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AG outlines plans to improve accountability, transparency in government

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<p>PLAINS TWP. &#8212; The Wilkes-Barre Area School Board was told Monday night that the viability of several sports programs could be in jeopardy based on the findings of a committee of district athletic directors, administrators and board members.</p><p>The presentation came as the school district continued its plan to merge Coughlin and Meyers high schools into a new building. A timetable for that happening hasn&#8217;t been set as the school district has yet to purchase land for a new high school.</p><p>Meyers athletic director Mike Namey and Meyers junior high athletic director Corry Hanson &#8212; both members of the transition committee &#8212; held a 30-minute presentation and identified sports at the district&#8217;s three high schools that are in danger of folding due to the lack of participation.</p><p>Those schools and sports are:</p><p>&#8226; Coughlin: girls swimming; boys volleyball.</p><p>&#8226; GAR: varsity football; freshmen football; boys cross country; girls cross country; golf; girls basketball; and girls soccer.</p><p>&#8226; Meyers: boys cross country; girls cross country; golf; girls swimming; freshmen football; freshmen field hockey.</p><p>Namey added that Meyers freshmen field hockey had just 11 girls, the minimum number needed to field a complete team.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve seen numbers drop dramatically across the board,&#8221; Namey said.</p><p>Namey also showed the three high schools combined are unable to field teams in 14 varsity sports due to the lack of interest.</p><p>No merger of sports programs is imminent as the presentation was more for allowing the board to see the findings of the committee. Hanson, though, showed how the district could save anywhere from $700,000 to 900,000 if all three schools combined their teams. He also had a slide showing how some teams &#8212; spread out through the three schools &#8212; haven&#8217;t been capable of fielding competitive squads in certain sports.</p><p>&#8220;As a district, we&#8217;re not competitive in our backyard,&#8221; Hanson said. &#8220;It was very alarming to us as a committee to see these numbers. Now, we understand winning isn&#8217;t everything. &#8230; However, consistently losing isn&#8217;t healthy for student-athletes. We&#8217;re fielding teams knowing that we&#8217;re going to consistently lose. That&#8217;s tough to swallow as administrators in this district.&#8221;</p><p>A few board members quizzed Namey and Hanson on the transition committee&#8217;s findings.</p><p>Board member John Quinn, who coached Coughlin boys basketball from 1974 to 2005, said he saw kids quit sports back in 1972 when Plains and Wilkes-Barre Township high schools joined the Wilkes-Barre Area School District. He also said merging sports teams would make for a higher PIAA classification and force those teams to play bigger schools.</p><p>&#8220;I can see it if we go into one building,&#8221; Quinn said. &#8220;But before that, you&#8217;re asking for turmoil. If one kid gets cut or something, they&#8217;re going to get mad and a gang of them are going to quit.</p><p>Board member Dino Galella, who coached at all three schools, asked if any of the current coaches were asked to attend Monday&#8217;s meeting to defend their programs.</p><p>&#8220;We didn&#8217;t not believe it was necessary at this time,&#8221; Namey said, &#8220;because this is just a report stating the state of the union in athletics. We did not ask any of our coaches, we certainly didn&#8217;t ask any of our athletes to attend this meeting. We can certainly do that. I will tell you this. I did take the opportunity to poll our coaching staffs at Meyers, and I would say 90 percent of our coaches understand the challenges they are undergoing right now and do believe profound changes need to take place.</p><p>&#8220;What those changes are are in the the hands of the school board and the superintendent.&#8221;</p><p>Afterward, Namey said the transition committee did consult with the PIAA, which governs interscholastic sports in the state, about when any consolidation could take place. The PIAA sets school classifications for two-year periods and schools set their sports schedules based on those parameters. The next two-year period is for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years.</p><p>The school district could decide to merge programs in the middle of the PIAA two-year period, although Namey admitted that would cause issues for schools with Coughlin, GAR and Meyers on their schedules. The Wyoming Valley Conference athletic directors are currently working on schedules for the next two years.</p><p>&#8220;The problem now is it&#8217;s very late,&#8221; Hanson said. &#8220;If you were to do for next year, we are so far behind the eight-ball with renaming the school, uniform bids, there&#8217;s just so much that goes into doing it for next season. Right now, it would be very, very difficult to do. It&#8217;s just not the right time.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Coughlin football  running backs  practice carrying the ball ----------------Fred Adams|for Times Leader 8-14-17</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_coughlin6_faa.jpg</photo0><caption0>Coughlin football  running backs  practice carrying the ball ----------------Fred Adams|for Times Leader 8-14-17</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By John Erzar</p><p>jerzar@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach John Erzar at 570-991-6394 or on Twitter @TLJohnErzar</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes-Barre Area School District mulls merging athletic teams