclassification cycle.
But the superintendents at both schools – Ted Pappas at C-L and George White at Clarion – believe an exception to that rule may be possible because of the “economic hardship” facing C-L, although no mention of such an exception can be found in the By-Laws.
“I think there is a chance,” Pappas said. “I don’t know how good (of a chance), but I think there is a chance. “Given the economic hardship, I am led to believe they will at least look at it. If this was just a case of us wanting to do it (to do it), I don’t think they would look at it.”
A source close to the situation who doesn’t want to be identified discussing sensitive issues that haven’t been resolved yet believes the PIAA will approve the cooperative because without it there is a serious chance that C-L won’t have sports teams next year, and the PIAA has traditionally wanted students to have an opportunity to play.
If the cooperative agreement is passed, all the athletes will play under the Clarion Bobcat moniker and all current Clarion coaches would stay in place. There have been some discussions about incorporating some of the C-L coaches into the Clarion programs, but no decisions have been made.
“It has been discussed, and there are a number of options on how to incorporate C-L coaches into the Clarion programs,” Pappas said.
Athletic facilities at both high schools, which are located approximately seven miles apart, would most likely be used with the gym at Clarion being the home gym for boys’ and girls’ basketball and wrestling and the outdoor facilities at C-L including the baseball and softball fields, the football field and the track would be used as the home facilities although, Clarion could still be contractually obligated to play football and run track at Clarion University Memorial Stadium for at least the next year.
Discussion on the entire idea is far from over, and members of the community will get a chance to comment on the proposed cooperative April 15 when the Clarion School Boards holds a 7 p.m. meeting in the Clarion High School auditorium.
WPIAL Softball: Sto-Rox’s Palermo Wins 500th Career Game
On Monday, Sto-Rox head coach Bill Palermo won his 500th career game when the Vikings beat South Side Beaver 6-3. Sto-Rox then split its next two games to give Palermo a career mark of 501-113 with 10 WPIAL titles in 30 years at the school through April 11.
Girls Basketball: Greensburg Salem Opens Up Coaching Position
Despite making the WPIAL and PIAA playoffs in the last two season including winning the WPIAL title in 2007, Greensburg Central Catholic girls’ basketball coach is out of a job.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rosensteel, who was 42-16 the last two seasons, was recently told by GCC principal Don Favero that his position will be opened, school speak for firing a coach (although school’s general claim that coaches aren’t fired in this case and can reapply for the job).
“It’s a personnel matter,” Favero told the Post-Gazette. “We wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
Unlike at a public school, Rosensteel, 66, who was in his second tour at the school after coaching there from 1979-94, was let go by the principal instead of a school board, which doesn’t exist at the private school.
“I have no resources because there is no school board here,” Rosensteel told the Post-Gazette. “(Favero) is the judge, jury and executioner.”
Rosensteel, 66, who was in his second tour at the school after coaching there from 1979-94, told the Post-Gazette he believes he was let go because of run in with Favero at the end of the season, and that Favero accused him of swearing at times during this past season.
“I’m not going to lie,” Rosensteel told the Post-Gazette. “But I only use three words. They’re nothing horrible, and I only use them for effect.”
Baseball: Eight Local Teams Getting Big-League Shot This Week
Eight local high school baseball teams will get their shot at the Major Leagues this week – sort of – when they have the unique opportunity to play at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
On Thursday April 17, Latrobe and Derry will play at 3 p.m. Friday April 18 has Clarion-Limestone and Redbank Valley slated for Noon, while two games are set for Saturday April 19 when Norwin takes on Pittsburgh Central Catholic at 9 a.m. and Ambridge meets Freedom at Noon.
The program, sponsored by the Pittsburgh Pirates, has been in place for at least the last 15 years dating back to when the Pirates played in Three Rivers Stadium. All games are contingent on weather, and no make-up dates will be held. Teams had to sell Pirate tickets as part of the deal.
Football: Freeport Names Former NFL Player Christy Assistant Coach
Former NFL center Jeff Christy, who was an All-American at Pitt, was recently named an assistant football coach at his high school alma mater Freeport outside of Pittsburgh. Christy was brought on board by former Yellowjacket star John Gaillot, who was hired recently as the school’s head coach. The two were teammates at the school.
Chris Rossetti covers Western Pennsylvania for MaxPreps.com.
